What are your views on unions & strikes?

Solidarity with the Rail Workers. This is not just about wages, but about safety and proper maintenance for passengers.
Sadly, those lower down the chain will be the first to be inconvenienced, but the situation will soon be reversed when those at the top find that their servants are unavailable!

Milliedog

So do we want to pay higher ticket fares to take the train? If the rest of the working force also strike, do we want to see our pensions having to stretch further. We've spent billions during the pandemic - we can't keep printing money.

We certainly 'printed' a lot of money during the covid years, but tell me where that money has gone. Because it certainly hasn't ended up in the pockets of working people. Among other things a very large amount actually went into the pockets of tory friends and donors who supplied overpriced and useless PPE.
Not to mention it going to SERCO to run test & trace very badly when local authorities could have done it so much better. So that's ended up in the pockets of their shareholders, who've done nothing at all to earn it.

Government issued money is public money, which they should be spending on public services, not using it to line the pockets of their mates and private company shareholders.

Milliedog

And I'd just like to emphasise that there is no magic money tree. The increases in their wages have to come from somewhere.

And I'd just like to emphasise that there is a 'magic money tree'. It's called the Bank of England and it issues money on the instructions of parliament.

That's where much of the £billions to cover the covid expenses came from. It didn't come from taxation and it wasn't 'borrowed' from anyone. It was issued by the BoE.

All public sector workers, whose pay has been frozen for a lot of years, could get a decent pay rise but the government is ideologically opposed to funding the public sector.

It is not the responsibility of employees to keep costs and inflation down by accepting continued austerity. It would be more responsible and dare I say ethical if large corporations would accept lower profits for themselves and their greedy shareholders in the interests of society as a whole. And it is the responsibility of the government to regulate them better or ideally renationalise and properly fund all essential services including transport. But of course hell will freeze over before that happens while capitalism is the god which we all must serve and it is those very government members who have their fingers in the pie.

Milliedog

So do we want to pay higher ticket fares to take the train? If the rest of the working force also strike, do we want to see our pensions having to stretch further. We've spent billions during the pandemic - we can't keep printing money.

With inflation going the way it is, our pensions and savings will soon be worthless anyway.

I think we should renationalise all public transport, subsidising lesser used routes from the profits of busy ones, and make things like free travel for over 60s a universal thing, rather than one that depends on a postcode lottery. People should be encouraged to use public transport for ecological reasons, and the more passengers using buses and trains, the cheaper the tickets would be anyway.

extra "over" in there, sorry.

private rail companies make over in profit every year?

I've not got a good grasp of economics, not my thing. Maybe they could divert some of the £500 million the private rail companies make over in profit every year?

So do we want to pay higher ticket fares to take the train? If the rest of the working force also strike, do we want to see our pensions having to stretch further. We've spent billions during the pandemic - we can't keep printing money.

Some Tory MP here spinning more stories about the RMT and modernisation...and throwing in how Mike Lynch is upsetting the armed forces as well. Goodness, its dire.

twitter.com/Haggis_UK/status/1539211930828668928

And I'd just like to emphasise that there is no magic money tree. The increases in their wages have to come from somewhere.

I agree with unions and I agree with the right to strike. However, I'm not sure about the rail strike. I heard this morning that they don't want to modernise some aspects of the railways. Teachers, nurses etc accept the need for modernisation and don't demand extra money for doing so. Also, if they are given large pay rises, what about bus drivers, teachers and nurses, waste disposal men etc? They also worked incredibly hard during the pandemic.

Tube strike boss Mick Lynch earns £124k a year

So what?

He's the head of a large organisation, like a CEO. He doesn't just sit on his backside all day and call the members out on strike from time to time... Unions do far more than that.

HannahLoisLuke

Generally I’m against strikes unless the workers have a genuine case. Having looked at the average wage for train drivers I think they’ve got a bloody cheek. Cleaners and other staff I’d support.
Let’s not forget the eye watering salaries of union leaders too, I suppose they have to call a strike every so often to justify their existence!

Those RMT members who are striking earn, on average £31k pa. It just suits the Tory government and their cheerleaders in the right wing press to quote driver's pay to make people angry.

