The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said the strikes would have cost the hospitality industry £50m alone, and the suspension “shows what can be achieved by engaging and working with trade unions and transport staff, rather than working against them”.
The mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said the strikes would have cost the hospitality industry £50m alone, and the suspension “shows what can be achieved by engaging and working with trade unions and transport staff, rather than working against them”.
I always hate seeing things like “the strikes would have cost the hospitality industry £50m alone” like that’s a reason the strikes shouldn’t happen. Instead, in my mind, that’s showing the worker’s labor is worth £50m (it doesn’t say over what time period) more. The same thing with the US rail workers. If they are that critical to the economy, they should benefit from the value they create. If capitalism works properly, the value a worker creates should go to them.
I don’t see the £50m in quite same way as you do; I see it as the “opportunity cost” of the strikes - and it often seems to be the case that the opportunity cost is much higher than what it would cost to negotiate and settle (by extension, it also seems that employers / governments playing hardball with workers is probably based more on ideology than on financial sense).
I believe we share the same sentiment though; these RMT folks are critical to the economy and they should be treated (and compensated) as such.