Traders voice frustration at Tube strike with city economy facing hit of £230m
“Monday lunch time, we must be busy with queues – but we have only one customer inside.”
The conditions paid from the payment and railway, maritime and transportation (RMT) members began on Sunday, but on Monday morning, the city felt the effect of a small number of services in the city.
Many of them decided to work out of the house and broke the coming of the city workers in the morning. Those who travel, buses, congested bike lines or cars have encountered longer journeys to the heart of the capital.
Meanwhile, at lunch, cafes and restaurants in the busy areas of the city usually reported large drops of customers.
Business leaders described the strike as a “a heavy coup ına to the retailers in the city with the decision to özmek sending a really weak message to visitors and investors”.
Monday noon, Sir Keir Starmer’s spokesman, demanded that the RMT and London (TFL) for the members of the working week to solve the dispute and end the industrial action.
La Dolce Vita Cafe, Tower Hamlets owner Khaled Semrani, Monday at 13:00, he said he had only one customer. It is a short walk from Aldgate, an underground stop in the café, circle and metropolitan lines, which he opened two years ago.
It is also close to the Tower Gate on London Docklands Railway (LDR), which has no service due to a separate payment dispute of RMT members.
“Usually we have queues, but today is very quiet, we do not have customers,” he said Independent. “Our position is mostly surrounded by offices, so it makes a big difference if people are not in.
“I wish the strike was over. [RMT union members] In my opinion, take a lot of money. You are looking at everyone who tries to start this morning, then today’s businesses like mine. It has a great impact on everyone. “
FarringDon’da Roni Firat, Roni’s Cafe cage on Monday morning on the morning of 25 percent of customers, he said. Cafe, circle, hammersmith and metropolitan lines sitting on the underground station is close to the Barbican underground station. “When you see the café quiet, it’s hard, it’s really hard,” he said. “We want the strike to end.”
According to the London -based Center for Economics and Business Research (EBR), the cost of strike action is expected to be at least £ 230 million for the city economy. However, the real cost is likely to be much higher.
“I think your SME (small or medium -sized operating works) will be hit the most,” said the ruling economist Pushpin Singh Independent. “Those who trust the uprising on the tube or those who trust single traders will really feel the effect. Larger businesses have homework facilities, so they are in a better position.
“For the last few years, it was difficult for SMEs. When things started to look more Robier after Covid, inflation decreases and interest rates are loosened, and the raids were shot by national insurance marches and national life fees.
Sectors that are afraid of the effect include hospitality with bars, restaurants and cafes. The UK hospitality, a commercial body for hospitality businesses in the UK, estimated that the strike could cost the sector to £ 110 million.
His chair Kate Nicholls asked for an end to the strike action. He said: “Consumers will have to change or cancel their plans and have to influence sales, and many hospitality teams will have difficulty working.
“This level of impact comes at a time when businesses can be met at least, with £ 3.4 billion at an annual annual cost.”
Kris Hamer, the British retail Consortium Insight, will give the British Retail Consortium in the Retail sale of the Strike action: He said.
Businessldn Deputy General Manager Muniya Barua added: “At a time when the economy is weak and firms are already escaped from a national insurance hike, the economic cost of these strikes can enter hundreds of millions of pounds. It can also send a really weak message to visitors and investors.”
RMT Union Strike includes drivers, signal and maintenance workers and makes a request for a deduction by members during a 35 -hour working week. TFL offered a wage increase of 3.4 percent, which he described as “fair, and said he could not meet RMT’s demand for low hours.
An RMT spokesman said: uz We are not going to strike to break small businesses or public.
“This strike continues because TFL management refuses to even reduce the health effects of long -term shift studies on the uncompromising approach and fatigue of the TFL management and to refuse to think about even a small decrease in the working week to help reduce the health effects on our members.”
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