Is It Wrong To Strike During The Cost Of Living Crisis? Rail Workers Strike Sparks Debate | GMB

I am driven by a dispute over job cuts, wages and safety concerns. Members of the RMT, which is the UK's largest royal union, have just voted in favor of what could be the biggest

rail

way

strike

in modern history. They then warn that summer

strike

s could bring the country. come to a standstill as energy prices will skyrocket even further if they occur during this

cost

of

living

crisis

. Let's discuss that this morning first here are the thoughts of travelers. I think if it was to increase the

cost

of train tickets, then. I guess that would be a negative, but I'm not against people getting paid.

Obviously, the cost of

living

is increasing a lot. It just completely ruins your plans. It's totally anti-environment because it drives people onto the roads when they could. being on a train you may not like the idea of ​​trains being cancelled, but I support the right of

workers

to take industrial action to defend their living standards. Well, now we are joined by Mick Lynch, he is the man, he is the general secretary of rmt transport. union behind the strike and by restaurant owner David Wilson, who thinks that striking right now is simply morally

wrong

, so let's start with you Mr.

Lynch, I want to summarize that most train drivers earn an average of 60 thousand dollars a year, they work four days a week, uh, working on Sunday is optional, many people would say use your influence and influence to negotiate better conditions and better safety conditions, but to strike at this moment of all time is simply socially irresponsible, well this strike is not just As for the train drivers, I have thousands of members, most of our members have very modest salaries, between 25,000 and 30,000, not much money these days and like all others, are feeling the pressure and it is because of this cost of living

crisis

that One of the main factors in this dispute, we are entering the third year.

We have not had a salary increase for our people. Some of them have salaries as low as the minimum wage. They are fighting like everyone else. We want the economy to improve. revive the best way to revive this economy is to give British

workers

a pay rise and companies are making record profits yesterday we found out we have more billionaires than ever the rich are as rich as they have always been in this society and dividends and profits They are at record levels so we need a balance in this society between the rich and the poor and we are not getting it but you know what you are being accused of and it is an abuse of power you have tremendous power I mean really has its hands around the country's windpipe in terms of

rail

travel and it is an abuse of that power, it is not an abuse of power, it is a right to take industrial action, we have to do it.

We went through many obstacles. We have the strictest anti-union laws of any Western democracy we have ever known, and we have crossed every threshold. Our members are ordinary men when men and women across this country want to secure their jobs. This is also about forced redundancies, the lowering of safety standards on our railway and the destruction of our terms and conditions. What we are seeing here is a government that wants to reduce workers' wages, depress workers to a situation where they can be super-exploited. throughout the economy without outsourcing and super exploitation, the sharing economy and everything else, we have to rebalance that in our society for all workers in the British economy, david wilson, you run a business, you run a restaurant in blackburn. you're making record profits no, not at all, no, no, how would a train strike affect your business and your workers, I think for my business and that group, and I think for all businesses, across the country, do you know what they are going to do?

Suffering, you know, and I think it's nothing like the gentleman who says um about a strike, I think across the sector right now, every business, um, I think it's a moment, I mean the rumors that are going to end on the queen's jubilee. the bank holiday weekend, you know, all the companies lost money during the pandemic, and what happened is you know they're not going to survive, so all that money, the revenue, will go to London, to Manchester, you know . small businesses depend on that income, I mean, what Mick Lynch is saying is, obviously, railroad workers, a lot of workers suffered during the pandemic, suffered during the cost of living crisis, I guess he would say well, the hospitality industry was disproportionately affected during The course of the pandemic was totally affected, so, each and every care worker, you know it up and down and that and the care workers, if anyone is going to get a raise in this moment, it should be the care workers, you know, and I think about it again.

Everyone should have the right to strike, but now is the time. I think the timing is

wrong

. Yes, no one is challenging the right to strike, of course, yes, of course, those who have not been reunited with families for two years will know that the fight is to get out. the whole cost of living is going up and everything else again, energy prices in October, this could be the last chance for families to visit families via trains and that will be effective Mr Lynch, I just Coming back from Cornwall, I have many friends there who work in the hospitality industry.

