I can't afford it either. But as sure as anything if my colleagues vote to strike ill do the decent thing and walk out. Why? Because when that ineveitable payrise is eventually won , I will have played my part and not been a freeloader. If everyone thought like you we would be on half the money we are on now.
Nonsense. Our LLC rep (no less) credits most of our pay rises to the TOC merry-go-round since privatisation. The Virgin:GNER rivalry being the key driver of wages and other TOCs needing to keep up to retain staff.
Thats not to say industrial action didn't have its part to play, but, privatisation had a major part to play and it's just disingenuous to suggest otherwise.
So by all means leave the union, but you can thank the rest of us when a pay award is won. And don't forget there are still drivers who won't talk to drivers who came to work in 1982, folk have long memories.
If a pay award is won. If. It doesn't look as if the DfT are in any hurry to award anyone anything (in England at least). Further, it's such a vague definition of a "win" that you can call anything a win. If 6 months of strikes leads to a 2% pay rise, for example, would that be a win? I think you'd have to atleast cover your losses during strike action to call it a win - and even then its a tough one to call because you never know what could have been won through further negotiation.
Anyone who discriminates or bullys colleagues for crossing a picket line could (and should) rightly face disciplinary action - not everyone can afford a strike - especially when the cost of living is rising as it is.
On a personal note, I feel let down by my union. Frankly, I receive a good salary. I, personally, don't feel enough effort has been made to reach a negotiated settlement (though I still question this attitude of entitlement to an annual pay rise) and I don't feel sufficiently disgruntled at my employer to cause such massive disruption to ordinary people's lives and inflict such reputational damage on my employer and the industry that I thoroughly enjoy working for.
Perhaps it's from working in other sectors where the T&Cs aren't a scratch on those of the railways. Perhaps its me remembering just how awful retail and leisure, zero hour contracts and literally no conditions beyond "you're paid for what you work" are. Whatever it is, I know I'm happy with my conditions. I know we're not making any money as a sector. Once we turn things around, then let's go after a pay rise because our efforts would rightly deserve it. But not now.
We should be all hands on deck, noses to the grindstone. Recover our sector, get the bills paid and then, claim what we have fairly earned.
Call me a tory (I'm not, really not), but this is just how I've been brought up and what I see as morally right. To walk out now is to turn my back on a business and an industry thats broadly done right by me for the last decade or so, without really giving things a chance to get better.