Working from home has changed many things. For one, it’s turned train strikes from a nation-strangling act of economic terrorism into an entertaining monthly diversion for millions of office workers. As such, the unions have responded by upping the ante: more strikes, more often. The workers hurt by this, however, are the very working men and women that unions are supposed to stand in solidarity with.
ASLEF do not represent the kitchen porters who weren’t asked to come in yesterday, or the waiters who went home tip-less, or the pub staff who got sent home an hour, and twelve quid, early. But surely those union bosses recognise that the very people they are hurting with these strikes are not white collar workers, the class enemy, even the Tories? They’re hurting those who need the cash most, many of whom work in service industries including hospitality.
There is precious little sympathy for the drivers, whose union has already knocked back an inflation busting pay rise and whose jobs were heavily subsidised by other taxpayers during the pandemic and beyond. They must also realise that no Tory politician has the slightest interest in making life easier for an incoming Labour government by making concessions now. So we are stuck. Train drivers on strike. Office workers at home. And the hardest working Londoners of the lot left to pick up the pieces. Some solidarity, that.