I don't believe that train drivers, who are paid much more but belong to another union ASLEF, are actually involved in this strike.

Grant Shapps performance as Transport Minister is akin to Nigel Farage's performance as the UK representative on the EU Fishing Committee - except that Farage did attend one meeting out of a possible 42, whereas Shapps seem to have opted out of his responsibilities altogether.

Talk of 'holding the public to ransom' just illustrates how important these workers are to the economy and to people's daily lives.

In which case there is absolutely no good reason why they should be working for very low wages and poor conditions. We live in a society where we are mostly interdependent. We should recognise everyone's value, not judge them to be low down the pecking order and not worthy of being earning enough to live decent lives.

In the privatised companies these workers are even working to contribute to other peoples unearned income by way of dividends to shareholders from the profits their work generate.. It's a strange thought...

Okdokey08
Unions aren’t the knights in shining armour they once were… they fight to keep themselves in the headlines and payroll with union dues.
The Times say
Tube strike boss Mick Lynch earns £124k a year

And mine. Britain has suffered enough. Fed up of seeing the fat well fed gammons telling us we have to make economies while they pay themselves 7 figure salaries.
General strike anybody?

Generally I’m against strikes unless the workers have a genuine case. Having looked at the average wage for train drivers I think they’ve got a bloody cheek. Cleaners and other staff I’d support.
Let’s not forget the eye watering salaries of union leaders too, I suppose they have to call a strike every so often to justify their existence!

Mamardoit

Coco51

Demonstrates why Tories desperately wanted Brexit - we have no benefit of EU protections now. I hope the leavers are satisfied with that little ”victory”

What's the EU got to do with this? We were in the EU during the miners' strike. The French are in the EU and they love a strike.

The benefits of EU membership entailed common conditions, pay, holiday, maternity rights which were accrued since the miners strikes. Just watch them all being eroded by Tories who mow have no brakes on their race to the bottom. How is it right that the majority of workers are worse off that they have been for 40 years yet the Tories are tearng up limits on CEO pay. Remember RBS is still doling out millions t
in bonuses with the flimsy excuse thst they need to attract the best people and yet they have never yet made a profit.

Mamardoit

Coco51

Demonstrates why Tories desperately wanted Brexit - we have no benefit of EU protections now. I hope the leavers are satisfied with that little ”victory”

What's the EU got to do with this? We were in the EU during the miners' strike. The French are in the EU and they love a strike.

The Tories could, if they wish, make strikes illegal. They could change the law so that it becomes legal to bring in other workers to do the jobs of the strikers. They could sack strikers for exercising their right to strike.

The EU isn't preventing strikes; its protecting the rights of workers. Think you've got the wrong end of the stick.

spabbygirl

they got my support & my husband, Tories are running public services into the ground so they can say they're no good & replace them with private companies who have shareholders who expect big payouts making the private services poor value for money

Most of them are already in private hands and mysteriously posting ”losses” When Natiional Express walked away from their rail franchise with East Anglia Mainline after taking govt subsidies, they left a lot of debt that the taxpayer had to pick up. The line was taken into public ownership and made a substantial profit. Despite the profits it was put out to private franchise again - with greater costs and abysmal service.

Coco51

Demonstrates why Tories desperately wanted Brexit - we have no benefit of EU protections now. I hope the leavers are satisfied with that little ”victory”

What's the EU got to do with this? We were in the EU during the miners' strike. The French are in the EU and they love a strike.

I would assume because he knows that the government are gleeful at the thought of strikes and will want to associate the Labour Party with the disruption they cause.

Why was Starmer in full praise of trade unions now doesn't support a strike?

Can you believe a word he says
Well, this is a bit awkward.

From the Wapping picket line to fighting the mine closures and supporting families affected by the P&O dispute, I’ve always been a proud trade unionist.

We must stand shoulder to shoulder with our trade unions and together, we can win. #HeartUnions #TeamKeir

him on video giving full support to trade unions

Mark Jenkinson tweeted this morning that some of the effects of the strike are a vision of Labour Britain.

He's come in for a lot of criticism - mainly along this lines the the Tories have been in power for over a decade and that this is not a vision, its actually Tory Britain.