What do people think about rail strikes?

[ITUnurse]

I cannot find any threads on the rail strikes / opinion of them.

I personally do support the strikes. We in the NHS will face a similar struggle shortly. I support the rights of workers to strike. Conditions at the moment are dire.

However, if England is so right wing and strikes aren't supported and the Tories continue to be voted in. I've not seen much public support online except from a few and I'm at risk of being in an echo chamber.

Ultimately if England is so under the thumb of the tories, I'm not sure what the long term solution is. The rest of the UK doesn't return the Tories in such numbers.

If you don't support strike action, what do you think the rail workers, NHS workers etc should do? We've already got people leaving enmasse. It's difficult to comment on the conditions of a job you don't work in and nurses regularly get gaslighted on here I am genuinely concerned as to what is going to happen to the public sector of the UK with this right wing stranglehold.

Thanks

The people arguing for ticket office closure, are you aware for people that don't really do technology, they can print out route plans and timetables, sort out advance tickets that are otherwise only available online and the refund process is fairly straightforward if you need one. They can also tell you when the ticket is valid and by which route. Or if your railcard expires or is lost, replace it in 10 minutes. Tell you that you can use an off-peak ticket on the next train, when the machines still think it's peak time. Realise that there's a few of you in your group but paying separately and tell you that if you pay together, you'll get a discount. They also notice if a ticket would end up cheaper overall including the cost of a Railcard and suggest you buy one.

I’d love to know which alternative universe this happens in…

I don’t support them, the people they want to hurt don’t care and they are instead hurting the hardworking public.

Agree.

I do actually think there’s an element of spite in this too though.

I honestly couldn’t in all conscience strike knowing that I am preventing people seeing their loved ones at Christmas, workers getting to their jobs in a cost of living crisis and teenagers getting to school after 2 years of Covid.

When will they realise the impact of this?

No I don’t support them especially over Christmas. That’s a really mean spirited way to get what you want. It’s not hurting commuters who are their bread and butter but families and friends who want to spend Christmas together.

No one in the public sector should be getting a pay rise. Inflation is a bloody nightmare. It’s evident their are major problems in the NHS but it clearly needs refitting for the 21st century not more money thrown at whoever shouts loudest.

I support strikes for inflation pay rises.

However i think they need to separate out the issue of modernisation. Continuing to demand that staffing never change is absurd and wont allow railways to survive. I don't agree with the way they are blocking driver operated doors, ticket office closures etc. These technology improvements allow railways to operate at lower cost which keeps fares down. As long as people are compensated fairly, i don't have a problem with genuine redundancies where a role is no longer required.

A job isnt guaranteed for life. There needs to be programmes to help people retrain.

Absolutely support them and anyone else who has to take such action due to not being paid appropriately.

Yeah, I mean I love the ticket guy in my local station - when he's there. But he sells tickets and gives train times - not always correctly. The idea that he'd do calculations on group permutations and finds me cheaper tockets fills me with surprise. As it would him, too, to be honest!

Yeah but where is the money coming from? It wil lead to increasing rail fares, great!

Already a family ticket Manchester to London is £175 and its a lot fir most families.
If it was 250 or so it wouldn't be an option for me personally and I'm average income.

All the 100% strike supporters, please tell me where the money is coming from.

Increased taxation for public services, leads to inflationary spiral and this is what happened in the 70s.

Increased prices for services like RM.and Rail means people who use those services either find alternatives reduce frequency of use or lose more money to pay the extra

It's not gonna come from CEos bonuses in a million years!!

Serious question, no one can answer it ?

Anyone?

Maybe the government could stop throwing money at its mates and make the likes of Lady Mone pay their fraudulent gains back.

No one in the public sector should be getting a pay rise.

The alternative is that staff will leave. Leaving you in the position with the same amount as staff working as on strike days, enjoy “really mean sprit” all year round xoxo

Do they influence the privatised company strikes?

I get your point for public sector but ain't gonna happen with tories

Also Michelle Mone and Co would be a drop in thr ocean compared to millions of public sector workers even if they did as you suggest

Would you be happy with tax hikes and how much tax would you be willing to pay extra? £1000?.£5000?

I'd go a grand as I'm on decent money but many would find it extremely difficult at the current time.

Then they would want a pay rise to afford it

We all would

Inflation would spiral, its basic economics

This. For the first time in 3 years we have an Xmas without restrictions and what do the union's do? That's right fuck it up. And please don't cry me crocodile tears and say you regret inconveniencing the public. This is coordinated and political, so why won't you just admit it.

I find it interesting that a month or so ago these threads were overwhelmingly in support of the strikers.

Less so now.

Well then they should leave. If the pay and conditions aren’t good enough theres a choice.That’s exactly why wages should increase - to attract staff.
People still got annual pay rises when the rate of inflation nothing . You can’t argue it both ways.

I don’t object to strikes in and of themselves but it’s objective has to be realistic and deliverable and obviously for the benefit of the public if it’s public service.

So far, no one (workers) has had inflation busting pay rises.. yet inflation is over 11% and in some areas far higher e.g food 16%.

So whatever is driving inflation it is not pay rises (corporate greed perhaps? Tesco etc still making billions...) inflation will continue whilst Putin wages war and we cannot import cheaper energy...... we are decades away from enough nuclear or renewables to compensate.

But when energy prices do fall, i wonder how quickly other prices will fall too... answer: they won't.

Funny how, when inflation was 1 or 2% but train fares went up by 6% the argument that it would lead to less usage didn't seem to come from ministers lips...

Train fares can go up because petrol prices have gone up by 50% .. what is needed is better reliability... but a better question would be why the UK has the most expensive (by far) fares in Europe? and has done for years with profits going to shareholders overseas..

Yeah we know shareholders are the problem. So why aren’t they striking about that?

Of course you can’t expect your money to buy you the same if we have high inflation. That’s why it’s inflation. Bit Inflation is hard to live with. Interest rates rise, prices rise, life gets tough. If everyone gets higher wages, the prices go up to pay fir it. Inflation spiral. Ride it out and inflation slows and everyone gets back on with buying houses and spending in shops.

Germany spends 50% more on rail subsidies than we do. Switzerland spends double. If we're serious about looking after our planet then we should follow suit.

It might as well be public sector. The ERMAs basically leave the operators at the beck and call of the DfT. The government have orchestrated this, even the FT has called them out for it.

How many times does this have to be repeated? They ARE leaving. One TPE depot is down 60 drivers, through a combination of early retirements and poaching by the freight hauliers. The MD wants to raise wages and rebuild morale so that he can keep his staff but the government won't let him. A driver can hand in their three months notice and it'll take you 15 months to train their replacement.

I work for an operator which is controlled by a devolved government, not the DfT. We've got a steady stream of people joining from English TOCs as they get fed up with their treatment.

Just to add, this is why TPE and Avanti (among others) are running such a poor service at the moment.

Over the last thirty years, wages have dropped by a third in real terms. Enough is enough.