Asda chair Lord Stuart Rose has spoken out about the wave of strikes engulfing the country and advised “thoughtfulness” on all sides as confrontation continues.
Some of those on strike “are pushing it a little bit harder than perhaps they should”, Rose told Sky News’ Beth Rigby Interviews programme.
Nurses, Royal Mail staff and rail service employees are among those taking strike action, in one of the biggest periods of industrial strife in decades and as the cost-of-living crisis piles pressure on spending power.
Rose maintained: ”We need to look at every case on a case-by-case basis.”
He said: “I’m not going to go into the detail of who I think has got the better case and the worst case. But some people are pushing it a little bit harder than perhaps they should. And some people do deserve these rises.
“So it’s not a question of who deserves a rise, it’s a question of how much can we afford to give people and when can we afford to do it?
“And if we all just take a little bit of thoughtfulness – or give a bit of thoughtfulness about the implications if we get it wrong – then we might just end up in the right place. So I’m not asking people to sacrifice. I’m asking people to be thoughtful.”
Rose said the environment is “very tough” for consumers but he believed they will still aim to enjoy Christmas.
He said: “What we’ll see is that people, I think, will want a good Christmas. They’ll want to have a nice celebration on the day, they’ll want to look after their children. But they’ve been very thoughtful about what they can afford and what they can’t afford.”
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