Dorset commuter forced to take leave as rail strike bites

A commuter forced to take holiday after rail strikes stopped him from getting to work said he has lost sympathy with striking staff.

Chris Batty, who travels from Christchurch in Dorset to Totton in Hampshire, said he has had to take eight days leave over the year.

South Western Railway (SWR) said it was proving a "real challenge" to find a deal which worked for everyone.

Industrial action will see most of the rail network closed down this week.

Mr Batty, who does not have a car and works as an administrator, told the BBC he had no option but to take leave because there were "no trains west of Southampton."

"I've had to take eight days holiday this year out of my 20 allocated to me because of train strikes. I've lost those days I could have used for something else," he said.

Mr Batty said that at the beginning of the train strikes he had a "little bit of sympathy" with the striking rail workers. "We'd all like to earn more money," he said.

"But I think the fact they're sticking so hard to what they want to get, my sympathy is very little with them now.

"Nobody wants to see the trade unions eliminated, that's the last thing we want, they do a lot of good. But can we knock some heads together?

"You've got to think ultimately of the people who are paying your wages, which is us, the commuters," he added.

The RMT leadership had recommended its members reject the latest pay offer, which Network Rail had described as its "best and final".

General secretary of the union Mick Lynch said: "The government is refusing to lift a finger to prevent these strikes and it is clear they want to make effective strike action illegal in Britain," he said.

"We will resist that and our members, along with the entire trade union movement will continue their campaign for a square deal for workers, decent pay increases and good working conditions."

The Transport Secretary Mark Harper said that the strikes by rail workers will be "very damaging".

Mr Harper told the BBC he was "very disappointed" that the RMT had rejected the latest pay offer "out of hand" and that isn't "a bottomless pot" of money.

SWR is the major franchise operator in Dorset. Its stations have fallen silent on Tuesday after it told the BBC there were not enough Network Rail employees coming to work to operate the signals and points.

Nationwide, about 40,000 rail workers are walking out on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday as part of a long-running row over jobs, pay and conditions.

It comes as workers in many other industries down tools, with bus drivers, Royal Mail workers, nurses and highways workers and baggage handlers also striking this week.

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