Why is everyone on strike? – Will S
Everyone seems to be on strike at the moment; doctors, nurses, teaches, ambulance workers, train drivers, bus drivers and even the fire brigade, just to name a few. This is of course due to the spiralling inflation and cost of living crisis we are currently experiencing, largely due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. People are going on strike because the nature of inflation is that everything tends to become more expensive and so people in real terms earn less money, because they can afford less. As such, many workers have asked for pay rises which match inflation, so that their real terms pay doesn’t go down.
Strikes are controlled by the unions, and most workers in various industries tend to be part of unions, for example most of the teachers in this school are likely members of unions because they offer financial and legal support, and have political power – generally speaking, protection. Union strike action is voted on by members and if a certain turnout is reached, generally more than 50% and the vote is in favour of strike action, it goes ahead. If the union is large enough, such as with rail workers, they have the ability to bring their sector to a halt, which is why for several days over Christmas and New Year it was seemingly impossible to get anywhere via train.
It seems fair enough then, why don’t these people deserve pay rises? Well, the short answer is that anyone who isn’t getting a pay rise will suffer as they will be the ones paying for others’ pay rises, and those pay rises will only fuel the inflation which has created the cost of living crisis. Unfortunately, the government’s money doesn’t just appear, it comes from taxes which everyone pays, and if they need more money, it tends to be the case that taxes have to go up. So what do we do? The reasonable thing to do is compromise – its not fair for these people to suffer a pay cut, and equally its not fair for everyone to have to pay more tax and end up having a lower living standard themselves. This is what is likely right, especially in the cases of nurses and teachers who are probably underpaid, when the vital role they play in society is considered.
What is not right is for train drivers earning £60k a year to ask for more than a few percent extra a year, which will be paid for by the people going to work on their trains everyday, who are already paying thousands a year. The good news is that the significant rise of 8% offered by the government to the RMT was rejected, and they only recently accepted a 9% pay rise, with job security until 2025. The RMT, and their leader Mike Lynch (who earns at least £85k per year), seem to be completely out of touch with the world. How is it feasible that people earning significantly more than the UK average deserve a 9% pay rise in the most economically treacherous period this country has been through for decades? That’s not even considering the £18,000 rise in train driver salary between 2011-2021. I don’t know about you, but I would much rather see nurses or teachers, who have experienced a 13% decrease in real terms pay since 2010, get this financial boost. It is wrong, unfair and unreasonable.
Mick Lynch, the General Secretary of the RMT (The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers)
Probably the worst thing about the RMT is their failure to recognise the inevitable; trains can be completely driverless, and soon will be. The DLR in London has been a driverless train since 1987. This union seems to want to ignore the world around them to the point that they want to reject the automation of their industry which many, many others have experienced. Once again, I think of nurses and teachers who can’t really be replaced as they create relationships with people and help them develop, doing a far more important job than driving a train. Soon the rail industry will catch up with the rest of the world, and it is only a matter of time until the RMT will cease to exist because all the rail workers will be robots, who will be far cheaper than people and never go on strike.
Ultimately, the strikes seem set to go on, and it seems unlikely they will stop any time soon because the government, and the rest of the country, cannot afford to give everyone the pay rises they want.
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