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 chance !! On the money and working conditions they are on?
This is resonant of the 70s when the country was held to ransom by the unions.

This thread smells like Tory

I don’t. I have worked in care. If anyone should strike it’s that group.

But can you imagine if they did. They would be accused of causing serious harm - starving residents and neglecting them. Even when Carers walked out in Covid in some homes with a direct threat to their lives it was condemned. Which I understand. It would be direct harm.

These strikes are not directly starving people, but I can’t see how all these essential transport strikes are not affecting minimum wage workers - many of whom will have children and may struggle to put food on the table. That’s indirect harm that’s hidden away. So no I don’t think it’s right for essential services to strike. Just get another job if your not happy.

Absolutely agree.

Nope.

I support striking workers, yes. It's the only way of taking power back.

We won't see driverless trains in our lifetime. It would cost billions if not trillions for every rail line in the country to be configured.

Also, many train operating companies did want to give their staff a psyrise but it has been blocked by the DfT.

But if every industry had such strong unions, we would all have higher wages. Don't you get it?

Yes, if more industries had the power to stand up for workers' rights the UK would be a better place. We have some of the lowest working conditions and longest hours in Europe. I used to love in another European country. They public transport strikes several times a year (and in other sectors too) but the workers had better pay and conditions than in the UK. Work-life balance is better than here. There is also less wealth disparity as workers have the power to negotiate better pay. For the rest of the time the public transport was infinitely superior and cheaper than public transport in the UK even at the best of times.

Yep, I support them 100%.

My DB used to work for the railways. He admits he was very well paid for what he did. They are selfish twats who are destroying the UK.

I support striking workers. The mindset in this country that a company can basically buy your well-being, time and skills in return for money that doesn’t cover the cost of living here is boggling. I support anyone making tangible steps to improve that.

union won rights have a knock on effect for everyone else too by changing the narrative of the working culture by chipping away at the wider zeitgeist. Unions were heavily involved in drawing up employment rights as we have them today. We’d still be sending children out to work if some people had their way.

Yes, I support them. If anyone hasn't received a decent wage rise it's not the fault of those who've gone on strike to try and secure themselves better pay and
conditions. Every employee at this time could learn from this because vacamcies are soaring, unemployment is dropping, so employees do have an advantage here.

As a side note, like others have said employers seem to be very slow on the uptake generally these days. In my neck of the woods there are loads of businesses moaning about lack of staff, then when you look at the wages they're offering, it's all zero hours at NLW! And yes, places would rather close for days at a time than pay decent wages.

Yes I do even though it'll really impact my ability to get to work.

Yes, I definitely support them

Doing what?

Different workers are represented by different unions on the railways.

No. Where will their higher wages get passed on to? Commuters. Commuters who cannot afford to run and keep a car supplied with astronomical petrol costs. Commuters already struggling,.who aren't in these unions,.who will get sacked if they go on strike. One group will win, the rest will lose

Yes, most definitely.

@Butteryflakycrust83

No I don’t.

The realpolitik is that government has cautioned business against high wage rises because it contributes to inflation. (We can all raise an eyebrow at this because there are absolutely loads of contributing factors, not least the price of fuel). But the DfT cannot credibly then capitulate to the threat of industrial action and award a >10% pay rise. That number is fantasy territory even in a favourable economic climate.

I’m old enough to remember the 70’s - there is a reason that Thatcher’s draconian reforms were welcomed by a majority. Many of those coming out in support of the workers now just sound young and naive to me.

I don’t know why we are so shit at industrial relations in this country, but the absolute clowns that seem to run unions are likely something to do with it.

Yes. DH striking this week. It is long overdue. Hopefully will set the ball rolling for other industries.

If you usually need to take a train - get a bus or car share. Short term pain for long term gain.

Go RMT!!! You can do this🎉🎉🎉

I want to support them but it’s increasingly difficult. My sister and cousin cannot get into uni/school without public transport and the stress is really getting to them. I have to cancel an event i was looking forward to for a long time next week (which is non-refundable btw) because of these strikes. My poor neighbour has no car and has been shelling out over £100 in taxis. I get they want a rise, but so do many other sectors, and they aren’t disrupting the entire country for it!

Not all who work on the railway are well paid. There are many are in in £20-30k income bracket about to strike.

Now is that the fault of the workers trying to ensure they can pay their bills or the company that is unwilling to reduce its profit margins to fund a living wage?

Even capitalist structures have a limit, there’s no point peddling a product no one can afford.

Aside from that it’s an optimal time for workers to make more demands on their employers. We have more vacancies than economically active workers. I think the government propaganda machine is working overtime to make sure we all hate upstart strikers over noticing that little factoid.

Completely agree with your first and second points.

Plus I think anyone affected by the cost of living crisis should be supporting them - they're the only ones effectively holding this corrupt government to account.

Unfortunately, said corrupt government is passing laws to prevent people protesting lawfully and I think these strikes will hurry its efforts to further suppress democracy in the UK.