Socialist Alliance supporters will be outside underground stations urging solidarity with the strikers. Workers do not strike on a whim. They lose pay, and unionised workers who go on strike for long periods usually only get a small amount of money from their union.
Many strikers say they feel forced to go on strike.
It could be driven by an attack on working conditions, a pay cut, increased hours or the workplace being threatened with closure. Workers have also struck against a manager's racist bullying, as in Ford Dagenham in 1999, or to fight sexual harassment, as Oxford postal workers did in 1990. On London Underground the workers' fight benefits passengers, as privatisation would devastate the service. Many people have sympathy with strikers, even though their lives may be affected by the strike. This is because every worker feels under the same pressure.