“This is Monday lunchtime, we must be busy with queues – but we have only one customer.”
Businessman in London It is said that they are feeling the brunt of Huge tube strike This week, as economists have estimated the action of the Sangh, a blow of £ 230 million in the capital’s economy, small businesses are the most difficult hits.
Walk-out On salaries and conditions by rail, maritime and transport (RMT) Members started on Sunday, but it was Monday morning when the city felt influence with some services Underground cross,
it Morning voice of disrupted city workersWith many homes deciding to work. Those who traveled faced long trips in the heart of the capital in buses, crowded bicycle lines or cars.
Meanwhile, cafe and restaurants usually report a drastic fall in customers at lunch-at lunch.
Trade leaders described the strike as a “heavy blow” for retailers in the city, deciding to “send a really bad messages for visitors and investors”.
At the time of Monday afternoon, a spokesman for the Sir Kir Stmper issued a statement, demanding that the RMT, who wants to cut the week working for members, and resolve the transport dispute for London (TFL) and ends industrial action.
Inside La Dolce Vita Cafe at Tower Hamlets, owner Khalid Semerani said he had only one customer at 1 pm on Monday. The Cafe, which he opened two years ago, is on a short walk from Aldgate, an underground stop on circles and metropolitan lines.
It is also close to the Tower Gate on the London Docklands Railway (LDR), which will not have any service due to RMT members in a separate salary dispute.
“We usually have queues, but today it is very calm, we do not have customers,” he told that Independent. “Our location is surrounded by most offices, so if people are not inside, it makes a big difference.
“I want the strike to end. They [RMT union members] Pay a lot in my view. You see everyone trying to work around this morning, then today business like me. It has a big impact on all. ,
In Farringn, Ronnie Firat said that his cafe, called Ronnie’s Cafe, was 25 percent below the customers on Monday morning. The cafe is near the Barbikan underground station, which sits on the circle, haemarsith and metropolitan lines. “When you see the cafe calm, it is difficult, really hard,” he said. “We want the strike to end.”
According to research by the London -based Center for Economics and Business Research (CBR), the cost of strike action will be at least £ 230 million for the city’s economy. However, the actual cost is likely to be very high, with indirect effects, which involves a decline in retail and tourism footfall, not involved in calculations.
“I think your SME (small or medium venture business) will be the most difficult,” managing economist Pushpin Singh said Independent“Those who rely on footfall or sole Traders Those who roam on the tube will really feel the effect. Large businesses have facilities to do housework, so they are in better position.
“The last few years have been difficult for SMEs. When things started appearing every day after Covid, inflation decreased and interest rates were loose, they collided with raids with national insurance hike and national living wages. So it is difficult when another thing comes that hits small margins.”
There is hospitality in areas afraid of influence, including pubs, restaurants and cafes. Hospitality in the UK, business bodies for hospitality businesses in the UK, estimated that the strike may cost the area to £ 110m.
Its chair, Kate Nichols called for ending the strike action. He said: “Consumers will be forced to change or cancel their plans, influence sales, and many hospitality teams will have difficulty working it.
“This level of effect comes at a time when businesses can at least tolerate it, the additional annual cost has been killed with only 3.4 billion pounds.”
Warning the strike action, the retail will be given a “heavy blow”, in the British Retail Consortium, Insight Director Chris Haar said: “This will be another setback for retail businesses, which have already hit NICS, NLW, and other policy costs this year.”
Deputy Chief Executive Officer Munia Barua in BusinessLDN said: “At a time when the economy is weak and the firms are already running again with a national insurance growth, the economic cost of these strikes can run in hundreds of crore pounds. It actually sends a bad message to visitors and investors.”
The RMT union strikes include driver, signal and maintenance activists, and the 35-hour work comes on demand by members for cuts in the week. TFL has offered a 3.4 percent salary increase, described as “appropriate”, and said it could not afford to meet RMT demand for less hours.
A spokesperson of the RMT said: “We are not strike to disrupt small businesses or public.
“This strike is moving forward due to the intact approaches of TFL management and their refusal, even considering a short shortage in the working week to help reduce the unhealthy effects of long -term changes on our members.”