Biggest rail strike in 30 years brings UK to standstill

Still the odd train running here in Glasgow, but yes, big national strike. Good thing is most people who commute to work by the train can work from home... plenty of practice.

Jolly old English

Good on them. How many millions of pounds profit do these companies make each year, and how much do they increase their employees' wages? Exactly. Hope more strikes follow!

Prime Minister Boris Johnson, under pressure to do more to help British households who face the toughest economic hit in decades, said the industrial action would harm businesses as they continue to recover from the pandemic.

Now is the time to harm businesses as the bill has come for decades of profiteering as workers suffer from stagnant wages. austerity and funding bailouts when businesses make bad decisions.

If France (and Japan and the USA!) follow suit there could be a very nice reckoning.

I thought Maggie Thatcher put a stop to all that union nonsense.

I'm surprised that anyone would notice...... UK rail is exceedingly bad!

HM gave us two extra days off. The rail unions are giving us three just this week.

The government are saying that it is not for them to intervene, but they have renationalised the railway in all but name, so they are technically, the 'employer'.

Most people will switch to their cars and burn some carbon, as the EV infrastructure in the UK is poor.

The airline problems are largely down to a lengthy wait to obtain security clearance for new staff by the government.

Join the dots: The government are suppressing travel, just as they did during lockdown.

David BrentToday  04:44 pm JST

Good on them. How many millions of pounds profit do these companies make each year, and how much do they increase their employees' wages?

I don't know but you obviously do so why don't you tell us.

Personally I think the government should send in the SAS to dismantle the picket lines and then give every striking worker 24 hours to get back to his or her post otherwise they are fired immediately.

Then jail Mick Lynch for inciting the workers to strike.

A lot less traffic on the trains these days when compared with 2019 levels. Seems a hard sell but with close to full employment, anything goes.

Hospital staff on the other hand have a real and urgent case to be heard. Their work conditions have obviously been under intense pressure the past couple of years.

 I think the government should send in the SAS

Under a hundred men vs. thousands.

24 hours to get back to his or her post otherwise they are fired immediately

Then we would have no train staff. sounds perfect.

Daily Mail reader I'm guessing.

I cannot generalise, half the staff are still WFH from the pandemic. More so since travelling to office workstations has become a increasing cost burden to family budgets.

This strike regardless of the political ideology, is going to have profound implications to the economy, that is before the blame game begins.

£16 billion tax payer investment has been apportioned just to support the rail network through the pandemic down turn.

The hospitality industry will take the burden of this strikes aftermath head on.

This is total looney tunes.

How is workers striking for a decent wage the activities of the loony left.

Why is ok for companies to plunder unchecked for profits but if workers ask for a ride it's "bolshie"

And as for saying the SAS should be called.

Laughab

And here we go!

People with fixed paychecks can tolerate inflation for a while. 6 or 7% inflation doesn't sound much. But a thousand little costs go up and all of a sudden there's no pay left at the end of the week. The wage/price spiral that was so difficult to stop in the 1970s and 80s is about to get rolling. The sad part is that the working peasants who had no hand in causing this inflation will get the blame from the bankers and politicians who printed the money that caused it in the first place.

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way.

No. Not if you are a member of a union,

Here we go back to the 70’s, while it is understandable that people want to increase their wages as inflation pushes the cost of living up, unfortunately this feeds in to the costs of business and consequently inflation, becoming self defeating.

What is not going to help the situation is senior management (who are after all just the hired help no different from the shop floor) seen to be receiving obscenely disproportionate remuneration packages that have been ramped up out of all connection with their real worth in the last 30 years.

garymalmgren

Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way

One of my favourite albums and bands!

Get used to this because it's not going away. Europe's industrial capacity and economies have been crippled on a structural level. The average standard of living will be substantially lower going forward.

I thought Maggie Thatcher put a stop to all that union nonsense.

Guess there unions are more resilient than some dead broad, huh?

