Support for rail strikes rises after week of home working
PUBLIC support for rail strikes has increased after commuters spent a week working from home, a poll found.
Office buildings were last week showing just 22 per cent occupancy as the train network was crippled by the biggest walkout for 30 years.
But despite the travel chaos, a poll by Opinium for ITV’S Good Morning Britain has found that support for the strikes has increased by eight percentage points.
Before the walkout just 37 per cent of the public backed the action. Now 45 per cent of people support the strikers.
Although it led to frustration for those heading to Glastonbury and the third test at Headingley, many had welcomed the return to working from home.
Social media was filled with pictures of people working in their sunny gardens and welcoming “Lockdown 2.0”. It comes as the RMT union has threatened further walkouts if its pay demands are not met.
It wants a 7 per cent salary rise, which is below inflation but considerably higher than the offer on the table from Network Rail.
The organisation, which is responsible for Britain’s railway tracks, has offered 2 per cent plus a further 1 per cent later in the year if productivity targets are met. However, experts have suggested that disruption during the strikes was not as severe as some might have expected due to the increased ability of office staff to work from home following the pandemic.
Passenger numbers on the railways remain below their pre-pandemic levels especially on Fridays, with many firms allowing employees to work from home several days a week.
In the past 12 months, railway revenues have been just 54 per cent of their pre-pandemic levels.
The latest sector to join the summer of industrial unrest could be firefighters as the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) has rejected an “insulting” 2 per cent wage offer.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “This is utterly inadequate and would deliver a further cut in real wages to firefighters in all roles in the midst of the cost of living crisis.”