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 support them.

@steppemum train drivers aren't on strike. We are part of ASLEF not RMT.

Don't believe the media lies. I will be in work tomorrow at 3am as booked. And all week.

Yes, I support the strikers.

My new workplace has unite . Having always been part of a union in the past I've left this time, they're so aggressive. And the subs are huge too.

Yes.

Was the strike purposely planned to coincide with Glastonbury?

The vast majority of people going to glasters will be driving I would think so no, I think that’s a bit fanciful.

I think it's really cruel that they have coincided it with GCSEs and A Levels.

Our kids have had the most tumultuous few years and it's been really hard on them. To then put on a bus strike where only that company serves our local area so they are worrying about how to get in to take the exams they didn't even know if they would be doing takes a special type of mean.

(The bus strike here I mean)

No, I don’t support them. They aren’t socking it to “the man”, they’re making life even harder for other workers, most of whom will never see a 5% pay rise in one go, never mind 11%.

Yes. The money issue isn't the reason though, it's the reduction of staff on trains and in stations. The thought of my DD being on a train in the evening with no guards driver or walking through an unmanned station at night terrifies me.

Sorry don't know where that random word "driver" came from. Oh for an edit button.

my instinct is to say I don't support them. I'm a farmer and would love to be able to give my staff even a 5% pay rise. Unfortunately people are
not prepared in shops to pay more for the goods they buy. I think we value the wrong things in our society. I think carers, nurses, farm workers etc should be paid as highly as tech/marketing jobs. If
not higher to be honest.

however, I don't know a huge amount about it and am aware there's probably a lot more to this than is reported in the media.

I'm in West Yorkshire too. I'm angry at the strikes, not angry they are happening angry that companies and government tries so so hard to screw people over that unions have to exist and get to the point of striking. I'm glad we live in a country where people demanding better through striking is possible

But its a chicken and egg situation. People would be prepared to pay more for goods if they had more money to buy them with. It's also the case right now that people are paying far more anyway because prices have risen

The food price inflation is probably 20-30%

Petrol and diesel is about 80%

Utilities will have tripled in price in a little over a year when the price rises between October 2021 and October 2022 work their way through, which is 200% inflation. Those three things take up a lot of many people's budgets.

Plus the NMW was recently increased by 6.6% so while those wages are low, people have received increases. If NMW rises, then people on slightly more quite rightly deserve a pay rise too.

Driving buses is not a minimum wage job, it requires a PCV licence, so similar in skill to HGV driving which pays 50-100% more than what the average bus driver is paid. If bus companies want to keep their drivers, they need to pay them more.

Another problem with bus services is that it's privatised. So they need to make a profit. We now have a mayor in West Yorks and she's pledged to cap the fares and make tickets transferable, like they are in London.

It will still be more expensive than London, but it will be a start and much cheaper than it currently is, where if you catch one bus, then need to change and get another one, because you're going to the other side of the city, it costs a minimum of around £5.50.

But this will need better subsidies, and maybe they're going to bring the buses back into public ownership, so they don't need to make a profit. Who knows, they might even make the service regular and reliable enough for more people to use it, instead of the current system, where every 30 minutes is considered a good daytime frequency and a good few of those miss, so can't be relied upon.

100% yes, and every other profession (especially criminal barristers and NHS staff). I hope it triggers a national strike. Of course many will be inconvenienced, but it’s a small price to pay.

And so the talks today between Arriva and Unite have ended again with nothing. They won’t even putt the offer to their members. Looks like it will be another week of misery for people.

Yes

YES.

My h my striking we are £180 down a month they are treated like shit he doesn't even wanna strike

Oh FFS

My husband works on the railway and although the wages look good they did not include cleaners, lower paid staff in the average wage. Also, they don't get shift allowances, bonuses etc so it is not a true reflection.

Also do you think workers really want to strike? Their families and friends will be affected by the strike too but sometimes you
Have to make a stand. My husband works for a rail company and got 1.5% last year and that was after a lot of back and forth from RMT and the company. It was initially 0.5% which is laughable!
A

A levels will be finished next week.... Just like GCSE I suspect

@MumbleAlwaysMumble did you miss the part in my OP where I said we have already had 2 weeks of this?