I don't see how putting the nation on a standstill is gonna help matters. It actually gonna worsen their economic situation even more.

LamillyToday  04:39 pm JST

Wages not keeping up with the speedy rising cost of living. Soaring prices. Companies making huge profits yet many workers on minimum wage.

If these workers were on minimum wage, then I would agree with you. But considering that the wages of the lowest paid (Rail travel assistants) is £33,310 and the wages of the highest paid (train drivers) is £59,189. With the average wages working at around £41,000/£43,000 per year. That is well above what the average UK worker will bring home and why the workers on strike are getting very little sympathy from the public. Many of your average joe in the UK would happily replace these workers for those wages.

the lowest paid (Rail travel assistants) is £33,310 and the wages of the highest paid (train drivers) is £59,189. With the average wages working at around £41,000/£43,000 per year.

Those are pretty crap salaries.

Joe Strummer would be apalled

StrangerlandJune 21  11:22 pm JST

Those are pretty crap salaries.

If a minimum wage worker in the UK worked a 'full time' 37 hours a week (that's excluding unpaid breaks). Their annual salary would be around £16,800.... That's a 'c*** salary', as you like to put it.

These rail workers are on very good salaries that are well above the starting salaries for professions such as nursing, firefighters, police, army, navy, etc. (Average being an annual salary of £21,000)

The government is not in control.

KariHaruka - considering that the wages of the lowest paid (Rail travel assistants) is £33,310

Not true I’m afraid. Quick look on indeed.uk gives the salary of a Gateline Assistant at London Waterloo as £19,497 pa. No doubt there is a £2k or so London allowance on top of that but it falls far short far short of the riches you seem to think they get. That’s no salary for an adult trying make a life for themselves in London, regardless of the cost of living crisis.

Comparing their salaries to those on minimum wage is ludicrous. These workers would have been in their jobs for a good while on average, and be earning 35k p.a. say. Expecting them to be happy with a 2% pay rise when inflation is hitting 9% shows compete economic illiteracy, especially when meanwhile energy companies in the UK are reporting billions of pounds in record profits while fuel costs are hitting £2 a litre and the government merely raises the gas and electric "price cap" every few months rendering the entire "price cap" idea redundant.

If a minimum wage worker in the UK worked a 'full time' 37 hours a week (that's excluding unpaid breaks). Their annual salary would be around £16,800.... That's a 'c*** salary', as you like to put it.

Yes, that would be an even more crap salary. Not sure what it has to do with my comment, or this issue though, seeing as we aren't talking about minimum wage workers.

I seem to recall govt workers actually getting an employer provided house or flat in the old days. Perhaps instead of money, employers could still do this.

Unions have said the rail strikes could mark the start of a “summer of discontent” with teachers, medics, waste disposal workers and even barristers moving toward industrial action as surging food and fuel prices pushes inflation toward 10 per cent.

https://worldabcnews.com/biggest-rail-strike-in-30-years-brings-uk-to-standstill/

I seem to recall govt workers actually getting an employer provided house or flat in the old days.

If you go back even further many employers would provide housing, meals and all other living expenses. Indentured servitude gets a bad rap in an era of unprecedented prosperity, but it gave people security in a world of limited economic opportunities. We may soon rediscover this.

PaustovskyJune 21  07:32 pm JST

 I think the government should send in the SAS

Under a hundred men vs. thousands.

24 hours to get back to his or her post otherwise they are fired immediately

Then we would have no train staff. sounds perfect.

Daily Mail reader I'm guessing.

Don't take things so literally.

Up to 600 men in the SAS.

Last time I picked up a copy of the Daily Mail was probably 50 years ago: it had my fish and chips wrapped in it.

These head of this company makes 600,000 UK pounds a year with a 10% performance bonus.

I can only imagine the perks that go with it.

A lot more than 600k I think.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5225221/amp/Rail-bosses-multimillion-pay-despite-strike-misery.html

And the service is abysmal..