Many of them almost managed to survive the last two years. Some of them declared bankruptcy, but those who survived are still around. rocking on their feet the news of a train strike as summer begins is going to be a death blow to them, they are going to be horrified by this vote, they really are, because what their members are doing will affect other workers at least in the west of the country, well, we don't want to strike, we want an agreement and we are ready to negotiate today tomorrow and when necessary to reach an agreement, we have thousands of hospitality workers, by the way, we have catering workers. in our industry who are being compulsorily laid off, yes, by this government and by companies, our proposed agreement is a guarantee that there will be no compulsory positive layoffs, a wage agreement that reflects the cost of living at this time, what would that be? salary?

The worst thing is that no, we are not looking for nine percent at the time when the deal should have been closed. Inflation was around seven per cent and we have lost two years to this point of wage agreements, so we are looking at the third year of wage freeze, we will negotiate it with companies and we will reach agreements every day, every day of the year , and we are willing to do it. We don't want to attack workers if our members get a better pay raise. We'll be able to come to David's restaurant and take a vacation and everything else.

Anyway, right now you won't be able to go out to eat and we are part of a movement in the union movement that wants all workers in this country to get fair treatment from their employees, we talk about the right to strike, but as Well you know, the government is now making some pretty serious noises about an emergency change in the law to stop this and make it illegal for more than a certain number of rail workers would go on strike to keep the transport system going. If that law was passed, would you disobey the law, would you go on strike anyway?

I would have to see what the laws are. I mean, I'm not going. on the possibility of breaking the law, I don't know what the laws would be, but any infringement of our civil liberties, the right to take industrial action is a suppression of our freedoms, the government and other political parties dominate the efforts of unions and others countries. to express their freedoms but they will not do so here we have the strictest anti-union laws that can be tolerated and they want to make that worse we have seen the public order bill that is being processed they want to take away the right to demonstrate and they want to take away the right to respond to government policy, david um, it's an interesting point, of course, that if people's wages go up, then they'll be able to do the things that people need based on the cost of living.

The crisis could be cutting back and if their salaries improve, they are more likely to go out and enjoy hospitality. I totally agree, but at the same point again and they say that salaries increase, what will happen then to the The cost of trains, the name of the people, will be a high price to travel. I just got back from Krakow and the trains there are just amazing. You know, for the charms and for the railway. Now, in the last 12 months, I go anywhere in Britain. train or any of the train networks all the time the drivers are out or not staffed enough.

I got on the train last night and there were two sandwiches that weren't very good from the Glasgow train. to London, a gentleman who is working and says we are part of the staff, there is no table service on the train, you have to go there, the only beer they had was Budweiser and funny enough, Budweiser is also on strike. You know well that in the summer they say no to barbecues in that lot there is going to be a lack of beer let's talk about dates Mr. Lynch when the strike is going to be well we have not set any date we have given a period now in which we can negotiate, we have not made a particularly good decision, we will re-examine it next week, we will talk to employers in between and, if we put a process in place, we can get noticed.

So there's a period of time where it wouldn't be before when, well, we had no intention of taking this action during the Queen's Jubilee, that's a myth that's been spread by people who we never intended to do. we don't want to ruin that weekend for anyone we want to reach a serious agreement we want companies to address the issues at stake and that will be beneficial for everyone if we can show that workers can get a pay rise other workers in this country, like the health workers, health workers, education workers, all those people who have been fighting for the last two or three years, who will lead by example, so in some ways we are at the forefront of the union movement that We want all workers to get a fair deal in this country and the employers and people who are raking in billions of pounds in profits in terms of energy companies right now have to give up some of those profits and give them back. to workers so that people like David's companies and small businesses can prosper in this country with fair treatment for all.

I think the idea behind the windfall tax is to give money directly to people to pay their energy bills, but that Gives them more money to spend too, okay, um, Mick Lynch, thank you very much, actually, David Wilson, thank you both, thank you very much.