London public transport paralyzed by another wave of anti-inflation strikes

London’s public transport was virtually paralyzed this Friday due to a new strike that started almost no service for all metro lines and some busesin a protest that joins those in the rail sector in Britain, demanding wage increases due to inflation.

The measure was launched by the Union of Rail and Maritime Transport (RMT, from its acronym in English), asking for wage improvements in line with the rising cost of living.

In addition to the lack of service on the underground, some bus lines in west and south-west London were also affected by the strike which was joined by drivers from various unions.

About 63 bus lines in the British capital are not operational this Friday. The measure provoked great complications for thousands of people and traffic congestion, even though many citizens worked from home.

This situation in transport, which adds to the measure of the strength of British rail workers on Thursday, is largely due to the crisis due to the rising cost of living in the country, where inflation on an annual basis reached 10.1%the highest rate in over 40 years, which is expected to rise to 13% by the end of the year.

Complaint

The strike responds to the discontent of the sector union for the plans of Transport for London (TfL), the company that deals with transport in the capital, to abolish between 500 and 600 station ticket offices and to review a pension plan to obtain savings estimated at £ 100 million (€ 117 million) per year from 2025.

RMT Secretary General Mick Lynch told the media that he was sorry that this situation made people uncomfortable.

“We are ordinary men and women who want to do our job and provide a service, but when an employer tears you apart, you have to resist,” he added.

Nick Dent, chief operating officer of TfL, admitted to Sky News that it was a “difficult” day to travel, adding that he had done “everything possible to avoid this strike. Unfortunately, the disruption will be quite significant for London.”

The manager stressed that the company has worked with unions and that it was “open and transparent about the impact the pandemic has had on our finances”.

For his part, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, told the Sky News chain this Friday that this strike responds to the “concern” of underground workers about changes in the pension plan.

“Our transport workers have been heroes over the past two and a half years in continuing transport in London (during the pandemic) to allow our key workers such as nurses, doctors, teachers, dealers or police officers to get to work,” the official said.

“The way to reward them is not to set draconian conditions to unilaterally change their pensions,” he said.

Paralyzed trains

Thursday’s strike of more than 45,000 rail workers brought the UK rail network to a near standstill, protesting the demand for wage increases in line with rising inflation.

In addition to the employees of 14 railway companies, thousands of workers of the Railway Network operator, responsible for the tracks and signaling, participated in the strike, which was affected by the activity of the companies that did not participate in the strike.

Railway workers are calling for a 7% pay rise to be released (below the inflation rate), for no compulsory layoffs as part of a reform and for their working conditions to be respected.

it is expected another day of rail strike on Saturday.

According to the unions, negotiations with private operators in the sector have stalled after they turned down an offer of an 8% wage increase in two years from Network Rail, the state railway company.

Unions accuse him of being subordinated to large-scale layoffs.

Transport Minister Grant Shapps instead accuses the unions of blocking the situation and rejecting reforms to modernize the sector.

Railway Network, part of the Ministry of Transport, wants to cut around 2,500 jobs, as far as possible on a voluntary basis, to replace them with new technologies, in particular in the control of roads and ticket offices.

Source: EFE and AFP

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