LONDON (Reuters) – British Transport Minister Grant Shops said on Sunday that the planned train strike this week was a “bad mistake” and warned people not to go to hospitals, school exams or work.
As this week’s strike British airports witnessed chaotic delays and last – minute cancellations, many Britons had to wait long hours at the passport office.
The strike underscores the pressure on British families who have been experiencing higher living standards since the 1950s, and railway workers say they are facing cuts in their wages at a time of rising inflation.
Shops responded to criticism that the government should step in to try to reach an agreement to stop the strike, saying employers should negotiate with their employees.
“I think this is a big mistake,” Shops told Sky News. “Unfortunately the unions … are looking for this strike all the time. This is a disaster, it is not the way to go with the railways. It is of no avail.”
More than 50,000 railway workers will go on strike on June 21, 23 and 25, with the Railways, Transport and Maritime Union describing it as the largest strike in the sector in more than 30 years as part of a controversy over pay freezes and job cuts.
Mike Lynch, the union’s general secretary, said his union was seeing only a pay rise that reflected rising costs of living, but that train operators were offering “anywhere near it” and feared that thousands of people would lose their jobs. .
“This is the government that came to power with the promise of reducing class inequality in 2019,” said Lisa Nandi, a Labor official on regional inequality, referring to the goal of reducing economic inequality between regions.
“Instead, all they did was create chaos, chaos in the ports, chaos in the railways, chaos in the airports, chaos everywhere you go, and it’s because a government does not do its job,” he added.
(Reuters)
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