Striking railway workers in Glasgow have told why they are taking action and why the public should support them.

Workers said they are fighting to save jobs across the industry and for a fair wage in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

A variety of train and station staff joined the official picket outside Central Station today.

The Glasgow Times asked why they are striking and how much the workers earned amid figures of £50,000 a year being used by some opposed to the strikes.

Workers said they are not earning £50,000 a year and they are being confused with some train drivers, who are represented by a different union and are not involved in the dispute.

Instead, they said the median salary for the workers employed by Network Rail and the train operating companies, LNER, Transpennine Express and Avanti West coast is around £30,000 per year.

On the picket line at Central Station the Glasgow Times asked men and women what their job was and what their basic contracted salary was.

LNER train hosts said they earned £17,500 rising to £20,00 with add-ons.

They said some gate line ticketing staff colleagues in certain stations earn £14,000 a year.

A train manager said they earned £45,000 but that included six hours a week overtime that they are expected to do each week.

The worker explained that without that the basic contracted salary is around £35,000.

Gordon Martin, RMT regional organiser, said the median salary for the workers involved in the dispute was £31,000 but said in Scotland it is a little lower.

Glasgow Times:

He said: “Network Rail want to cut 3000 jobs which will mean around 300 in Scotland. They want to halve the maintenance schedule regime.“

He said the agenda was being “driven by the UK Treasury”.

He added: "It is an ideological political attack. Network Rail has said 2900 jobs area at risk of compulsory redundancy and they won’t take that off the table.”

On wages, he said: “The median UK wage (for the workers in dispute) is £31,000.”

He said the basic wage for station staff was £20,000, maintenance workers is £24,000 and signallers are higher than that.

Mr Martin said it was in the country’s interest to support the strike.

He said: “Britain has had a pay freeze for three years. We can’t afford a society where everything goes up bar wages.

“There is no wage spiral it is supply chain issue that is pushing up costs and inflation.

"Support from the public has been phenomenal. People know what is at stake, workers are being screwed over.”

He said organising was the way to get a pay rise, adding: “Join a trade union, fight for your rights. Politicians aren’t going to get you a pay rise. The only way Britain will get a pay rise is through trade unions.”

Steve Montgomery, who chairs the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, told BBC Breakfast: "We believe that once we work through with the reform, that we can hopefully accommodate everybody who wants to stay within the organisation.

"So, we just need to get through the processes and see how many people are left, and hopefully nobody requires to be made compulsory redundant."

Glasgow Times:

Kevin Groves, head of media at Network Rail, said: "Negotiation is about give and take, and at the moment the RMT are just take, take, take.

"We're talking about the modernisation of working practices that are archaic."