London's Underground system, affected by a two-day strike
In London three and a half million people have been struggling to get to where they need to go today because of a two-day strike by London's Underground transport workers.
05 Februarie 2014, 13:39
I stayed at home today.
Trying to get into my office in central London would have taken several hours because the Underground system has been badly affected by a two-day strike.
But most people do not have the choice and are struggling to get to work, school, appointments, to do the shopping and so on.
London is grinding to a halt. And it is because of economics and politics.
The economics are straightforward - 1000 jobs will be lost in plans to modernise the Underground system. In particular, ticket offices will be closed.
So passengers will buy tickets and travel cards from automated machines.
The trades unions object to the job losses. They also say that the public will be disadvantaged by having to use such machines.
London's Mayor, Boris Johnson, who is responsible for London's transport system, says that the Underground system - known as the Tube - is inefficient and too costly.
"We need to modernise and to automate the tube, we need to take advantage of new technology that allows us to give people the option of automatic payment systems and that will enable us to save hundreds of millions of pounds and put that into new track, new signalling new trains", said Boris Johnson.
Transport officials say that there will be no compulsory redundancies.
But the unions argue that as more people use the network, there is a need for more staff not fewer.
However, there is also a political aspect to this dispute. Boris Johnson is a leading Conservative Party figure and favours restricting the right to strike by workers in key public service sectors.
He is also seen as keen to take over the leadership of the party from Prime Minister David Cameron.
He is perhaps calculating that the public's anger at the disruption of this week's two-day strike, and another two-day stoppage next week, will strength his hand on both counts.
