This summer’s train strikes will challenge our collective understanding of what is fair

We are about to have our collective belief in a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work severely tested

June 13, 2022 7:00 am(Updated 8:38 am)

This past week was hard. Just as the temperatures rose, so did the stress of commuting. Because I live in a city with alternatives, London Underground strikes did not stop me from getting to work, but they did literally double the journey time and quadruple the stress: which buses from what stops, where to change, how to get on at all when they are full and how to cool my sweaty self down once I arrived? Not to mention: how to make up the time lost? Strikes: they are all right in principle, until they affect you personally.

We haven’t seen too many of late – another logical, inevitable consequence of the pandemic. This looks likely to change. Most obviously, there are the three looming national rail strikes deliberately spaced out to create a week’s worth of pain. There are more Tube strikes planned, potential airport check-in and baggage handler strikes too. There is also the threat of industrial action from disparate groups: GPs and junior doctors, criminal barristers, Royal Mail and BT workers. In nearly every case, the issue is both pay and conditions.

We instinctively understand why. The cost of living crisis has exacerbated a situation in which real-terms incomes have fallen behind rising outgoings.

Many people are working increased hours compared to pre-pandemic levels, as organisations have been unable to fully re-hire, forcing existing staff to work still harder. There is no sign of this changing soon, particularly as the Government believes it cannot politically be seen to start issuing “special circumstances” immigrant visas to plug the gaps – no matter how sensible the idea.

So the next few months will test the public’s attitudes towards industrial action: should it be allowed; should it only apply to some workers and not others; should employers be allowed to bring in agency staff to fill some of the strikers’ roles? Much of the polling on the subject is not recent or has been conducted largely by unions but, looking back to 2011, slightly more than half the country supported the right to strike. Still, many more believed certain groups such as firefighters, police and doctors should not be able to. Any support will be severely challenged in the near future by parents of children trying to get to their GCSEs and those outside of cities like London, who do not have multiple transport options.

How can unions win over the public? They do not have much hope through the mainstream media, where the angles are often pre-written: strikers are “militant” and “vital NHS workers cannot get to work” – until it is vital NHS workers who wish to strike themselves.

On social media, unions have a greater share of voice. The vital need is to be clear about the reason for striking. As soon as more than two issues are lumped together, it comes across as a politically motivated act – no matter how justified.

The other is to seek ways to mitigate the damage: lunchtime strikes, sit-ins, social media campaigns. But if strikes do not cause hardship then they lose their impact. We are about to have our collective belief in a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work severely tested.