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.

I am having difficulty mustering much sympathy for it to be honest.

I don't think the RMT has got it's point across effectively. I even heard them on the news last night appearing to call for a general strike, which just seeme like militancy for militancy's sake.

Perhaps I would have some sympathy for some of the workers involved. I have none for the RMT itself though.

I sort of support then op, but I say that from a place of enormous privilege. I can afford taxi fares, I am not disabled, I won't have to give up my job because I can't get to work. And I'm sure I earn more than most of the strikers so it's easy for me. It's not fair that the real victims of this will be the people with the least as you described. And the government loudly standing against the strikers is what encourages lower paid workers to vote Tory. So shit around really.

the big question is does the NHS support the strikers. This will become apparent is how the people who have out patients appointments this week will be treated. If they struggle to get there or dont turn up through no fault of their own will the NHS sympathize and reschedule their appointment for the very near future or six months + down the line.

I support their right to strike. I don’t support the reasons they are striking this time.

The Tories are determined to turn us into USA light and are no doubt getting all sorts of lucrative roles to grease the wheel. Why are people so stupid and blind?

Now more than ever we need to be backing unions. We need more people JOINING unions. Yes it's very frustrating for the shareholders when the plebs won't just accept crumbs while they eat the pie. Quick, let's get those plebs squabbling over the crumbs.

@BarbaraofSeville lol buses here have been one an hour since April 2011

Town in North Essex Ive lived on this housing estate since 1994 when there were buses every 20 mins. Then in 2007 it was once every half an hour. Yet our MP who loves a bit of cognitive dissonance moans and wrings his hands about no one using the high street. (Tory stronghold)

No I bloody don’t

Yes, fully.

In a free democratic society workers have the right to join trade unions which organise in their workplace, take part in collective bargaining, work to rule and ultimately withdraw their labour to protect their interests.

OP, however much strikes may inconvenience you, do you really want to live in a society in which workers do not have these rights?

Bus driver rates of pay are just above minimum wage, definitely less than £11. I wouldn’t drive a bus, take fares. Go North East here.

No. And the little sympathy they may have got from me they lose time and time again when one of their aggressive spokesmen appears on TV...

People always say "it's not a race to the bottom" but it's not like it works the other way round either, is it? I'm currently job hunting and public sector pay and conditions are massively better than most of your average jobs in the private sector or charities offer.

Criminal Barristers threatening to strike too.

Yes.

Good! Why is having good pay and conditions a bad thing?? What are you talking about saying the race to the bottom doesn’t work the other way around? These unions and strikers are trying to prevent their sector becoming badly paid - why is that bad? What future is there for our kids if all jobs are minimum wage and poor conditions? It’s good that there are still some with decent standards, surely?

Cheers for giving me some 😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣 tonight.

🙌 at last someone gets it....

No end in sight....

This ^^

Why?

A properly funded criminal justice system benefits everyone in society. The courts are a massive mess and having long backlogs risks victims getting a fair outcome and the innocent languishing in remand. Police numbers are constantly being cut too.

The barristers striking aren't private sector ones making £££. They are the people reliant on legal aid fees and if they say that it currently equates to less than minimum wage then that's going to be bad for the profession. (I believe that Legal Aid is a fixed fee paid when the trial ends)

I've heard that barristers are really badly paid. If it's that low, I don't understand why anyone would do it, because aren't barristers really well qualified lawyers, and lawyers earn a lot of money?

That's why I was asking about it. Didn't realise they were also having issues in their profession. They should also strike if unhappy with terms and conditions of work. Should be fairly paid for the work they do.

Generally yes. But tomorrow I will be spending 2 hours or more on 3 buses and I’m missing a work trip because there is no guarantee I will get there in time. Plus there are GCSE exams, and these kids are under enough pressure without the worry of getting to school/college in time.

They should have done it two weeks ago, during half term, or wait a few more until the holidays.

Being honest with myself, I do not. I get that the point of a strike is disruption and inconvenience, but this is too much at too bad a time. The strikes are causing major economic damage and will disrupt already disrupted industries.

The majority of people who use public transport do so because they have no alternative. I have colleagues who are taking annual or unpaid leave this week. I will also be taking annual leave, as there is no realistic way for me to get into work. DH is a teacher and will be cycling more than 1.5 hours each way in order to be there during exam week. It is ridiculous.

I do absolutely support wage rises for cleaners, engineers etc. I am not so sure about ticket staff - the wages and conditions seem very good to me already, certainly better than what many in education and healthcare get.

I do like the idea of working but not taking the consumer money?
Least then the people trying to get to work are at least able to earn their money.

I do support a strike for the right reason - pay and conditions being one of them.

The unions need to be more upfront and honest though. I’ve experience with unions and some of the wording and ‘mis’ information was surprising. It was designed to get people worked up. It did and could have caused strike but negotiations meant it didn’t. But a lot of people believed completely what the union said and they still very bitter - ironically they feel the Union settled to soon! But it was the wording the Union used that caused it.

Yep.