Reading this , some of it seems quite bizarre.
The cost of living is absolutely going through the roof. We keep hearing figures on the television that realtime wages have gone up over 8 percent on average since the start of the pandemic, much of that recently.
It's a fact that many rail workers have not received a rise since 2019. Many who had a rise in early 2020 at the start of the pandemic had one because it was the remainder of a multi year agreement.
Only today the BBC have been reporting on their news channel that wages in hospitality are up on average some 8 percent this year.
Offering pay freezes or rises of one or two percent just isn't going to pay people's bills when all is said and done. And they have no choice but to meet their costs of living, the people sending them the bills are not understanding to their pay freeze or only a 2 percent rise in 3 years. The workers did nothing to cause this cost of living crisis and are somehow ostracised by some for even suggesting they might be offered a rise in line with the rises in the cost of living, just so they don't fall behind. Business want to profiteer (such as the privatised rail operators), these workers just want to keep up (a bit). It's not to profiteer on like shareholders want, it's simply to keep wages in line with rising costs and inflation. We are all, or most of us, working to hopefully have some happiness in our lives and give our family some happiness and some level of future. All the time the gap between the minimum wage and many rail workers wages narrows and our standards decline further through no fault of the worker.
Station staff for example, if some havn't had a rise since 2019, the minimum wage has gone up how many times since then, at least 3 surely? And their wage has stood still. Yet some are doing work which requires months of training and a certificate to be competent at. Even if they got a 6 or 7 percent rise now, they have still lost a good load of money because of no rises in line with inflation over previous years and the fact inflation is extremely high at this time and could be likely to top 10 percent shortly and I to next year.
Inflation soaring seems to be a government issue and to a great extent a Bank of England Issue. The government was reported in the media to have accused the Bank of England of not acting soon enough to curb super inflation in the UK only a few days ago.
The real effects fall on ordinary workers who work with the public providing services. How is this their fault in any way? Are we calling them greedy for even suggesting they should not lose even more of their household budgets?
There seems to be a view among some in society that Unions are terrible and should be binned off and banned altogether. Totally contrary to how things were decades ago during the 70s and such like.
We should have a country where workers get together and aspire to be in a union to help the UK to raise their living standards and keep working conditions reasonable and raise them even further as time goes on. This is progress which goes back in history as far as time does. We should be making progress as the decades pass, not racing to the bottom.
We could offer workers in any industry 2 percent rises for years until they are basically on the minimum wage. But how reasonable is this in a rich society such as the UK? Is this what we want? It's not what I want for my children. I want them to have good quality, stable jobs, where they are treated well, enjoy their work, have a say on how their workplace operates, feel valued, make a difference, and are rewarded at a level that meets a reasonable level of living so that they can at least (try and buy a house, little hope of that) or pay all their bills, have children of their own if they want to and save a little for the future and for their own kids.
I feel it's since 2010 and the fear caused by the first financial crisis of 2008 that people have become so much harder in their feelings towards others with regards people should take their job and be grateful as the business must be able to make a profit above all else including happiness and ability to actually meet your own living and housing costs. And let's not forget, housing costs especially down in England are extortionate, around 9 times the average wage now. And the average wage we are told is nearly 30 grand.
If you want really decent public services in a developed and rich union (the UK union) you simply have to be prepared to subsidise these things. If you don't, you get poor services and people don't like it. And we all live here and we don't simply just want to live an existence. They did that in the early 20th century and during the war and it just isn't something we should wish on others.
Look at the transport alternatives, the motorways. They don't make a profit. They have to be subsidised by tax and road tax, and subsidised heavily. We could strip this subsidy right back and recruit companies to take on their operation and charge for each of their use. Tolls everywhere. But we realise some things are worth paying for and just have to be subsidised for them to even be half decent.
And as for comparing any rail wage rises to the public sector pay cap, we should as a country be demanding those in the NHS are given proper rises in line with inflation. Nothing less is acceptable. Not pointing the finger and saying I couldn't have any cake so neither should anyone else. Keep pushing this anti worker pro profit line and it's simply a race to the bottom.
I have been a member of many workforces. Some unionised some not. I've worked in a factory on minimum wage, where the sister factory in another city was Unionised. We were always jealous because they had far better terms than us and we wanted the union, but our branch was opened later and deliberately hired 80 percent part time workers so that they couldn't afford the union, and we never got it.
Having seen how a union can fight for the standards of its members, and the protection is can give Vs no union existing at all, I would 100 percent hope my children can work in a Unionised industry where they are not taken advantage of and threatened with their job at every opportunity, frightened of getting poorly and having to go sick, and earning a poor wage