Millions of people saw their journeys severely disrupted Thursday, November 10 by a new almost total strike on the London Underground, at a time when social movements are intensifying in the United Kingdom and Europe in the face of inflation.
The oldest metro in the world was almost completely paralyzed, with most lines completely shut down and a few in very reduced service.
Only the very young Elizabeth Line, inaugurated in May and partially automated, was operating almost normally.
The London Underground normally carries up to 5 million passengers a day but has been rocked by several strikes in recent months.
If some Londoners had opted for telework, the practice of which has spread widely since the Covid-19 pandemic, many had fallen back on the bike, the car but also the crowded buses.
Read alsoUnited Kingdom: nurses vote for an unprecedented national strike
In the northeast of the capital, at Blackhorse Road station on the Victoria line, Daniel Osei, 26, who works in a school in the Fulham district, supports the strike in principle but believes that
“there are really had a lot'
since the spring.
"It seems that it does not have as much impact on the government"
and the budget it allocates to TfL (Transport for London)
"as on the users"
, he notes.
Pema Monaghan, a 28-year-old writer, says she supports the strikers, even if her travels for the day will be complicated.
“They defend their working conditions and their pay.
We are all worried about our pay”
given the inflation of more than 10% in the United Kingdom, she testifies.
“The strike adds 90 minutes to my commute”
Further west of the city, at Kentish Town station on the Northern line, Nicco Hogg, 36, and transport controller was in the middle of an interminable journey:
"the strike adds 90 minutes to my journey"
which will take about three hours to reach his place of work.
“I took the car, the train and now I have to pedal”
, he lists, his bike in hand.
The national union RMT (Rail, Maritime and Transport), which called for a strike, is opposed in particular to the elimination of 600 jobs in metro stations and to a project by TfL to modify its financing of the retirement pensions of agents, according to a press release.
Weighed down by the pandemic, TfL concluded a funding agreement with the government at the end of August, which does not, however, meet its needs.
“
These attacks
(on the status of employees)
are deeply unfair and completely unnecessary
,” said the union, which claims to have made proposals to suspend the strike which were rejected by TfL.
Read alsoUnited Kingdom: Rishi Sunak faces the challenge of rigor to restore economic credibility
According to Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, who also called for the strike,
"TfL is unnecessarily attacking the pensions and wages of our members, which Unite simply cannot accept
," she said in a statement. .
"No proposal to change the pension system or the conditions has been made
," said Glynn Barton, a TfL official, in a statement on Tuesday after negotiations with the unions failed.
A salary increase between 14 and 18% for dockers
This strike also comes at a time when the United Kingdom is experiencing a proliferation of social movements in a context of record inflation.
On Wednesday, nurses voted in an unprecedented nationwide strike to demand better wages and around 100,000 civil servants voted to strike on Thursday, a move that could affect border control officers, driver's license examiners and drivers alike. employment agency staff.
Next week a walkout is planned at Heathrow Airport while train drivers' union Aslef has scheduled another strike on November 26, among other moves.
For their part, Liverpool dockers won a wage hike of between 14 and 18% on Thursday, the Unite union said.
The same demands agitate other European countries, also crossed by social movements, like Paris, where the metro was also very disrupted Thursday by a strike at the call of all the unions who are demanding increases of salary.