
Brits have been warned that rail strikes could continue for five years, as Sir Keir Starmer faces calls to get off the fence and condemn the action.
Train drivers staged their latest strike yesterday, causing misery for Brits attempting to get to events such as the FA Cup Final at Wembley and the Epsom Derby.
It was the third disruption for rail services in the course of a week, and Aslef union general secretary Mick Whelan made it clear that there was no end in sight for the dispute.
He told Sky News that they didn’t want to be on strike, but they were in this, even if it took them four years, five years or more to get a resolution, and they would do what it took to get that resolution.
He said that they’ve gone four years without a pay rise, as have many other sectors and many other workers, but that if they stop now after four years, what will happen? They won’t get a pay rise next year, the year after that, or the year after that.
Mick Whelan claimed he’d not spoken to anybody from the Government in more than six months. However, the government insists a fair pay offer has been made.
The Tories pointed out that Aslef is affiliated to the Labour Party, and called on Sir Keir Starmer to condemn the walkouts.
Tory Deputy Chairman Lee Anderson said that it was time for Slippery Starmer to get off the fence and condemn these strikes causing misery for commuters and businesses, but that he was too under the thumb of his union bosses, the ones who really control the Labour Party.
If they’re threatening for this to last 5 years, then an alternative approach is needed.
This needs to be stopped now, along with all the publicity, but then again any publicity is good publicity for them right now. Meanwhile, while these industrial disputes go on people have to suffer when trains don’t turn up, which means they could lose their job because they can’t get into work.
And if these strikers can afford to keep this action going for 5 years or more and are managing with the loss of earnings, then presumably they don’t really need a pay rise in order to live.
They’re the most disliked bunch of strikers at the moment, but it will all be doom and gloom around the corner for them, and if this carries on they will be redundant in 5 years and the rail will probably become automated, and these strikers are so blinkered by their union’s agendas.
Don’t they realise that some people have found ways around travelling on strike days and will continue to do so? Brits have a way of adapting to situations – we’re extremely resilient, don’t they realise this?
And destroying the industry that you work in because they’re trying to win a political strike is about as ridiculous as it gets.
What does all of this remind you of? Cast your mind back to the seventies – the miner’s strike. It ended up with the mines closing because Arthur Scargill believed he could dictate to the government, how wrong he was. Tons of striking miners lived the rest of their lives on the dole and wished they hadn’t listened to the unions, and mining villages perished because there was no work.