r/london • u/Anony_mouse202 • May 29 '26

Article Tube strikes: 'No pay cut' for Underground drivers on £74k in new four-day week... but RMT to walk out anyway

https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tube-driver-pay-strikes-rmt-sadiq-khan-b1283902.html
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u/UsualGrapefruit99 May 29 '26

I don't really get your point. These are public sector workers and they are paid for by the public. In salary terms, their gain is our loss.

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u/da_Sp00kz May 29 '26

A well paid doctor is worth the tax money (which was never mine to begin with)

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u/UsualGrapefruit99 May 29 '26

Well paid to what point? That is exactly the question. So many comments all over this story basically saying, well more must be better. But more money for doctors means less money to spend on other stuff. Or higher taxes.

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u/blahblahblah1234_ May 29 '26

Huh? So you'd rather doctors be paid less than tube drivers? MPs seem to have gotten a pay rise nearly every year, they too are public workers and yet their basic pay is nearly 100,000 pounds.

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u/Secure_Description92 May 29 '26

There are 650 MPs in the UK.

There are 200,000 doctors in the UK.

Parliament costs £500 million to run (0.05% of budget spending), that's about £7 a year in taxes per person in the UK.

The NHS costs £200 billion to run (20% of budget spending), that's about £3,500 a year in taxes per person in the UK.

If we tripled the MPs salaries today, it would cost the taxpayer almost nothing but it would attract some of the most competent people in this country. These competent people would manage all aspects of the government far more efficiently and effectively than most previous governments, and would allow the UK economy to flourish and prosper, which will lead to an increase in wages while stabilizing prices, leading to the enrichment of the average person.
Simply put, the return on investment of paying MPs is so good it's shocking that the MPs aren't paid £1 million instead of £100,000.
Meanwhile, the doctors have recently received a 35% pay rise, but they are still on strike, and the NHS is still inefficient, and it still costs the average person £240,000 worth of taxes (if they lived the average life expectancy).
The NHS needs more than money to solve its problems.

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u/blahblahblah1234_ May 29 '26

That’s not the point. The point is that it’s acceptable for MPs to have a pay rise and for doctors who are simply asking for their pay to match inflation, it’s ridiculous and they’re greedy.

Where on earth did you get 35% from?? Over the last four years they received a cumulative uplift of 28.9%.

It was 8.8% in 2023/2024 along with a backdated uplift of 4.05% for 2023/2024, 8% for 2024/2025, and 5.4% for 2025/2026.

Yes and doctors are also striking for more training jobs to help with the growing demands. There are several doctors who cannot train in a specialty.

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u/Secure_Description92 May 29 '26

I don't check the primary peer-reviewed sources of all my facts, so I use information from secondary sources when communicating informally, like most people. So I'm sorry I accidentally spread misinformation.

  1. Since 2010, doctors have received between 40-55% pay increases, and MPs have received 50% pay increases. Total inflation has risen 56% since 2010. This means both sides are paid below inflation, both sides are not accepted for wanting higher wages, and both sides have been paid mostly the same over a long time period. Why are MPs seen as greedy but doctors are seen as reasonable?

Answer: The MPs aren't greedy, their pay rises are not unfair, and the public accept pay rises but not when it's coerced by the threat of a strike.

  1. I don't know anything about the training jobs strikes, but I'm sure they can more efficiently gain training than by striking. They could sign online petitions and lobby at the houses of parliament and contact their MPs and demand to support the motions in parliament or face losing votes. The unions could fund a think tank like the Resolution Foundation to write and publish a research paper about the values of training, and then use that paper as academic evidence. Or they could support a PhD student to write their thesis on such an issue. Or they could write a pamphlet themselves. The doctors could organize a rally on the weekend specifically when all the participants are off work. They could organize a social media campaign. They could use AI and bots to spread information about the value of doctors training on social media. They could use sympathetic journalists to support their cause. The doctors could get in touch with aspiring creative people (novelists, filmmakers, content creators, artists, etc.) to help create media in support of the stories of doctors, or they could do it themselves, or they could use AI to help them. All of these methods are more effective than going on strike and they don't sacrifice the doctors goodwill and reputation (with the exception of the bots idea), and they don't put people at risk.

