Strikes

What are people's thoughts in relation to the strike actions being taken by RMT and The Criminal Bar? 

Have to say regards the RMT its very hard to drill down into what they are essentially about, as i think most defending the strikes are saying its about conditions and the move away from having on-board conductors. Then the Union chief comes on Newsnight stating they want inflation busting pay rises, which obviously brings in all the talk about median pay etc and must be a real turn-off for public opinion given the numbers banded about in terms of salaries being above what many members of the public receive. 

The issue about moving away from conductors and the safety of passengers kind of makes sense to me, clearly thats an issue the unions will be standing up for as its a cut to jobs. The issue about pay seems to be that the executives have made money during pandemic and so RMT want wages to increase to reflect this? It seems messy to me to conflate both as the figures being mentioned seem very high and when you need public support i think its a turn-off. 

Moving to the CBA strike clearly know a little bit more about this. Its a really strange situation this Government has got itself into. As part of cost-cutting measures they closed courts and sliced fees to an extent that plenty of Barristers and Solicitors basically said 'f**k that' to legal aid work. So there has been a problem brewing with lack of retention across both sectors meaning a lack of courts, lack of judges and lack of advocates. All this combined meant there was quite the backlog of cases before the pandemic which of course made matters far worse. 

The problem in this sector is that essentially theres only a small number of people willing to do it, then even if they do, they get offers elsewhere and leave quickly. High turnover can work in certain sectors but of course you need people to stay in the job and go on to become QCs, Judges etc. 

So the government commissioned a report by Sir Christopher Bellamy who basically confirmed that the justice system is about to fall apart and needed a funding increase of 15% immediately to just sustain itself and would need more funding thereafter. That was in January. The government said 9%. 

Again, like the RMT the numbers are such that public support is never really going to be gained for this strike, but it affects less people, as those affected are merely those caught up in the CJS as defendants awaiting trial or sentence or victims awaiting justice. 

I dont know what people think about the Criminal Justice System as most have no idea how bad it is until they have the misfortune to be involved one way or another. its a funny one as RMT strike probably divides more opinion as more people have an opinion on it. 

It's an interesting one as coming out of a pandemic you thought there would be some slack for the Government and i have some sympathy given theres been record spending over 2 years (yes yes some good some very dodgy) and then a war smashing the economy, but i'm wondering whether this is still austerity coming home to roost (particularly in the CJS) or if Sunak really has the ability to control this beast of an economy without just saying fuck it lets just keep borrowing forever.