for months, rail workers have been striking over pay and plans my guest is mick lynch, leader of the biggest rail union, the rmt. the stakes in this fight are high. can the workers win? mick lynch, welcome to hardtalk. you are the leader of a union that s been in a long running dispute now. it goes back to last summer. there have been rolling, sporadic strikes. as it goes on, does it feel harder to find your way to a compromise? well, there s no easy way out for either side. the government has boxed themselves into a corner, to a large extent. and i think that s predicated on the idea of setting precedents for public sector. we ve seen the nurses, ambulance drivers, many civil servants in dispute along similar lines. people aren t being paid enough in this society at the moment and many public sector workers have had long term pay cuts measured against any measure of inflation, so there s some catch up to be done, and that makes it harder because the government wants to be
for seven and a half days. more than 7000 people are now known to have died and that number is expected to rise and not focuses on getting aid to the thousands who have survived. also in the programme, the new family of the victim was legally stabbed says that her death is of the massive hole in their lives. officials have been explaining more about the series of objects that have been shot down from their airspace. three were shut down this past week and we have just been hearing from the white house sink have not been able to identify with these objects are. but they maintain that this balloon which was shot on the 4th of february was a suspected spy the 4th of february was a suspected spy balloon from china. his national security spokesperson speaking in the last few moments stability were able to determine that china does have a boon for this intelligence collection that is connected to the people s liberation army. it was operating during the previous administration but
this is bbc news. we ll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. across the world, workers are finding their living standards squeezed by rising inflation. for some, it s not so much a squeeze as decapitation. technological change is driving job cuts in a host of industries. do workers have the means to fight back? well, the uk rail industry is something of a test case. for months, rail workers have been striking overpay and plans to change working conditions.
this is bbc news. we ll have the headlines and all the main news stories for you at the top of the hour, straight after this programme. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. across the world, workers are finding their living standards squeezed by rising inflation. for some, it s not so much a squeeze as decapitation. technological change is driving job cuts in a host of industries. do workers have the means to fight back? well, the uk rail industry is something of a test case. for months, rail workers have been striking overpay and plans to change working conditions.