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?

So this is a political protest?

it's hard not for it to be a political protest when it is in the goverment's hand to solve it.

But in case you missed it, it is a personal issue to the strikers. And the personal is the political.

For those saying the railway workers shouldn't strike over Christmas:

twitter.com/GWRHelp/status/1601154873919168512?t=OmvmsrjEQCcb_jvib3Qv9Q&s=19

They weren't planning to run any trains here anyway and I suspect this isn't the only set of planned works.

I didn’t vote to strike because of my standards of living. I voted to strike because we are haemorrhaging nurses, and because patient care is being risked everyday.

For everyone saying ‘if you don’t like it, just leave. You knew what you were signing up for’, no. I don’t want to leave. I don’t want to not be a nurse. But I want it to be safer to be a nurse. I want it to be like it was 10 years ago, when a patient being in A&E for 12 hours was considered a serious incident, not the norm. I want patients to have enough staff to answer their call bells and give them prompt pain relief. I want to have my (short) lunch breaks, I want to drink more than a small bottle of water a day, and I want to go home when my shift finishes, not stay behind an hour or two because the department is on black and there are no staff, and no one to handover to.

I love looking after patients. I love being a nurse. But I am terrified at what is happening to the health service that I used to be so proud to work for. And it’s just going to get worse and worse and worse. I could easily leave and get another job. I have a good degree, transferable skills, and I’m pretty intelligent. But I don’t want to, because that won’t make it better.

I don’t know anyone who took the decision to strike lightly. But everyone I know who voted yes, did it because we don’t see any other way of making things better for ourselves and our patients.

Don't be silly. Different nurses have different incomes (different grades, different amounts of overtime), and they have different outgoings. Some will be trying to bring up three children on a single income in London, while others might be living with a high-earning partner in a cheap part of the country.

Did you see the strings which were attached to that offer? One senior manager has said privately that he would be embarrassed to put that to the workforce, but they were forced by the government to add the conditions in.

@Masterblasterjammin Thank you for being a nurse, what a terrific person you are.
Thank you to everyone who is working harder and harder for less and less pay .
This country has never been in such a mess but our care for one another is still there.
I hope somehow things can get better for everyone.

People ARE leaving. Employers are getting so short of skilled staff that the non-strike days are almost as chaotic as the strike days. This is because they don't treat their staff well.

But that is what is happening - nurses, heath care assistant, paramedics, teachers- have been leaving their jobs in increasing numbers to the point where patients aren’t safe and children aren’t always been taught by qualified staff. If they don’t do something it will get worse and more people will die as a direct result.

If we can’t withdraw labour or protest at unfair conditions how exactly can Britain still call itself a democracy? If we can’t make a living from work because wages are so low but we still have to work, are we not closer to being simple slaves? And what the fucking hell is the point?

Rail passenger numbers have not gone "through the floor". The latest confirmed figures from the DfT (so the third week of November) put usage at 97% of the equivalent point in 2019 - which considering that 2019 was a record-breaking year is very impressive.
assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1094056/COVID-19-transport-use-statistics.ods (accessed 09/12,file gets revised regularly)

The government however is hell-bent on wrecking the service by underfunding it. Lower wages, threats to pensions, and poorer working conditions have left many operators with huge retention problems. A driver could hand 3 months notice in tomorrow and you won't have a productive replacement for 15 months. That's why TPE and Avanti are cancelling services left, right and centre. The way that maintenance is being cut, they are risking another Hatfield accident and all of the disruption that will result when they go "oh shit" and slap speed restrictions everywhere.

The operators and the staff want the dispute settled. The operators wanted to offer 4% per year for two years with no strings attached, and the staff would have probably accepted this despite it being well below inflation. The government stuck its oar in at the eleventh hour and insisted on a long list of conditions being added to the offer - conditions the operators didn't even want - that they knew would result in an outright rejection. The government has stirred up this dispute for political reasons of its own.
www.ft.com/content/f181e88b-777e-4285-902c-55f925213fd8

Most of us don't actually have the right to strike in all honesty and we have to leave and move on if we don't like things

If i understand you correctly, if we follow this train of thought, since the majority of HCP (is it just nurses?) voted to strike, what they should actually do is all jack in their jobs and work elsewhere?

Yeah. That's going to work

It's a crackpot argument. Just like the people going "sack them all". The very reason that collective action was effective, even in the days when there was no legal protections for strikers, was that you can replace the odd handful of sacked men, but you can't replace your entire workforce at once. Sack them all and you can expect disrupted services for years because of course you've sacked your instructors too.

