PM Warned Over 'Race To Bottom On Pay' Over Strikes

Unions yesterday accused Boris Johnson of pursuing a "race to the bottom" on pay, as the prime minister set the scene for months of confrontation with striking workers. As millions of train passengers faced disruption from the largest rail strike since the 1980s, Mr Johnson said the country must be ready to "stay the course" to head off public sector pay hikes that would plunge the UK into an inflationary spiral.

- Andrew Woodcock, Ashley Cowburn, Anna Isaac

But TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady told The Independent that the government's approach will cause "widespread hardship" among working families and damage the economy by suppressing consumer demand. With fewer than 20 of scheduled trains running yesterday - and 26 per cent of those that did run subject to delays - RMT boss Mick Lynch hailed a "fantastic" response from rail workers.

"RMT members are leading the way for all workers in this country who are sick and tired of having their pay and conditions slashed by a mixture of big business profits and government policy," said Mr Lynch. "Now is the time to stand up and fight for every single railway worker in this dispute that we will win." But a Department for Transport (DfT) spokesperson responded: "Unions have shut down big parts of the rail network, hitting local businesses and unfairly cutting people off from hospitals, schools and work. However, early data shows that unlike in the past many people now have the opportunity to work from home, so we haven't even a rush to the roads, as traffic has instead gone online, which means the unions aren't having the overall impact they might have hoped."

Official figures released today are expected to see inflation dialled up a notch from the 9 per cent recorded in April, fuelling further demands for higher pay from workers struggling to pay household bills. The National Education Union (NEU) will write to Nadhim Zahawi after seeing the figures to demand an "inflation-plus" rise for teachers, with the warning of a possible ballot on industrial action in the autumn.