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.

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

bus strikes in large parts of country - see OP.

not in London though, so it doesn’t trouble the media much 🙄

The cost of petrol is not the fault of union members, You are also able to join a union at any point you choose.

Now, I am one of the bastard capitalists that everyone loves to hate on this site since I earn a decent living and have pretty much sold my soul to "the man". But I remain steadfastly supportive of strike action to stop employers screwing employees over. Even when it does impact on me

Yes.

The people cautioning against wage rises are all on enormous salaries. I don't hear them volunteering to take a pay cut - they could halve their salaries and still be on a wage that's beyond the wildest dreams of many.

I’d go as far as to say strikes are what happens when trickle down economics fails. If you’ve ever been annoyed by companies posting record breaking profits whilst you’re wondering if you can receive the childcare element of UC then strikes in a highly employed population with un-filled vacancies that don’t cover the cost of living is almost a natural path.

It is unfair to expect people on the lowest wages to be the ones who suck up the increased cost of living the most.

Wages have been stagnant for too long and it's not the RMT's fault that other occupations aren't unionised.

The government should have looked at zero hour contracts much earlier. The more I read about them, the more I realise that they only worked because we had foreigners taking these jobs with crappy conditions. No wonder we have massive vacancies in industries that used these workers.

I realise that everybody getting pay rises fuels inflation but tot should be the people at the top eg MPs and CEOs taking the pay cuts/pay freezes so regular/low paid workers can get to work and afford basics like food and utilities.

I am sorry for everyone being inconvenienced but I don't know what the answer is. Profit margins will be tighter because fuel costs have increased and immediate ticket price rises can't happen to offset that but don't forget that not all staff are drivers - some will be cleaners who are undoubtedly underpaid who probably struggle to pay for their commute as it is.

Train drivers and the managerial staff don't tend to be in the RMT.

I’d go as far as to say strikes are what happens when trickle down economics fails

I don’t agree with the strikes but I absolutely agree with this. In my management role we have always given employees a COL increase - until this year, when it’s been below inflation for almost everyone. (That includes management, but it’s an unfair comparison because our salaries are higher and we have other financial perks). Now people are leaving for better pay and employers (including mine) will need to decide whether that’s more or less sustainable than reinstating COL. I hope it will be reinstated because presently workers are taking the hit of controlling inflation.

However it doesn’t excuse shitting on the lowest paid who can’t wfh, don't run a car and probably earn less than most of the strikers.

I'm not going to be affected in anyway by the strikes but I have mixed feelings regarding them. I think the lower end of the scale should get a payrise and there need to be safe working conditions. However at the other end of the scale there are train drivers on 6 figure sums who are striking, I have a family member for whom this is the case. I also dont believe that this will positively impact anyone other than rail workers. Train fares will increase, other unions will follow suit and strike and non-unionized workers won't get any pay increases.

Yes I do. It's a fundamental right.

Don't believe everything you read and blame the government for refusing to enter into talks.

The government is relying on this reaction

Last train strike action Tories were in power too. People are not happy. It's not a surprise and I imagine it will be the catalyst for others to really make a fuss about pay, terms and conditions.

However it doesn’t excuse shitting on the lowest paid who can’t wfh, don't run a car and probably earn less than most of the strikers

although I agree that’s a consequence, it’s not an unrecognised consequence by strikers.

I don’t know the ins and outs of the Yorkshire bus strike but I do know that the pending rail workers strike is the result of three years of trying to engage meaningful talks and getting no where; the government actively refusing to engage as part of that.

It’s the second to last resort, the last being to leave on mass which benefits no one either.

If the signallers walk out, no trains will be running. This is going to be incredibly disruptive for thousands of people this week. RMT are using this to their advantage. They have been lucky with this good weather. It's a perfect storm.

Definitely NOT!!!

Kid doing A levels 18 miles away.
Kid doing GCSE's 6 miles away.
Severely ill kid due hospital treatment.

I am self employed and cannot go to work so miss out on pay.

No they all need sacking already over paid and lazy. Time to rethink the trains.

Employers in general seem incredibly slow on the uptake here, hospitality is the same, so many vacancies, menu price increases, kitchens shut for days at a time in peak season and yet no job offers above £10 an hour, they deserve to go bust frankly.

I wish there were more unions and more striking not less, it's amazing and deeply sad how the working class has been brainwashed to blame eachother, our collectivism was our greatest strength but it's all gone now.

Yes a huge number of workers out of work all at once always brings widespread happiness, law abiding behaviour, prosperity and good times doesn't it? If you're this dumb just keep your mouth closed and at least keep us all guessing.

So in your mind they sack them all and then do the services run magically without them or what? I think the strikes have pretty roundly demonstrated that these are essential staff.

Yes I support it. Arriva bus drivers are on pitiful wages.
Alot of other sectors will follow suit. People aren't being paid enough across the board. I'm a teacher and one of the biggest teaching unions is already talking about strike action.

Those saying they don't agree because they are being affected by it clearly aren't seeing the big picture here. It's about standing up for what's right, and that is an important message for a much, much wider audience, not just bus/rail workers.

Was the strike purposely planned to coincide with Glastonbury?

Yes I do. Even when it’s has inconvenienced us or cost us money. Withdrawal of labour is the only way left to make employers and governments realise that people are unhappy with their work situation - wages/health and safety/hours etc.

If it wasn't for unions and striking we'd have no working rights. Absolutely support unions striking. In my country we had health and social care unions striking and overtime and shift swap bans, it affected me as had to keep DS home from nursery some days, affected people in the cities more where nurseries and schools were shut for a week, and if negotiations don't improve things then in the autumn the nurses union are preparing mass resignations which will affect everyone but I still support them absolutely.

My view of strikes is coloured by the 1970s when it seemed everyone was on strike at times. Including me. My trade union used to call a strike at the drop of a hat and as a teenager I did as I was told. In fact most people did. My parents were both on strike for weeks. We had no food in the house. And inflation just kept on going up.
I might have more sympathy for other workers striking, but not the railways (I know this is about buses).