Strike while the irons hot!

Hello, lovelies. The first of February marks Strike action day. Teachers, civil servants, Border Force staff and train drivers are out of strike, hoping that their voices will be heard. But with so many demands by so many people, is there really any chance that they can all get what they are asking for? Is the only choice by the big bosses and government to stonewall them, in hopes that the public will tire of all the disruptions and demand that the strikes must come to an end? But that leads to a very interesting question. What will the fat cats do if we collectively stand behind those on the picket line, adding our voices to the throng, and demand, once and for all, that this out of touch and crass ruling body stop and listen and make our lives liveable again. I am so fortunate to live and work in London. To me it is the most alive and beautiful city in the world. Growing up I would always hear people say that London never sleeps, and I can now see what they mean. When I’m working up town at one theatre or another, and finish for the night, there are those that are only just starting their day’s work. Something is always happening in our capital city. The roads are never empty, with cabs and buses running 24 hours a day. Night clubs and pubs that never close, open all hour’s corner shops and there are always people cleaning the streets and collecting the mountains of rubbish that is left behind. We have such a rich, diverse and varied society at our fingertips. But what a mammoth task it must be to keep London running as smoothly as it does. One would think that with all the hard work that is needed every day to keep our great city, that those doing all the hard work would have a fair wage and a comfortable life. Ha! And what about the rest of England? Whereas within the M25 bubble we have access to the NHS, police and teachers is it the same for the rest of the country? Are their voices being heard? Can they expect the same wages and right to fair working conditions? Or are they forgotten by those working in parliament Square? Has the slogan ‘levelling up’ been nothing more than a lot of hot air and empty promises? What choice do any of us have but to strike. To demand an end to the thirteen years of Tory dictatorship and serious underfunding of our most essential public services has brought this great country to its knees, and that it has brought on a real and very scary cost of living crisis to our doorsteps. What choice do we have but to strike? But what is a strike? How effective are they? And will the bosses and government ever do anything about it? All they seem to do is make promises that in the future they might do something, maybe. Are these strikes just about getting more money? Or does it go a whole lot deeper than that? Yes, pay can play a part in a strike, but it’s also about working conditions and job security. Many of the current strikes are about protecting jobs, fighting against worsening working conditions, and putting an end to insecure contracts and outsourcing. Before a strike, unions step in and try to work out an outcome that works for both sides, but with the government refusing to even come to the table, the process called collective bargaining, has now been described as going backwards. Work has been getting worse for so many people as they are not paid a fair and living wage, the conditions worse and increasingly insecure. While at the same time businesses have been giving more and more money to shareholders, with dividends paid out to shareholders growing three times faster than wages over the past decade. And the government has been refusing to properly fund pay rises for public sector workers, failing to introduce a proper minimum wage, and attacking trade union rights, and failing to introduce a proper minimum wage. The government’s minimum wage remains below the Real Living Wage set by the Living Wage Foundation, and, even with next year’s rise, will be £4.58 below a £15 per hour minimum wage. Every day we hear stories on the radio about teachers having to buy their own recourses for the children. Breakfast clubs and after school clubs are being forced to close. Schools have been so underfunded for so long that they struggle to attract and keep staff as the pay is just unliveable. Our children are suffering as the government stand by and watch. If we are not careful, we are in very great danger of losing our NHS to privatization. Every day we run head long into being told that the health service is on its knees, and they have no choice but to make us adopt the American model of health care, if you can even call it that. So, yes. It can be seen as annoying that the trains are not running. And that 23,000 schools will be affected, and we are not able to get a face to face a appointment with a doctor for three weeks, but that won’t stop me standing beside all those on the picket line. If we don’t make a stand now, then there may not ever be another chance as there may not be anything left worth fighting for. href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcqUz82aQEPr-MWEJra7aQmO3xavN34ySCkVGrr9WM4n7pDWuGHUGpcBHTc5JQFLLc39xQ0Nkfgw-YJrmQzGJRvXfh31GU9SyTo1xahho1V2_OcC--jtUx72sl7hI5_wQTHgteRWypSCP-o-5geyLZH_JsnrNnkGt33VShwjq2ph0TZ5c9oXNVVeEV/s750/nurses.jpg.webp.jpeg.webp" style="display: block; padding: 1em 0; text-align: center; ">