set to bring the rail network to a grinding halt from tuesday they are the biggest strikes in decades. instead of 20,000 trains on a normal day, just one in five services may run. government says children heading to take exams or patients to medical appointments will face disruption. but under pressure to take part in talks with the unions it says it won t. train operating companies have to settle this. i don t think there is any need for the strikes at all and i appeal directly to people working for the railways, you are being led down a cul de sac by the union leadership telling you there is no pay rise when there is, trying to create some kind of class war when there is none to be had. we want people to be paid more, we want to sensible reforms and modernisation of our railways so we can run it for the passengers. the government says it has spent billions propping up the railways in the pandemic and it now wants to see them modernised. the union which was part of the cost
through london yesterday says that means its members are facing a crisis, with inflation set to hit 11% and wages falling behind, living ii% and wages falling behind, living standards too, and the union says modernisation means fewerjobs and longer working hours. we modernisation means fewer “obs and longer working hoursh longer working hours. we are faced with thousands longer working hours. we are faced with thousands of longer working hours. we are faced with thousands of job cuts, - longer working hours. we are faced with thousands of job cuts, despite | with thousands ofjob cuts, despite what grant shapps said, no guarantee the redundancy won t be compulsory, we have seen thousands ofjobs already go from the railway, they have told our maintenance staff on network rail that 3000 jobs will go. they are going to cut back on the safety regime, they have told us that every single booking office in britain will close. britain will close. labour, meanwhile, britain will close.