Plaid Cymru on picket line as Tory and Labour MPs “compete to be most invisible

Adam Price MS challenges First Minister to show solidarity with workers fighting for decent pay and conditions

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price MS has today challenged the First Minister to show solidarity with rail workers by visiting a picket line.

The Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers union (RMT) is taking industrial action over pay, jobs and pensions, with strikes held today, and planned for Thursday 23 June and Saturday 25 June.

Adam Price MS, who was at a RMT picket line in Cardiff this morning, asked the question during Questions to the First Minister today (Tuesday 21 June).

The calls come after UK Labour Leader Sir Keir Starmer banned his Shadow Cabinet from attending picket lines.

Mr Price quipped “in Westminster’s rail crisis there seems to be a competition between politicians to see who can be the most invisible.”

In response, the First Minister said that he and Sir Keir Starmer “operate in a different context and come to different conclusions.”

Adam Price MS, Leader of Plaid Cymru said,

“When it comes to the devolution of railways, it’s important that we have a clear position on that here in Wales. Plaid Cymru is clear – the infrastructure should be devolved to Wales in the same way that the franchise is. However, the position from the UK Labour party has at best been ambiguous.

“Now in Westminster’s rail crisis there seems to be a competition between politicians to see who can be the most invisible. Is it Grant Shapps refusing to sit down with the rail unions, or is it Keir Starmer banning his Shadow Cabinet from the picket lines and berating them from speaking out in favour?

“While Johnson attacks workers, and Starmer ignores them, Plaid Cymru will always stand side by side with workers defending their pay and job security. I was at a RMT picket line this morning, proud to be there expressing my solidarity. At a time when trade unionists and workers are being demonised, being turned into the scapegoats, being vilified to distract attention from Boris Johnson’s many failures, isn’t it even more important that we show them our support?

“If England is to have its Summer of Discontent, can we contrast that here – within those fields that we control – have a Summer of Solidarity and heed, for example, the call from unions for pay deals that at least keeps pace with inflation?”