Unions need to understand that inflation will get worse if their demands are met - Yorkshire Post Letters

I left school aged 15 in the mid-sixties and was employed in the motor industry followed by working in engineering in a large local (now global) meat company. I was a member of the shopworkers union in the latter company and we suffered several disputes regarding pay in the late sixties.

I joined British Rail in 1970 where I remained for three years latterly being a signalman on the York/Scarborough branch for two years.

At that time the railway was known by the unions as a closed shop, so I was obliged to join the then Union (NUR) now the RMT.

Several pay and conditions/disputes occurred during that time, and these involved us working to rule and going (in my case) reluctantly on strike.

From memory these did result in us receiving a double digit pay rise which seemed alright, but when calculated with the loss of wages and overtime showed no net gain (possibly loss).

Even though at this time it was post-Beeching, this line had an early mail train to Scarborough, freight to Scarborough and Malton, carried lime from Seamer, and malt from Knapton. All these services are now gone I believe in partly due to these disputes.

I joined the police service in 1974, so even if I wanted to join a union it would be illegal to do so.

During my 27 years in what should have been in my local police force, I was also involved in the Bradford and Toxteth riots. the dockers, steel, and miners' strikes.

I then worked for the NHS over 11 years and was a member of a recognised union and I am now a life member. I have no axe to grind with any particular union. I have been on both sides during my lifetime.

We have all been through years of turmoil through Brexit, the Covid pandemic and have been greatly affected by the Russian-Ukraine war.

I always thought in my own mind that due to the latter reasons that there would have to be a payback time, whether this would be cuts in wages, pensions, pay freezes, extra income tax etc, etc. For some reason now the big union leaders do not seem to recognise this.

Our General Secretaries in the NUR were honourable people. The current RMT General Secretary promised there would be no strikes over Christmas; he has now gone back on his word.

The nursing union is demanding double digit pay rises. Don't they realise they would be bumping up inflation further. Look back to the seventies if you want to know what inflation is and what causes it.

I have been clobbered with a double-digit mortgage in the 1990s which is where we are heading if these pay rises are granted.