Posted on 10/03/2025 10:23:15 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Industrial action is causing real economic pain.
The strike that closed almost all of London’s underground network for four days in mid-September is estimated to have cost the UK economy £230 million ($307 million). It was arranged by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, which campaigns for one of the most exploited groups of workers in British society: the capital’s tube drivers, who work 35 hours a week for £70,000 ($94,000) a year—almost double the national average salary.
Two 24-hour strikes had been planned in November, but were called off after Transport for London (TfL) offered tube drivers a 4.5% salary increase. In an attempt to prevent the latest industrial (in)action, TfL proposed a further pay hike of 3.4%, which the RMT rejected. It also claimed that a four-day working week—one of the union’s most unreasonable demands—was impractical and unaffordable. London’s Labour mayor Sadiq Khan prevented another planned strike in January 2024 by throwing an extra £30 million at transport unions, the source of which was a mystery; on this occasion, however, he chose not to intervene.
It’s only a matter of time before London is reduced to chaos again. During the latest strike, the RMT’s secretary general Eddie Dempsey said that he won’t stop fighting for its members until they’re earning enough to buy their own houses (his interviewer failed to point out that purchasing property in the British capital is not a civic right). But Londoners are not alone in living with the constant threat of industrial action. Europe is a strike-prone continent, as has been demonstrated by the most recent wave of protests and walk-outs.
Any industry or nation trying to effect change by not showing up for work can take inspiration from France, a nation whose entrenched...
(Excerpt) Read more at fee.org ...
94k 35 hours and they go on strike for more. Public sector unions
Unions are not the problem. The problem is all the laws that make it difficult to fire and then permanently replace striking workers.
Here’s the way it should go. “We offered you a fair wage package. If you don’t accept it, that’s your right. But then you don’t have a job here.”
That’s it. A level playing field. The worker can withhold labor. Management can withhold employment.
I wonder how much they pay for “riding shotgun” or being a “tail-gunner” on a tram?
I detect some sarcasm there ;-)
Always.
But in this case, those same unions were private sector before the UK government nationalized public transport.
And a situation of lots of strikes had something to do with public transport being nationalized.
“exploited”
I almost stopped reading at that point because these drivers are amongst the LEAST exploited employees in the country.
£94,000 basic wage plus guaranteed overtime and perks would be plenty enough to buy a home in the capital, if it wasn’t for the fact that a significant proportion of the capital’s homes are now occupied by immigrants (who incidentally make up a large number of these drivers).
I am pretty sure that was sarcasm.
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