Member

From the public’s point of view—I think we should always think about how this looks from the public’s point of view—my amendment would reduce the risk of having a national rail strike in the first place and stop significant amounts of bargaining power being handed over to trade unions, limiting their ability to extract larger amounts of money from the taxpayer without anything in return. I have no problem with people who work in the rail industry, whether drivers or other staff, earning decent salaries. However, just like in every industry, those salary rises have to be paid for by productivity improvements, because otherwise they are just paid for by taxpayers—most of whom earn significantly less than train drivers—or by passengers.