NEXT week will see the beginning of the biggest rail strike in over 30 years. Predictably, the usual suspects have been out in force attempting to crush the spirit of the strikers and hoping to turn public opinion against us.

One of those is Mark Wallace — chief executive of Conservative Home — who wrote about the strikes in his column for the i newspaper. 

He, like many others, claims the action is a demand “for more money and better perks.” This is an intentionally dishonest statement, used to stir up division within the working class. 

This action is about the continued pay freeze for rail workers, the threat of job cuts in our industry and the threats to the terms and conditions that were fought for and won for us by those who came before. 

Wallace continues by asking: “Where will the money come from?” — commenting that fares are already too high. 

He is correct that the public have faced years of price hikes. But this has only served to boost the profits of privateer operators. 

In most train operating companies, we are now marking the third year with no pay talks at all and yet ticket prices in England and Wales rose by 3.8 per cent in March — the biggest hike in nine years. 

During the pandemic, rail workers were not eligible for the furlough scheme. Our choice was to come in to work or go without pay.

Many single parents and others with care responsibilities were left severely out of pocket during this time — especially before “support bubbles” were allowed. 

We lost colleagues to this pandemic. Among them was Belly Mujinga, who died of Covid-19 just 14 days after being spat on at Victoria station by a man who claimed to have the infection. 

She had begged her manager to allow her to work behind a protective screen but was forced out on to the concourse with no PPE. 

It was hard but, like all essential workers, we kept going to keep the country going. Yet, when we demand a fair pay increase during the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades — where RPI is currently sitting at 11.1 per cent — we are called greedy. 

Last week, West Midlands Trains advertised a customer service assistant role at Watford Junction. The salary is £22,947. That is a take-home pay of £1,595 a month. To put that in to perspective, the average property rent in Hertfordshire is £1,165 per month. 

Railway workers are ordinary, working-class people who need to be able to provide for themselves and their families. 

Worthing West Tory MP Sir Peter Bottomley said that MPs find it “really grim” to live on a salary of £82,000 a year and that their financial situation was “desperately difficult.” 

Why, then, does his party expect rail workers to survive on less than half of that salary? 

There are those who say: “If you aren’t happy with your pay, just find another job.” Why should we? I have worked on the railway for nearly 20 years. It is an industry I am experienced in and knowledgeable about. It is also an industry that deserves proper investment — both in infrastructure and in workers. I won’t be bullied out by those who would rather see that money go to shareholders. 

Grant Shapps — who condemned P&O ferries for replacing the staff they sacked with cheap agency workers — is now proposing that striking rail workers should be replaced by agency staff. 

He would do well to realise that the people who know how to run the railway safely and efficiently are already working in the industry. They are not working for agencies. 

In Parliament on Wednesday, Shapps claimed that these strikes were “unnecessary” and that the RMT had “leapt straight for the lever” before pay talks. 

RMT, TSSA and Aslef all wrote to the train operating companies months ago, asking for meaningful pay talks, a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies and no changes to terms and conditions without proper consultation with the unions. 

Most didn’t respond at all. The ones who did had nothing to offer, claiming their hands were tied by the Department for Transport or that the uncertainty of the Great British Rail plan meant they were unable to bring any proposals to the table. 

Most of these companies like to make reference to low passenger numbers during the pandemic as part of an excuse for not offering wage increases to their workers. 

However, the DfT itself released statistics at the beginning of June showing that passenger numbers in the UK were hovering between 86 and 92 per cent of pre-Covid levels. 

The Railway Industry Association commented that “this is not just leisure travel coming back — commuter travel, including Mondays and Fridays, has been steadily increasing too.”

Britain’s rail is now performing better than the European average. However, wages and salaries of railway workers in Germany — where RPI currently sits at 7.4 per cent — will increase retroactively to April 1 2022 by 4.5 per cent while, here, wages stagnate.

Incredibly — while pleading poverty — rail companies in this country are still making hundreds of millions of pounds in profit each year. 

The money for a cost-of-living pay rise is there.

This was evidenced in a leaked video from a Network Rail meeting last week, where the company is heard offering strike breakers double time plus a day in lieu for working during the strike. 

Greater Anglia have offered “contingent conductors” (strike breakers) £500 to train up as a conductor, £270 plus their daily rate for working during the strike and £500 for each year that they retain the competency through training. 

Make no mistake — the government’s opposition to this strike is not due to a lack of money. Their intention is to keep the working class down.  

Opponents of the national rail action go as far as to claim that workers are being dragged into this by union leaders. 

The RMT has balloted over 40,000 members, who overwhelmingly voted to strike. 

In Network Rail, 71 per cent of those balloted took part in the vote, with 89 per cent voting in favour. Avanti West Coast saw 74 per cent of staff take part in the ballot and 92 per cent of those voted in favour. 

I can assure you that the vast majority of the people I work with would not consider themselves to be particularly “militant” or “hard-left,” as the Daily Mail describes them. 

They are workers who are struggling to make ends meet and who, despite being told they were heroes during the pandemic, are now facing a real-terms pay cut due to the rising cost of living. 

It just happens that this group of workers has strong unions behind them. 

This strike also serves to draw attention to the government’s inconsistencies on rail and climate change. 

Rail is the lowest contributor to transport climate emissions. It accounts for only 1.4 per cent of total UK carbon emissions. 

This government has the choice to invest in a transport system which could see people in this country having a better choice of jobs if they could afford to travel outside of their area. 

They could ensure that our domestic travel industry is boosted after the pandemic. They have the opportunity to secure jobs for the key workers in the rail industry who kept this country moving during the pandemic. 

Instead, their solution is to cut back on investment and cut back on jobs in rail.

The Tories have exploited the Covid pandemic to attack jobs in our industry and cut services for passengers. 

This will be a difficult time for rail union members. As well as having to dispel myths around the amount we earn, how our democracy works and our reasons for taking action, we will also need to accept the fact that the Labour Party — which claims to be the party of the workers — has chosen not to back us in our fight. 

My message to Sir Keir Starmer is this: Stop telling the workers that we should support the Labour Party and instead tell the Labour Party to start supporting the workers. 

With or without their backing, we must stand firm. The government will want to make an example of the RMT and the other rail unions, too, if they follow. 

Instead, let us be an example to the workers of this country — we will not sit quietly while the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. 

Stand by each other. Stand by your union. 

“If you fight you won’t always win. But if you don’t fight you will always lose.”

Sarah-Jane McDonough, railway customer service adviser, RMT member and TSSA industrial rep.