To think that people should be allowed to strike

[Kissmybaubles]

I get it causes inconvenience, and there has been lots of strikes lately Royal Mail, railway, nurses and now paramedics.

I caught on the news this morning that the government are looking to put a stop to strikes. I just don’t think it’s right to take aways peoples right to strike… These people work hard and deserve a decent wage.

AIBU?

Anyone, no matter what their job, MUST have the right to withdraw their Labour.

To have that right denied, legally, could potentially lead to slave labour.

Yes, dramatic, but ultimately, withdrawing the individuals right to say ' no, I'm not working for crap wages/ working conditions/working conditions', ultimately results in the same thing.

My son won't be able to travel home for Christmas, my MRI scan has been postponed twice now, my dad was on a trolley waiting for admission to hospital for 18 hrs ( His care once admitted was excellent and he is recovering at home now after a 9 day stay).

I fully expect to be inconvenienced by future strikes, but fully and totally support them.

It does feel like a lot all at the same time. It makes you wonder if the strikes are all co-ordinated to cause chaos.

On the radio, there have been union reps saying they have heard of nurses using food banks due to low pay. If the pay is that dire, surely all nurses would be using food banks, as well as everyone that earns less that them. That is simply not the case, and I do not understand why that is being mentioned in the press.

The problem is there’s loads of people across the country who work really hard for not much more than the minimum wage while the cost of everything else goes up and makes it’s increasingly harder to make ends meet. The minimum wage keeps going up and no one begrudges a decent salary to the lowest paid but it makes it harder for those on slightly above to feel it’s worth the extra hassle and responsibility when they could get almost the same per hour for stacking shelves and walking out at the end of a shift without lives/educations/health and safety liability at their feet.

Private sector workers have seen pay rise a lot faster than the public sector. Also University lecturers are one of the groups striking www.incomesdataresearch.co.uk/resources/news/average-weekly-earnings#:~:text=But%20behind%20these%20figures%2C%20there,sector%20(excluding%20financial%20services).

Of course they wouldn’t necessarily all be using food banks, what a daft statement. People have different family circumstances, outgoings, childcare commitments l, debt levels etc. It’s a fact that the people keeping our NHS from falling over and our education system working are on their fucking knees and it’s unacceptable.

The strikes may well be coordinated to cause max impact but what’s the point in striking if there is no impact, attention is needed as to just how shit living standards in this country are.

As some of the relatively few people who doesn’t have the right to strike, I absolutely support all the striking workers. People complaining that it holds the country to ransom…….I mean it’s almost like these are vital services that should be well recompensed with decent working conditions, isn’t it.

My sister is a nurse, she spends her days supporting dying people and can barely put food on her table or clothes on her kids’ backs, it’s disgusting.

I live in a country where the unions still are proper unions with real clout and it's so much better for workers. Strikes very rarely happen because the threat is enough to get employers to the table and to take employees complaints seriously. We have no in work benefits as employers have to have union approval for pay rates and the unions only ever approve wages people can actually live on. The people of Britain need to take back their power from the tiny minority who are leaching their wealth off them.

Of course people should be allowed to strike, within certain conditions (which already exist in law).
And the government should not be able to ban it.

11% pay rise??? You do realise that many public sector workers have been under a pay freeze for years and have seen the value of their pay go down in real terms. We'll be lucky to get any pay rise at all in schools seeing as the measly 5% we've been offered was awarded after the schools' budgets were set and therefore are unlikely to be able to fund it.

I'm really unhappy about impact of.strikes on me personally and I do think the rail and postal workers are being quite vindictive in the way they seem to be trying to ruin everyone's Christmas.

However they should have the right to withdraw labour. Its caused a lot of tears and financial loss in our family and numerous others though.. I used to support the strikes now I just bitterly resent them

On the radio, there have been union reps saying they have heard of nurses using food banks due to low pay. If the pay is that dire, surely all nurses would be using food banks, as well as everyone that earns less that them. That is simply not the case, and I do not understand why that is being mentioned in the press

Obviously not everybody has the same situation. A nurse with a partner who earns around the same money or more is not the same as a nurse who is a lone parent struggling alone. I'm sure the majority of nurses aren't using food banks, the point is that their job is not paying enough for the level of skill/education/responsibility required.

Yes, of course I realise this. But it is the same in my world (private sector). I don't understand why people think that private sector pay has been going up year on year for the last 10 or so years?

I've had at most a net £100 monthly pay rise in the last 7 years. While interest rates and mortgage rates have been very low, pay rises have gone up a tiny amount everywhere (except in the highest paid jobs as I mentioned). So now, this year, when mortgage rates, inflation rates, and the cost of energy have suddenly increased exponentially - it's not just those in the public sector who have been caught short.

You don't seriously think everyone who doesn't work in public sector jobs hasn't been affected do you?

And I am truly fed up of my senior nurse friend with 30 years in the NHS moaning about her pay when she means her take-home pay and is not taking into account her pension which will allow her to retire way earlier than me on way more money than me. The amount in your pay packet at the end of the month is not the full story.

I know I've already - EVERYONE has the right to withdraw their labour.

No argument.

To deny this is to revert to slave labour.

So let's see everyone apart from the highest paid 5% go on strike. What do you think will happen?

What about people who work for royal mail or the railways striking? They still seems to have the money to pay fat cat bosses and shareholders

You should only accept certain jobs if you understand the importance to society, so for example paramedics or nurses

The government needs to understand the importance of people in such Public Service jobs - and signal that by substantial pay rises.

The people of Britain need to take back their power from the tiny minority who are leaching their wealth off them

completely agree.

YES 🙌

Hear hear!

How genuinely? To leach wealth you need to be wealthy in the first place, you can’t leach what someone doesn’t have, so how is this feasible?

There are very few jobs where you are not allowed to strike

Many workers have stopped paying into their pensions as they cannot afford to live NOW
there's no point thinking about 30 years down the line when you decide to freeze instead of starve or vice versa

And since I've started working in the nhs we haven't had a pay rise anywhere near inflation and the pension age has gone up!