Comments by "Michael RCH" (@michaelrch) on "Rail strike: Rail workers walk out over pay dispute, as train drivers announce new strike" video.

Solidarity with the workers, in the railways and across the whole economy. The solution to the cost of living crisis is lower profits and higher wages.
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Labour should be dominating on this issue. They are the LABOUR party FFS. Instead Kier Starmer is running scared of Rupert Murdoch. He's a coward and a sell-out. 😡 Well done Sam Tarry ✊
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@pithikoulis Wrong. Higher ticket prices are part of government rules on how the train industry works. They go up by RPI every year - 11%. And then they want to give workers a pay rise of 4%, and of course, trouser the difference.
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@paulfairbairn1066 Indeed. That capitalism for you.
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@kobayashik3820 They are the LABOUR party, not the Libdems. They were founded by the trade unions. They ought to be on the side of workers against capital. Capitalists have 2 parties to look out for their interests already. That's why the country is suffering multiple crises in the economy and democratic rights. We need the millions of working people to regain their fair share of power in this country.
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@martingibbons7070 Your wages would be even lower if these unions didn't exist and do what they do to support their members. Dont blame them. They aren't your enemy. The bosses who drive down wages and extract ever bigger profits are. Join a union. Fight for what's rightfully yours.
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@NoNoNoNopeNopeNopeNo That doesn't have the impact you think it does. Less immigration means fewer foreign workers sure, but it also means less demand for goods and services. Immigration is a wash for wages in the middle and the bottom of the earnings scale. Don't blame other workers when the people quite obviously exploiting all workers are the bosses and shareholders. The figures clearly show that it's them who are getting rich while workers haven't seen a real pay rise for over a decade.
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@davebirch1976 Labour will remain useless under Starmer and the right of the party. If you want a party that represents the people, it's up to we as the people to join it, and join trades unions. and demand real resistance against bosses and shareholders.
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@Robo94100 It doesn't make sense for Labour to be to the right of public opinion, which is where they are. The public supports unions, higher taxes on the rich, nationalisation of water, energy and railways, and kicking the private sector out of the NHS. Labour support none of these. And Starmer's personal approval rating is in the toilet among the general public. The public wants a soft left Labour Party. Kier Starmer won't take yes for an answer.
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@Miko Sato The government "could" do a lot of things. Rail fares are raised in line with inflation, not based on wages paid to RMT workers. The rail operating companies will be sticking up their prices by 11% either way. The only question is whether workers will get a pay cut.
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@Robo94100 That's a misreading of history. 2019 was about Brexit. Labour followed Starmer's policy of a second referendum and they got smashed. In 2017, their Brexit policy was to respect the result and they won over 40% of the vote and broke the Tory majority, despite starting the election campaign 20% behind.
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@safarygirl Prices for British trains are set according to a formula that has nothing to do with workers wages. It is calculated directly against inflation. So the prices are going up 11% next January anyway. The train operating companies will be getting billions in additional revenue. So they have the money to pay their workers enough that they don't get poorer. And yes, trains in the U.K. are very expensive compared to the rest of Europe. Why? Because the whole system is owned by profit making companies that extract profits at every step of the process. Plus the U.K. government spends much less running the system than most European countries. Lastly because the system is fragmented and inefficient because it's held and controlled by dozens of companies. No other major country in Europe does this. The best system in Europe is in Switzerland. Not only is it 100% publicly owned and very well funded, it's also very deeply integrated with other public transport from trams to buses. This means it has the highest ridership per capita of any system in Europe, lower costs using PPP than the U.K. and more ridership in absolute terms than the entire US rail system, even though the Swiss population is 8.5 million vs 330 million in the US.
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@crissieroserose Lol. It's greed to want to NOT get a permanent pay cut while bosses and shareholders get pay rises and millions in dividends? Are you sure about that?
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@chris jones What are you talking about? The rail operating companies make billions in profits! The system as a whole costs money but do you think building and maintaining roads is free? Taxpayers fund all forms of transportation.
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@Robo94100 the Labour Party isn't competitive in Tory shire seats and never will be. Those seats go libdem. My whole point is that Starmer does not have the political skill or the conviction to ride the current wave of public opinion. He has been told by the right of the party, the likes of Mandelson etc, that abandoning workers is the way to Murdoch's heart and that's the way to power. What he is too useless to do is actually lead on any issue. This has been the hallmark of his time in post since 2019. His entire pitch is "like the Tories but not offensively crass and incompetent". That is no way for a leader of the Labour Party to behave. At some point the party has to stop consenting to the principle that Rupert Murdoch chooses the British government. Right now, there is an opening as big as a barn door. Labour just has to step through it. If they have the guts and the conviction for the kind of progressive change that we desperately need.
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