The courage of Britain’s train drivers might provide the inspiration for other workers to fight back against low pay
That the UK is a low-strike society and a low-pay economy is no freakish coincidence. In-work poverty is at a record high in large part because working days lost to strikes are at record lows. When unions were smashed by a combination of legislation, defeats and mass unemployment in the 1980s, we lost the most effective means we have to ensure that workers get a fair slice of the pie they make.
That’s why Boris Johnson’s proclamation that work is the best route out of poverty is trolling the nation from the prime ministerial pulpit. Most people living in poverty are in work. He may brag about healthy employment figures, but the fact that they are accompanied by an unprecedented crisis in living standards exposes the inequality baked into our economic model as people’s wages cannot meet the rising inflation in prices.
