PM: Unions harming those they are meant to help
Johnson says rail strikes will drive away commuters as he rejects workers’ demands
THE Prime Minister has accused trade unions of “harming the very people they claim to be helping” as Britain faces the biggest rail strikes in 30 years.
In his strongest comments on the walkout so far, Boris Johnson rejected demands for a pay rise of at least 7 per cent and dismissed suggestions by union bosses that such a raise could be paid for through fares, insisting passengers would not pay for “19th century” working practices.
He warned that without pay restraint the cost of living will continue to soar.
The three days of industrial action – today, Thursday and Saturday – are expected to have serious effects on hospital operations, exams, and the hospitality industry. Ambulance services have warned commuters to stay off the roads to allow them to reach emergencies, while a cancer specialist said the strikes could “lead to loss of lives”.
There are fears the disruption could stop students taking their GCSES and A-level exams, while hospitality bosses predicted the impact could cost nighttime industries half a billion pounds.
The Prime Minister will lead a Cabinet meeting today, despite having yesterday undergone a “routine” operation on his sinuses under general anaesthetic. Last night Mr Johnson was seen leaving the Conservative summer party at the Victoria & Albert Museum.
In comments released to the media before he addresses ministers today, Mr Johnson said: “The unions are harming the very people they claim to be helping. By going ahead with these rail strikes, they are driving away commuters who ultimately support the jobs of rail workers, whilst also impacting businesses and communities across the country. Too high demands on pay will also make it incredibly difficult to bring to an end the current challenges facing families around the world with rising costs of living. Now is the time to come to a sensible compromise for the good of the British people and the rail workforce.”
The warning over pay echoed comments from Simon Clarke, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, who said that public sector workers would not receive pay rises to match inflation,
‘We are not loading higher fares on passengers to pay for working practices that date from the 19th century’
which is forecast to be up to 11 per cent. It also came despite Mr Johnson’s previous calls for Britain to become a “highwage, high-skill” country. The strikes will affect Network Rail and 13 train operators, with just a bare bones service kept in place. The London Underground will also be hit by strikes today.
After a day of talks, rail and union bosses failed to agree a settlement yesterday, with each side blaming the other for the strikes. Grant Shapps described the RMT as “callous” and said that his daughter, who was taking an exam, would be affected. The Transport Secretary told the Commons: “I don’t think the public will be hoodwinked – the families who will be unable to visit their relations, music fans hoping to go to Glastonbury, the students unable to get to their exams, their GCSES and their A-levels, businesses just beginning to recover from Covid and people who will miss out on their medical treatment because of their strikes.”
But Mick Lynch, the RMT’S general secretary, urged teachers, nurses and doctors to follow the lead of striking rail workers in the pursuit of double-digit pay rises, saying “no union” would accept the 2 to 3 per cent offered by Network Rail.
Mr Johnson is expected to tell the Cabinet: “It is right that we reward our hard-working public sector workers with a pay rise, but this needs to be proportionate and balanced.
“Sustained higher levels of inflation would have a far bigger impact on people’s pay packets in the long run, destroying savings and extending the difficulties we’re facing for longer.”
Mr Johnson’s warnings raise the prospect that public sector workers will be facing real terms pay cuts – as are many private sector workers.
Downing Street has urged businesses to “take heed” of soaring inflation and to consider pay restraint.
Mr Lynch suggested yesterday that the rise his union is calling for could be paid in part by train ticket fares. He said: “We’re all paying for it; we’ll pay for it from the fares and we’ll pay for it through a regeneration of rail, if we can get a system that works on behalf of the people and behalf of the economy and behalf of the environment rather than to private profit.
“Rail fares have gone up in order to pay for profits; since privatisation, this has been something around £12billion. So all of that profit has been extracted from our railway system. If we choose to invest that, we could have lowered the fares; we could have improved the services. And we could have had a better square deal from railway workers.”
But Mr Johnson responded last night: “I want to be clear: we are not loading higher fares on passengers to carry on paying for working practices that date back in some cases to the 19th century.”
Under current rules, rail management cannot talk to workers over Zoom,
only in person, and train drivers cannot be forced to work on a Sunday under a voluntary working system that dates back to 1919.
Mr Johnson made the comments after he underwent an operation on his sinuses at 6am yesterday. The procedure was preplanned and described as a “success” by his spokesman.
Dominic Raab, the Deputy Prime Minister, was given responsibility for overseeing any urgent decisions in the 24 hours after the operation.
As commuters are forced off the railways this week, there have been predictions of chaos on the roads.
A London Ambulance Service source said the rail strikes “will probably end up killing people because they’ll prevent ambulance trust staff getting to work”. It encouraged staff to car-share, as the capital is set to be particularly badly hit because of simultaneous industrial action on the Tube. An AA spokesman said: “I can see why the emergency services are nervous. The combination of commuters, school children who normally go by train and students heading to their colleges for examinations, are going to clog up the roads, which presents a bigger challenge than usual for ambulance ser- vices, fire crews and the police.”
Some Covid vaccination clinics are also expected to be cancelled. In a message for volunteers, NHS Volunteer Responders said: “Due to the rail strikes happening across the country on 21, 23 and 25 June, some vaccination sites will be closing or cancelling shifts.”
Professor Robert Thomas, an NHS consultant oncologist, said in a TV interview that any delays to treatment meant patients’ “distress from cancer is going to be worse” and “people are more likely to relapse from their cancer and that means more deaths”.
He said of the strikes: “I do think it’s selfish, I think it’s inappropriate. Oncology services are under particular breaking point at the moment, due to catch-up from lockdown.”
Yesterday head teachers were told to prepare to send taxis to pick up A-level and GCSE pupils on strike days.