US Politics | Strike happy union bosses are exploiting cost-of-living crisis to demand bumper pay rises – it’s a complete disgrace
IT will be easier to list who is not going on strike this summer if the unions carry on like this. So far, we've had the RMT bringing the Tube and trains to a standstill, preventing hard-pressed commuters getting to work and paying the taxes that keep the networks running. 
Tom FarmerWith fuel bills soaring and inflation pushing ten per cent, everyone is feeling the pinch '/ ' 
Tom FarmerBut union bosses are exploiting the cost-of-living crisis to demand bumper pay rises, threatening strikes if they don't get them '/ ' Patients missed hospital appointments and students missed exams. It has cost the country a fortune, on top of the £16billion — £600 for every household — we paid to mothball the network and save their jobs during the pandemic. Nevertheless, two more national rail strikes are planned for August 18 and 20, and they are even threatening to disrupt journeys for sports fans heading to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games next week. Unite has threatened to bring baggage handlers out as we head off on holiday. The CWU has threatened to bring posties out in a pay dispute with Royal Mail. They must be mad when everyone is using email, ordering stuff online and using Amazon or other firms to deliver it. Read More on Strikes 
HEATH-ROW Three-day Heathrow strike CANCELLED - averting holiday chaos for thousands Courts closed as barristers took to the barricades. Who thought posh lawyers in wigs and gowns would lead the revolution? Hundreds of cases were cancelled, including trials of an alleged neo-Nazi, a man accused of sex offences and a suspected murderer. Now it's the turn of medics. All 13 health unions will meet today to vent their anger at pay increases, which could see them launch strikes in the autumn. The Royal College of Nursing has already voted for strikes. The nation owes nurses so much after the Covid pandemic, but with record waiting lists and ambulances queuing outside A&E units, a strike in our hospitals is the last thing the NHS needs. Family doctors are threatening to come out, too. It's hard enough to see a GP when they're at work. On average, GPs are already paid £100,000, but want a whopping 30 per cent pay hike to see us in the evening or on Saturday. Most read in The US Sun SCARY TIMES Horrifying images of great white shark on US beach amid spate of brutal attacks MONEY'S COMING The exact month $500 monthly direct payments will arrive to Americans IS ALABAMA OK? Kourtney's stepdaughter Alabama, 16, sparks concern with bizarre post CRYPTIC WORDS Hoda Kotb posts cryptic message amid Savannah Guthrie feud rumors HAUNTING FIND Sick details as man found with severed HEAD after vid showed him buying saw BYE BEV HILLS? RHOBH fans demand major cast member be 'FIRED' after she misses episode Imagine being asked to work after 5pm or at weekends! How would they cope in a care home or on the checkout at Tesco? They are basically privately run businesses operating local monopolies. Completely shielded from any real form of competition and unlike any other business, they choose the customer instead of the other way round. They shouldn't be giving medical attention, they should be seeking it if they think they'll get any sympathy. Ministers should call their bluff and bust open the cosy cartel. Choice and competition improve service and bring down costs everywhere else, so put the patients in charge. Older people or those with long-term conditions want to see their "own doctor". Fair enough. The rest of us spend ages on the phone, wait days for an appointment and rarely see the same person twice. Use modern technology so we can ring round to find a GP who will treat us when and where we choose. They'd soon open in the evenings and weekends then. On top of all that, civil servants, council workers, binmen and cleaners are all threatening their own strikes over the next few months. But worst of all are the teaching unions. Unhappy at the government's five per cent pay offer for experienced teachers, they plan to ballot members for strike action in the autumn. After the past few years, threatening to walk out of the classroom is a complete disgrace. Utterly unforgiveable. 
PARMT general secretary Mick Lynch at a rally outside Kings Cross station '/ ' Moaning teachers Both my parents spent a lifetime teaching kids in state schools. Like other devoted teachers, they were driven by a desire to give youngsters from ordinary backgrounds the best possible start in life. In all the conversations I had as an MP with the teaching unions, the kids or learning barely got a mention. It was just moaning about paperwork, morale and marking homework. And to threaten this just after the pandemic? Kids in private schools had a full timetable on Zoom from day one of the lockdown. Good luck to them. I don't begrudge it one bit. But no one I know in a state school got anything like it. Lots of kids were just emailed lessons and expected to teach themselves. With modern technology, they could have run lessons online for most kids and provided laptops and wifi, or let those who didn't have them come into socially distanced classrooms. Kids from poor or overcrowded homes, the less academic and those with special needs will never catch up. Their lives will be blighted for ever. The gap between pupils in private schools and ordinary kids in comprehensive schools will get wider still. Instead of working non-stop and through the long summer holidays to help them recover, they are threatening to go on strike. Of course, with fuel bills soaring and inflation pushing ten per cent, everyone is feeling the pinch, but union bosses are exploiting the cost-of-living crisis to demand bumper pay rises, threatening strikes if they don't get them. But make no mistake, pay hikes have to be paid for. It will either mean higher prices or higher taxes. Inflation will go even higher and any pay rise will be worthless. Lord Austin of Dudley was the MP for Dudley North from 2005 to 2019. 