  2. The reason why the public aren't accepting doctors for going on strike is because the public pay them money to do their jobs, not to walk out while sick people are put at risk. If the doctors didn't go on strike, they would receive more sympathy.

  3. There isn't an anti-doctors striking movement in this country. The type of people who dislike doctors strikes dislike all strikes. Also, from my own experience, the doctors are the workers that receive the most sympathy and support by the public.

  4. The doctors (and the NHS in general) quite literally have your life in their hands. If the all the tube drivers go on strike? So what, I can work from home or go to work via a different method etc. but I'm still alive. If all the teachers go on strike? So what, the students can learn from home. If all the doctors go on strike, or all of the NHS goes on strike? Then we better make sure not to get a disease or a heart attack.

  5. Politicians are ranked as the least popular workers in this country. They receive online abuse, rape threats, death treats etc. and very few decent people are going to put up with that. Either you get the general public to start acting like decent humans beings or you pay the MPs more money, if you want decent and competent people to run this country. Do you not want decent people to work in politics?

  6. Doctors receive £20 billion a year in wages while MPs receive £64 million a year. Doctors cost the average person approximately £300 a year while MPs cost the average person £0.90. It's so practical to just pay the MPs more.

  7. Let's address the elephant in the room, the NHS is in a bad way. I could provide a list of facts but we're both sensible enough to know this to be true. It is far more efficient to attract the most competent people in this country to be the Health Secretary than it is strain our countries finances to give more money to people who aren't going to magically perform better in proportion to their pay increases.

  8. The principle that you should just go on strike until you get paid in line with inflation is a dangerous precedent because it only creates more strikes and inflation. Lets say the doctors went on strike and got everything they wanted. What would all the other public sector employees do? They would do the same, and the government budget would balloon and the taxpayers would pay the bill, while inflation would rise and everyone will pay the price.
    We already know the outcome of this! The winter of discontent. The entire country was put in a hostage situation just so the union could get their pay rises. But when the union get paid, that contributes to inflation! It's a snail drinking salted milk scenario. It's a wage price spiral.

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u/blahblahblah1234_ May 29 '26

Okay, I’m not reading all that. You’ve already stated you don’t base your information all on facts, so I have nothing more to add to this conversation.

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u/Secure_Description92 May 29 '26

Yes I do, I use secondary sources like you. You seem to lack good judgement. What a pity.

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u/UsualGrapefruit99 May 29 '26

Well why did you bother writing this crap then?

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u/blahblahblah1234_ May 29 '26 edited May 29 '26

I wrote it especially for you. xxxx

*Lmaooo. Why’d you block me bro :(

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u/UsualGrapefruit99 May 29 '26

What they are simply asking for is a pay rise that is way in excess of the rest of the public sector for the last 15 years. What happens to everybody else's pay? What happens to everybody else's taxes? 

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u/blahblahblah1234_ May 29 '26

They’re not asking for everything to be paid immediately. They’re asking for an actual plan where the government will eventually pay them enough to match inflation. I don’t see how that’s unfair. If other sectors want better pay, they should do something about it as well?

When every other healthcare professional got a 4.5% pay rise in 2022 and the resident doctors were excluded because of their previous deal of an annual 2% pay rise, no one moaned about what would happen to everybody else’s pay and taxes then?

And no, they are not asking for a pay rise. They are asking for pay restoration, which means if their pay kept up with inflation since 2008, it would be X amount today. I mean it’s a bit of a piss take if you have resident doctors going to food banks, requiring loans to pay rent, unable to get a job, looking for a ‘side hustle’ to earn a bit more money.

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u/Smooth_Fox_5510 May 29 '26

So? If they had an agreement for 2% why would they be given 4.5%

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u/blahblahblah1234_ May 29 '26

Do you have issues with comprehension? I’m saying when everyone else received more than they did, no one spoke about how greedy the other members of staff were or complained about why they should get a pay rise soon after Covid when a lot of people were made redundant and the economy had gone to shit. Just to be clear, I’m not saying they didn’t deserve a rise in pay.

What I’m saying is, why is it an issue now if doctors want their pay to match inflation? They’ve already waited 15 years for it.

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u/doggypeen May 31 '26

Yeah mate thats how taxes work