This week tens of thousands of workers joined Britain's biggest rail strike in 30 years. Some 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union voted to walk out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in a dispute over pay and conditions that will cause disruption for millions of passengers.
Here one rail worker explains why he took the decision to take industrial action.
Steve Shaw, 52, from Wigan, has worked as a train guard for Northern Trains since 1994 and earns around £30,000 a year. An RMT rep, he was on the picket lines outside Wigan Wallgate and Wigan North Western stations on Tuesday.
"Watching the news and listening to the radio you hear all this talk of 'inflation busting pay rises'. But for most people it's not about pay, it's about conditions, it's about redundancies. The reforms that have put forward would take this industry back 30 years. All the improvements we have made since the railways were privatised would be lost.
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"For example we currently work a 35 hour, four day week, they want us to do a 40 hour, five day week for no additional pay. They are looking at closing ticket offices. They want to bring Sunday within the working week for no additional pay. We get time and quarter for working Sundays at the minute. They're talking about the removal of guards.
"You hear about train drivers' wages, but most train drivers are not in the RMT, they're in a different union. RMT members are guards, cleaners, back office staff, signallers. Lots are of them are on the living wage, or just above - they're on about £20,000 a year. To suggest that these people are earning fortunes is just nonsense.
"We've been under a pay freeze throughout the pandemic. With the increase in inflation we want a substantial pay rise, not necessarily in line with inflation, but one that gives us something to cope with inflation.
"Like everyone else we're feeling the pinch. Energy bills are going up again in October, petrol's through the roof. We're leaving the car on the drive. My wife's walking to work at the minute, I'm walking wherever I can.
"Like everyone else we're feeling it, but I just feel like we've been let down by the Government. As train guards we are frontline staff. We worked throughout the pandemic. People got seriously ill with covid. To be fair to the company (Northern) they put measures in place to help keep us safe.
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"But we worked every day getting people to work, getting doctors and nurses to work. We did our bit to help keep the country running. We were hailed as heroes and at the end of it all we felt like we should have got something for our efforts.
"I was outside both Wigan Wallgate and Wigan North Western yesterday. The support from the public was fantastic. I think they can see how working people have been exploited in this pandemic.
"In all the industrial disputes I have been involved with over the years there has never been a turnout like there has for this one. I've never seen so many people on the picket lines. We don't want to disrupt the public's lives, but we have been in discussions around these reforms for three years and not once have they sat down and given the RMT an option that hasn't been imposed on us.
"We feel like we have been left with no other option but to strike."
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