London – Rail traffic in England was brought to a standstill on Friday by a new strike by railway workers demanding higher wages and better working conditions in a country where protests over rising prices are mounting.
Various railroad companies have announced severe disruptions, and some have had to cancel all their routes.
This is the second strike by railroad workers in three days. On Wednesday, they joined teachers and civil servants in the UK’s biggest strike in more than 11 years.
Strike organisers from Aslef and the RMT unions on Friday demanded better wages and working conditions for railway workers as the country grapples with inflation that has hovered above 10% for months.
For their part, the employers are fuming over the union’s rejection of an offer of an 8% pay rise for train drivers over the next two years.
“We are being asked to give up collective bargaining,” Aslef head Simon Weller told Britain’s PA news agency. “It is clear that this deal will be rejected.” “It is designed to fail,” he said.
“We hope that those responsible for Aslef will engage in a constructive way to advance negotiations rather than organising new unnecessary strikes,” said the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the companies.
In the United Kingdom, strikes are multiplying in all sectors in the wake of the cost of living crisis. Next Monday, public health nurses will go on strike again for the first time in their history in December and for two more days in January after negotiations with the government fail.
This time they will join ambulance workers, drivers, paramedics, and telephone operators in what is the biggest strike in Britain’s public health system, which has suffered years of austerity since it was founded in 1948.
For its part, Rishi Sunak’s conservative government is processing a bill in parliament to restrict the right to strike by imposing minimum services.
Source: (AFP)