Lord Austin of Dudley was the MP for Dudley North from 2005 to 2019
Tom FarmerWith fuel bills soaring and inflation pushing ten per cent, everyone is feeling the pinch '/ ' Tom FarmerBut union bosses are exploiting the cost-of-living crisis to demand bumper pay rises, threatening strikes if they don't get them '/ ' Patients missed hospital appointments and students missed exams. It has cost the country a fortune, on top of the £16billion — £600 for every household — we paid to mothball the network and save their jobs during the pandemic. Nevertheless, two more national rail strikes are planned for August 18 and 20, and they are even threatening to disrupt journeys for sports fans heading to Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games next week. Unite has threatened to bring baggage handlers out as we head off on holiday. The CWU has threatened to bring posties out in a pay dispute with Royal Mail. They must be mad when everyone is using email, ordering stuff online and using Amazon or other firms to deliver it. Read More on Strikes HEATH-ROW Three-day Heathrow strike CANCELLED - averting holiday chaos for thousands Courts closed as barristers took to the barricades. Who thought posh lawyers in wigs and gowns would lead the revolution? Hundreds of cases were cancelled, including trials of an alleged neo-Nazi, a man accused of sex offences and a suspected murderer. Now it's the turn of medics. All 13 health unions will meet today to vent their anger at pay increases, which could see them launch strikes in the autumn. The Royal College of Nursing has already voted for strikes. The nation owes nurses so much after the Covid pandemic, but with record waiting lists and ambulances queuing outside A&E units, a strike in our hospitals is the last thing the NHS needs. Family doctors are threatening to come out, too. It's hard enough to see a GP when they're at work. On average, GPs are already paid £100,000, but want a whopping 30 per cent pay hike to see us in the evening or on Saturday. Most read in The US Sun SCARY TIMES Horrifying images of great white shark on US beach amid spate of brutal attacks MONEY'S COMING The exact month $500 monthly direct payments will arrive to Americans IS ALABAMA OK? Kourtney's stepdaughter Alabama, 16, sparks concern with bizarre post CRYPTIC WORDS Hoda Kotb posts cryptic message amid Savannah Guthrie feud rumors HAUNTING FIND Sick details as man found with severed HEAD after vid showed him buying saw BYE BEV HILLS? RHOBH fans demand major cast member be 'FIRED' after she misses episode Imagine being asked to work after 5pm or at weekends! How would they cope in a care home or on the checkout at Tesco? They are basically privately run businesses operating local monopolies. Completely shielded from any real form of competition and unlike any other business, they choose the customer instead of the other way round. They shouldn't be giving medical attention, they should be seeking it if they think they'll get any sympathy. Ministers should call their bluff and bust open the cosy cartel. Choice and competition improve service and bring down costs everywhere else, so put the patients in charge. Older people or those with long-term conditions want to see their "own doctor". Fair enough. The rest of us spend ages on the phone, wait days for an appointment and rarely see the same person twice. Use modern technology so we can ring round to find a GP who will treat us when and where we choose. They'd soon open in the evenings and weekends then. On top of all that, civil servants, council workers, binmen and cleaners are all threatening their own strikes over the next few months. But worst of all are the teaching unions. Unhappy at the government's five per cent pay offer for experienced teachers, they plan to ballot members for strike action in the autumn. After the past few years, threatening to walk out of the classroom is a complete disgrace. Utterly unforgiveable. PARMT general secretary Mick Lynch at a rally outside Kings Cross station '/ ' Moaning teachers Both my parents spent a lifetime teaching kids in state schools. Like other devoted teachers, they were driven by a desire to give youngsters from ordinary backgrounds the best possible start in life. In all the conversations I had as an MP with the teaching unions, the kids or learning barely got a mention. It was just moaning about paperwork, morale and marking homework. And to threaten this just after the pandemic? Kids in private schools had a full timetable on Zoom from day one of the lockdown. Good luck to them. I don't begrudge it one bit. But no one I know in a state school got anything like it. Lots of kids were just emailed lessons and expected to teach themselves. With modern technology, they could have run lessons online for most kids and provided laptops and wifi, or let those who didn't have them come into socially distanced classrooms. Kids from poor or overcrowded homes, the less academic and those with special needs will never catch up. Their lives will be blighted for ever. The gap between pupils in private schools and ordinary kids in comprehensive schools will get wider still. Instead of working non-stop and through the long summer holidays to help them recover, they are threatening to go on strike. Of course, with fuel bills soaring and inflation pushing ten per cent, everyone is feeling the pinch, but union bosses are exploiting the cost-of-living crisis to demand bumper pay rises, threatening strikes if they don't get them. But make no mistake, pay hikes have to be paid for. It will either mean higher prices or higher taxes. Inflation will go even higher and any pay rise will be worthless. Lord Austin of Dudley was the MP for Dudley North from 2005 to 2019. Lord Austin of Dudley was the MP for Dudley North from 2005 to 2019
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