Travelers across the country are preparing for three days of rail strikes this week as more than 40,000 workers prepare for the biggest run of the rail network in more than 30 years.
Four people explain how they will be affected by the disruption and share their views on the upcoming strike action.
“Strikes are the last resort”
Nick Georgiou says disruption is a “necessary evil.” Photography: Nick Georgiou
Nick Georgiou, 63, will travel 13 miles from Oldham to the Manchester Library, where he works part-time. It will not be the first time you have made the trip with your electric bike due to an interruption of train service on the route from Greenfield to Manchester Piccadilly. “Most of the time, I take the train. But the strike has been preceded by many cancellations: I had to pedal before because I was not convinced that there would be a train to catch. “
He says the strike will affect the ability of some colleagues to travel, but the disruption caused by industrial action is “a necessary evil”.
Georgiou supports the strikes “wholeheartedly”. “There has to be an account,” he says. “Strikes are the last resort. No one wants to deny themselves a livelihood. [but] the only thing the workers have to take away is their job. “
“If the trip takes me two hours, maybe I should walk”
Anne *, a 53-year-old manager of an NHS mental health team living in south London, expects her entire team to be affected by Tuesday’s Transport for London strike and national rail action. ‘this week. “Everyone on my team lives outside because we can’t afford to live near our office in central London. I’m very worried about the staff going to work. During the last strike we had a doctor trying to get in. for three or four hours, “he says.” We have to think about skeleton coverage. “
Anne says she will try to catch the bus at 7 a.m. Tuesday to go to work at 9 p.m. “Then I’m thinking, if it takes me two hours, maybe I should walk,” he says. Anne explains that she feels conflicted between supporting industrial action and the need to support her team and patients and “doing safe service.”
However, she blames the disruption on the government. “I would like the government to fund in a significant and coherent way the public infrastructure and the key workers that keep our city and our society running. I’m tired of the services being reduced to the bone, that everything is done in low cost and to tell workers to work harder to fill the gaps. “
“Strikes are likely to seriously disrupt my life”
London-based business owner Giles Barrett, 38, is empathizing with striking railroad workers despite fears that the action could lead to ticket sales for his next concert. Photo: Giles Barrett / Guardian Community
Giles Barrett, 38, of London, runs his own recording studio and agrees that he will be affected by the strikes, but will not let that hinder his support for striking railway staff.
“Strikes are likely to seriously disrupt my life. I’m going to play a concert on the 25th and many of my band’s fans would normally travel by train. The venue has a capacity of 250 people and we were expecting to run out. halfway through, so I think we’ll have lower-than-expected ticket sales, “he said.
“However, I fully support the strike. Collective action is the reason we have a weekend, among many other rights earned with effort, and we must never stop fighting for them, capital certainly will not. We have decided to offer free tickets to all striking workers. “
While others who empathize with the strike action in principle regret the particular timing of the exits, Barrett disagrees.
“The strikes must be at a time when people want to travel to be effective. I am not in a union because I own a company, but I am impressed with the RMT and I wish there were more unions with the power to organize in this way. “
“Something has to be given, you can’t keep reducing”
David Ling “has no resentments” towards strikers. Photography: David Ling
The strikes have forced David Ling, a 69-year-old pensioner, to book a night in an Edinburgh hotel to catch his flight to Sweden on Wednesday. Ling will return home after visiting her sister in Inverness and would otherwise have taken the train to Edinburgh on the day of the flight. Coaches available on Wednesday arrive too late to be an option. “It’s not really a big deal, just the extra cost of a hotel night,” he says, explaining that a stay in a “cheap one-star hotel” will cost you between £ 85 and £ 90.
Ling says she would have preferred to have taken the train as she recently had a blood clot and wants to be able to walk. “Sitting in the coach is not good for my legs,” he says. “I’m not overly worried about it, I’m still taking anticoagulants, but it’s in the back of my mind.”
The 69-year-old says he has “nothing to do” with striking railroad workers and supports the strike. “There are so many problems in this country that are caused by austerity, privatization and cuts that in the end it will be a reaction. It’s not just the railroad workers, it’s the teachers and the nurses and everything. In the end, something has to give. You can’t keep cutting and people are sparing and saving. Out of order.”