Do you sympathise with the strikers?

[TheDoveFromAboveCooCoo]

I'm afraid it's a no from me.

We are in West Yorkshire and we are just entering week 3 of a full bus drivers strike from one of the operators.

It's costing £75 a week in taxis to get my daughter to and from school. It's 6 miles away so too far to walk and I'm disabled and can't drive.

For my eldest daughter to visit her girlfriend it should be a 15 minute bus journey. Now it's a bus to Bradford Centre, then another one to Leeds, then another to her town.

My husband works in a minimum wage job and some of his colleagues who cannot drive are having to take unpaid leave as they can't afford taxis to get them to work and back.

I'm pretty frustrated and wish they would just bloody agree on something!!

Interested to hear other peoples thoughts and opinions especially with all these other potential strikes coming up.

Didn’t exactly work for p and o ferries or for the airports.

The real enemy is the right of workers to strike @HeadOnShoulders?🤯🤯🤯

I don't have specifics, and accurate source intelligence to arrive at an accurate analysis.

No.

Covid cost us all money, the country has to pay for that, unless we want our dcs to be in debt forever. That means lifestyles will take a hit for a year or two.Wasting £900 million while one group of workers has a strop is stupid and selfish.
Any big pay increase will just lead to inflation which is then hard to stop.
I've had a 3% rise this year which means a real terms reduction so no holiday for us and being more careful what I spend on food.
But if it gets the economy back in balance I have the common sense to see that as the priority.

Oh, you mean the same way the whole country shared the pain of all the years of austerity?

Or how those with businesses bitten by Brexit (including NHS, agriculture etc) have been struggling but the likes of Rees Mogg just coincidentally altered their investments at the right time to make millions off of it?

Huh.

Some people will believe anything, hey?

Oh, you mean the same way the whole country shared the pain of all the years of austerity?

Or how those with businesses bitten by Brexit (including NHS, agriculture etc) have been struggling but the likes of Rees Mogg just coincidentally altered their investments at the right time to make millions off of it?

Now come on, these nice multimillionaires are trying to save us from ourselves because if the average person has a pay rise they’re the ones causing inflation… Now be quiet and accept your debt and servitude as ‘doing your part’.

it’s not all bad, some people are having a lovely time supported by backhanders and city bonuses. Why can’t you just be happy for them?

/s

But if it gets the economy back in balance I have the common sense to see that as the priority

Do you not wonder why this has been the narrative for over a decade with no discernible improvement? It’s almost like the tories don’t know what they’re doing… or they do only as far as their own pockets go.

They don’t consider you part of their circle so why do you think they’re part of yours?

Yes I do support the strikers. We were asked to have a public sector pay freeze 'all in it together' for the good of the country. That isn't what happened.

There is a real need for trade unionism to add to a wider conversation about rebalancing the economy. Rising asset prices have made people a lot of money while wage earning has been seriously devalued. That isn't fair or sustainable.

We all should have a vested interest in work paying enough to live, since that is the bedrock of a stable society.

Yes, I support them

For the last 20 years base rates have been 6% or below.

I can remember the higher rates in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and the misery they caused.

Tory or Labour makes no difference. Believe me, none of us want rates above 10% for longer than is absolutely unavoidable.

As I prepare to leave my house tomorrow at 6.00am to get to work by 9.00, a 10 mile journey that by train takes 30 minutes, my answer is no. It took me two and a half hours to get home last night. I have a manual job where I'm on my feet all day. I'm exhausted and depressed. It's still a no from me.

No. It’s a complete joke. I started my current job a few months ago, made sure I had multiple ways to get there on public transport as I’m unable to drive due to a medical condition. Arriva are the only service in my area. I’m will lose my job if this isn’t fixed within the next 2 weeks. I can’t afford taxis anymore I literally do not have the money and my credit card (which I worked hard to pay off) is now maxed out.

No.

I also hope social workers and carers who work for government agencies kick off. They are quitting because they can't afford to get to work anymore in areas where they have to drive to all their families/people they're supporting. It's ridiculous.

If your employer is the kind to sack you because you literally can’t get in to work, you might want to consider another job. A decent employer would support and help someone in those circumstances.

@MummytoCSJH have you spoken to HR?

I’m so sorry. I know of other people in the same situation as we are now into a third week of strikes. . There are plenty of employers out there who behave this way and simply saying you might want a different job isn’t very helpful when you have limited opportunities.

@Thesearmsofmine thanks for understanding. It’s not even just them being arsey - it’s a global company and my line manager has no say in things like this, especially since it’s a local thing and not even country-wide, most people probably aren’t even aware of it (they sent out info about support during the rail strikes…). Almost everyone at my site drives to work, some from far away, as we’re right next to a motorway so it really only affects me and a few others, but some of them have other services if coming from different areas. I literally only have Arriva.@Blossomtoes They’ve been understanding for now, and I’ve been paying for taxis when I can, but they can’t just let me stay off forever - they are having to pay overtime to other staff on the days I am taking unpaid leave, they can’t afford it and are short staffed already which is why they hired me. One of my colleagues is leaving to a new job next week which means 2 days a week if I can’t get there nobody will be there to do the work. We can’t just not do it. It’s not just about sacking either. I also can’t afford to take unpaid leave but am having to - I get UC, not being paid mucks everything up, leaves me behind, gets them querying why I’m not earning and sets up meetings as it looks like I’m not working enough etc. I have to pay out for my childcare even if I don’t use it as I have set days arranged too. I’m paying out and not earning anything for those days. @ElephantsFart they’re aware of the situation, they’re as understanding as they can be but at the minute now knowing when it will end is not easy, it’s not really good enough to just say thanks for offering me a job which you really needed filling because we’re short staffed but I actually can’t work indefinitely is it?

This bloody strike going on every month

We're balloting and likely to go on strike this month for 2 weeks. That'll be painful for the Christmas pay packet but it's necessary

Meanwhile our bin men are out for 3 weeks, lots of folks locally are panicking ! Think we'll manage as a 2 person house . It's definitely getting to the point we're heading for a national strike as they're all starting to overlap.

Wonder which union has the most strikers and could call a national strike. Maybe GMB or unite ? The Tories have a lot to answer for

I support the principle of withdrawing labour as a last resort.

however, rejecting pay offers in this climate of 7% upwards is both unrealistic and inconsiderate to the public - many of whom are workers trying to travel to jobs with a far lower pay rise.

I feel that unions and their members need to be more realistic in the current climate. Many of us won’t get anything like that kind of pay rise. But we still have to get to work.

No. Especially Royal Mail closing sorting offices so that people could not pick up their parcels.

Royal mail staff have bigger issues than just pay.

This is an example.

www.heraldscotland.com/news/23092996.islay-residents-face-royal-mail-nightmare-amid-postie-shortage/#comments-anchor

These posties aren't leaving because of pay, but conditions and while it may be exacerbated on an island, the company management culture is no different around the country meaning this is the tip of the iceberg.

In my experience arriva also have a poor structure built around profit margin meaning poor conditions for workers so I'm not surprised that there are strikes.

I support the strikes and the workers who feel they have been left with no other option but to withdraw their labour.

Nurses and carers, after coping with covid (if they go on strike) Yes absolutely

others, less so. We're all in for a thin couple of years.