Railways minister, Huw Merriman, let the cat out of the bag when being questioned by Parliament\u2019s Transport Select Committee, by conceding that the rail strikes had cost the UK more than settling the disputes months ago would have. <\/p>\n
His reason for not reaching an agreement was that if the government had settled with rail workers, it would have set a precedent for other public sector unions. \u2018We have to look at what teachers are being given, and what nurses are being given as well,\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n
It was an admission that \u2018prolonging the rail dispute was part of a deliberate strategy that was dictated by the government’s concern to keep down the pay of rail workers, nurses, ambulance workers and teachers\u2019 (bbc.in\/3D1rJtl<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-239795","snippet","type-snippet","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/snippet\/239795","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/snippet"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/snippet"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldsocialism.org\/spgb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}