I'm also intrigued by the argument that some jobs shouldn't be allowed to strike (my dad was in the army, i remember when his regiment were driving green goddesses around trying to cover for the striking firefighters - the soldiers didn't begrudge the firefighters trying to get a better deal, even though the army can't strike) but don't connect the dots and make the follow-through logical argument that those important jobs should have decent pay and conditions and be well enough funded for very high staffing levels.

Instead it's years of believing that unions are evil (even while enjoying the fruits of past union fights) and moaning that they don't have a union. Anyone can, and should, join a union. Especially now that workers are being screwed over left right and centre.

@DdraigGoch around here, earlier this year, the news did mention that the railway unions wanted the government to intervene in the conversations, this according to the newspaper. Now it is the government the one to blame for them walking off the table, yet again.
In the meantime, is the everyday taxpayer, commuter, who is paying for all this. Next week, they are striking for the whole week!
This one is well out of hand. Why can't they sit on the table and flipping negotiate?
I am done with it, to be honest. I do not think they are being reasonable, at all. I am against holding a country citizens, its economy and everyday turningvof the wheel ransom, week after week after week...

As most mumsnetters think the police are the biggest threat to women's safety ever I'm sure they'd be delighted if they went on strike - right up til the moment it happened.

Royal Mail workers striking at this point is like McDonalds workers striking. People will just go to KFC.

@sneezingpandamum we've just had a ballot for strike action at my rail company. The last time we were on strike was 1981, so not exactly every year.

There are many different unions within the railway.

That's a generalisation. Almost no-one in the airline industry will be getting a payrise and I haven't had one since 2019.

The government are pulling the strings - and have been for the last couple of years. This would be over tomorrow if it was left up to the Managing Directors of the operating companies. This is a deliberate ideological war being waged by the government, with workers and passengers alike being thrown under a bus.

How many threads on here regarding the NHS are bemoaning the horrendous care and lengthy waits to be seen by a medic, get a hospital bed or an emergency ambulance ? How many complain about elderly relatives not being fed or left in urine soaked beds ?
Well funnily enough it's not because nurses are sat at the nurses station perusing Ebay or scrolling through their SM accounts (although many posters on here would suggest they are). It's because there aren't enough of us as well as due to the
time consuming paperwork we have to plough through (although now it's on a
computer so takes twice as long). Essentially we nurse computers and the poor patient comes second.
The whole nursing profession needs re examining. Career progression is crap. Agenda for change saw to that. Promotion is not automatic. Ward manager jobs, specialist nursing posts, and ANP positions are few and far between hence nurses of 30 odd years experience are stuck at the bottom with no increase to their wage because they've hit the the top of their pay scale.
Colleagues at my trust have voted against striking because they cannot afford to lose their pay. Simple as...

So... when are we going to get a NEW government?
Because in my opinion, what we should be doing is demanding new elections, and this time, chucking this lot out.
And demanding someone with a political ideology, with believes and guts, not just a bank account to put OUR money in, on their name.
Striking one week per month will not bring the changes we need. As you say, it only plays one against the other, with the whole of the taxpayer losing. And the economy, sinking lower. Here, it is each man/ woman for him/ herself. Damn the others.
And to be 100% clear, I agree that many many people have very valid reasons to be discontent with their working conditions, especially the NHS. But I am also 100% that no amount of strikes will get a penny out of the tory government. They will just cut and cut and cut.

YANBU we absolutely must maintain the right to strike. This is especially important where we have such an uncaring, selfish, corrupt government who are happy to tell us to just suck up austerity while they gave millions of public money to cronies like Michelle Mone for useless PPE. She gets to swan around in a new private jet and new yacht but we can't afford decent wages for workers. Things are very wrong here.

Remind me again how striking helps a failing business make enough money to fulfil demands for no compulsory redundancies?

If they increase ticket prices it will cause more people to find alternative means of transport particularly during the current climate.

How exactly will they fund the unions demands?

Magic money tree?

Indeede. Ebay have negotiated lower prices with alternative couriers and recommended all sellers to use.

As a small business Ebay seller myself I've already had to refund 4 buyers for parcels sent BEFORE the strikes thar have got lost. And I usually have maybe 1% of sales not arrive so this is unusually high.

I'm losing money so have switched to yodel now.

They will treat the staff as well as they need to to get sufficient staff in.

In the private sector if you can't recruit to need, you look at your offering.

That's why people are leaving jobs like teaching assistant to go work at Tesco or Aldi.

Far more effective than strikes is workers either not choosing to work for an employer or going elsewhere shortly after starting IMHO.