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.

No I don't.

There have to be job cuts if people aren't using the railways as much. The taxpayer can't keep bailing them out.

Yes

Yes I do. And I think more groups of workers should take direct action at this point tbh.

DD is due to start Reception this autumn, but if her teachers opted to take strike action (as mooted in the press this weekend) then I’d be fully supportive.

Yes, always. Unions and strikes are the reason we have workers' rights - bosses wouldn't give us them out of the kindness of their hearts, would they!

It's not a race to the bottom. Everyone should be paid a good wage for their work. People on here complain that nowadays you need two wages to run a family, yet don't support strikers who are trying to get that good wage!

I support the strikers and I hope that this is the start of the kind of discontent that changes things. We've had 12 years of Tory shit and companies having it all their own way. Time for a change.

I fully support them, if that is what is needed for workers to be treated fairly then good luck to them.

my partner is in a union recognised company and they negotiated for them to get a pay rise equal to inflation. Other colleagues in different not union recognised companies have ended up with in effect a pay cut due to not having the fight power from the union

Insofar as it is as much as about safety as about pay, yes I do.

those of you who support, are you actually affected personally?

Absolutely.

Hey look over their at those militants while we continue to line our pockets, plebs!

I've been thinking a lot about pay rises. The brunt of the crisis in the economy and cost of living is being bourne by those who can't get a better job. If you are a nurse there is the possibility of applying for a job on a higher grade and thereby getting more money, beating inflation. That isn't the case for other posts, such as HCA jobs without re-training in a significant way. For people who have jobs that are really needed by society such as HGV drivers, maybe train drivers etc. you are at the mercy of whether your employer will give you a pay rise to enable you to be able to meet your financial obligations. I do believe that workers have right to withdraw their labour and I also think that the government are letting this play out as with the by elections this week anything that will distract from the major issues is of benefit to them. Although the Labour party are not supporting the strikes the general perception is that they are union friendly which is much the same.

Absolutely not.

@Beanie567 its nothing to do with the wages, they are trying to cut their pensions.

There is also a tube strike in London tomorrow. Travelling will be a nightmare.

Insofar as it is as much as about safety as about pay, yes I do

The strikes a few years back on my part of the network (se) were about the complete removal of guards on the trains.

These are 12 car trains, packed with commuters going into London. I’m guessing around 1000 passengers a time. If any one of those were to have an emergency the driver would be the one left to deal with the problem. Obviously this is a threat to the safety of the passengers.

And this is all so some executive/s can probably get a 5 figure bonus to top up their 6 figure salary. Screw what happens to the quality or safety of the service- it’s all about money for those at the top.

Thats why our trains suck.

YES, I DO. I live in London and am inconvenienced for years over them, but il defend them to the hilt.

They are there to hold companies accountable, and stop employees (for which the company would not exist without) being taken advantage of.

SE London here and we've had on and off bus strikes for a while and tube strikes quite frequently. Southern Rail had strikes on and off for two years and that was chaotic but I fully supported them. The mass train strikes are obviously nationwide and a lot more disruptive.

I support the right to strike but the consequences of this strike are going to be huge for a lot of people who cannot afford not to be able to get to work or not get their child to school / childcare. I hope some sort of movement is seen soon because this is going to be hugely expensive for a lot of people.

I think most of the time the strikes are supported but this is the biggest one I can remember for a while so we shall see how it goes with the public.

if people don't strike then nothing ever changes. more people should tbh - so many people are treated so badly at various companies and put up with shite conditions and crap pay.

it has to cause disruption to be effective

Yes, I support them totoally.. No one withdraws their labour unless they are pushed to extremes.

I think everyone appreciates that a strike needs to be disruptive for it to be effective. That doesn't mean that the public en masse is going to be willing to support this level of disruption.

Yes, I'm willing to endure a summer of disruption if it gets rid of this corrupt government. Spoken by a former Tory voter. This lot have gone too far.

@pointythings how are you, haven't seen you for a while?

Yes I do.

@Beanie567 my grade has not been on strike since 1981. Hardly all the time

The tories are trying to stir up hostility towards labour over this. Pitting ordinary working people against other working people. That’s why they are holding back getting involved. They want things to kick off so they can then paint labour as the party of lefty workshy militants and a labour government stuck in the 70s. Mail or express has started a Keir Starmer ‘strike o meter’ supposedly monitoring his support for any strike action.
I guess they want this to be Boris’ Falklands moment..

I'm unemployed so unaffected but even I can see the government needs to engage with this not ignore it they have systematically destroyed the country and got paid for it

On the whole yes I do support strikers. I live in London and will and have been affected by the strikes. My daughter had to leave extra early to ensure she made it to some of her GCSE exams. It's very annoying but I believe that unions are definitely a necessity. I work in an industry where there are none and it is definitely a race to the bottom, this isn't a good thing and I am planning my exit.