But Network Railways, Britain’s central railway body, said in a statement on Monday that there will be limited services across the country from tomorrow, Wednesday until January 8, due to a strike by workers. Train services may also be temporarily suspended in some areas.
In 1980, when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister of Britain, workers in various sectors of the country went on strike demanding higher wages. After 40 years, Britain faced the same reality again. Teachers in Scotland said they will also go on strike from next week.
However, there is a logical reason for this strike by the workers. Due to the economic stagnation due to the corona epidemic and the increase in fuel prices due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the terrible price inflation has started in Britain. The prices of food, housing and other essential goods and services are getting out of reach of people day by day.
Meanwhile, the salaries of the country’s public service sector workers have not increased in the last 10 years. As a result, it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to make ends meet in the current salary structure.
In this situation, the labor leaders urged the government to increase the salaries and allowances, to fix their salary structure in line with the current market prices.
But the UK government has made it clear that it is not possible to fix the new salary structure in line with inflation, not now, nor in the near future.
Mike Lynch, head of the RMT rail union, told the BBC, “We have called this strike out of compulsion. Everyone knows what steps need to be taken to reach a compromise, but the government has deliberately kept this problem alive.
Meanwhile, on behalf of the UK government, the transport minister of the country, Mark Harper, has called on the railway workers to call off the strike and come to the negotiating table.
In an interview given to Britain’s Times Radio on Tuesday, the minister said to the railway workers that if a new contract is to be made, the workers must leave the strike and come to the negotiating table.