Union leaders like me don’t want to strike, but UK workers are being given no choice
The summer of discontent on our railways is now very much a reality, and at the point of escalating into other sectors, as workers take a stand to protect their living standards. Our union, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, is currently balloting members for possible strike action at a dozen rail companies in England as well as Network Rail. They hold many varied and vital roles in stations, in management and maintenance across the board as well as railway controllers.
Meanwhile our sister unions, the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers’ (RMT) and Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (Aslef), are gearing up for further walkouts. As are other unions in the private and public sectors.
This is a mere snapshot of the industrial action likely to take place as we approach the autumn and winter months with the Conservative government all at sea, without the faintest notion of how to chart another course.
Boris Johnson, Grant Shapps and the rest are squarely to blame for the growing unrest we are seeing as they have chosen to protect profit rather than working people.
It’s simple: many of our members, and workers more broadly, have not had a pay rise since the pandemic, even though millions of transport, health, and service workers were hailed as heroes during those dark days. Now in the eyes of ministers they don’t deserve a fair pay rise, despite the Tories’ cost-of-living crisis which has seen inflation rocket. And some, like many of our members on the railways, are also facing job losses as the government insists on cuts.
Workers will fight for their jobs and conditions, with strike action if necessary. They should not be expected to pick up the tab for an economic emergency they did not create. Those
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