The economic outlook is grim, the cost-of-living crisis means we need to maintain our earnings and restaurants and entertaiment venues are struggling to survive. In this situation, Londoners must deal with not one transport strike but three. Yesterday commuters were the targets of RMT strikes which brought rail services to a standstill, as they will again tomorrow. Today, it’s bus and Tube staff who are on strike. People who can walk to work will no doubt do so; those who can’t may work from home. But in case the unions haven’t noticed, not everyone can work from home. NHS workers, small businesses, including restaurants, may not function at all.
As it happens, the strikes are not for identical reasons. Rail unions are striking over pay and management attempts to reform work practices. For Underground workers the concerns are that the new funding deal for TfL — which has not been agreed and the details of which are still not public — from the Government will adversely affect their pensions and work conditions. In both cases, people may feel some sympathy for the workers but the victims are the passengers. It is London’s working population — the engine of the entire UK economy — which bears the brunt of this action.
