And how are things materially different? People still need an income to buy food, clothes, pay for somewhere to live etc. Inflation/rising prices still erode the living standards of people. Hence quite rightly they don’t want to lose out. Similarly, we are supposed to be improving family life, not eroding it further.
Do you honestly think that an anti-trade union CONservative government were not going to introduce legislation like this? They were going to bring this in regardless. The only difference is in which excuses they get to use.
People can define “working class” anyway they like. However, in reality, there are really only five groups that I can think of:
- People who have to go to work to obtain enough money to live on. This includes the self employed who have to work.
- People who already have enough money to live on, or have enough income from savings and investments, or from income from property or similar. Hence don’t have to work if they don’t choose to.
- People who rely on the income from their partner or family.
- Pensioners who have enough income, hence don’t have to work.
- People who don’t have enough income, or who are unable to work, and hence rely on benefits.
Of course there are a lot of people who think they are middle class. But how many could survive without benefits if they were unable to work for six months or more (not including sick pay)? In other words, really, they ARE working class.
Yes, many may disagree with the above, but then it very quickly becomes semantics where the division is between each “class”. Especially as what is skilled work is also a grey area. The work that I do for example, is skilled work, but a train driver is on more money than me. And if I were to work overtime, I would get paid nearly the same or more than my manager. So which of us, if any, is classed as middle class?
Withdrawal of labour as a protest against their employer (which is what a strike is) is perfectly legal. Yes, an employee is breaking their contract of employment. But that situation has existed for many years. It’s in principle, no different to breaking any other contract between two parties.
The alternative is forcing people to work, which is sailing very close towards slavery…
Because of three things:
- The government doesn’t actually want the railways to employ enough people, as thats too expensive.
- Employees are leaving due to not liking the erosion of terms and conditions/social life/home life/family life or because they can earn similar or more money in other jobs.
- The railway is, in some areas having difficulty recruiting young people, they want a social life, not a job with horrible roster/link and having to work weekends and shifts.
You can say that as often as you like. It does not change the facts. An unhappy workforce is ALWAYS bad for a company or organisation. If they can’t take action in one area, they will find another way.
Yes, the Government may win a battle, but will they win the longer war? That’s very debatable. It costs both time AND money to recruit and train skilled staff. Members here have already seen the results when there are not enough trained and competent train crew. Now imagine that across a much larger part of the country, maybe across the whole mainland U.K. rail network.
Withdrawal of labour/strike/failing to report for duty/work is already breaking your contract of employment. There is limited protection if it’s official action by a union. But this doesn’t stop an employer from dismissing an employee. And there is no protection for unofficial action. So, it does not really change anything much for individual employees.
If a union is prevented from taking official action, if the workforce are angry enough, they may just walk out anyway (unofficial strike). And none of the current laws can do anything about that.
The solution, as ALWAYS, is for meaningful negotiations to take place. Unfortunately the current CONservative government prefer to talk down to people and try to order them about.
Why is railway union membership holding steady then?
Why is railway union membership holding steady then?
So, instead, an employee may as well go in and then sit in the mess room ALL shift while going through EVERY company document rereading the rules, instructions, standards etc... They will have complied with the requirement to report for duty/work.
