view on rail strikes: Standstill on the Tracks
Rail unions thrive on industrial action to galvanise their members
ANDY RAIN/EPA
Yet again, the railways are on strike. On some routes, a few trains will run today; on others, the stations will be shut and the lines silent, as the RMT union stages another one-day walkout[1], the twentieth since its policy of industrial action began a year ago. On Saturday it will be the turn of Aslef, the union representing 22,000 train drivers. Its strike, likely to cause far more disruption, is timed to cause the greatest publicity and loss of earnings to the rail companies as thousands coming down from Manchester to watch the FA Cup final at Wembley will have to squeeze on to coaches[2]. The aim, according to the union’s blinkered thinking, is to show up the intransigence of the rail