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March 28, 2024, 09:04:48 AM

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Rail strike next month?

Started by Fambo Number Mive, May 11, 2022, 10:46:41 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

bgmnts

Please everyone fucking strike. Every proper worker who does a job but just puts most of it in the pocket of some cunt richer than you who does less, fucking strike.

Fuck these cunts so so so much.

Johnny Yesno


Norton Canes


buzby

Quote from: Buelligan on June 27, 2022, 10:57:15 AMI know publicly owned Italian railways (Trenitalia) own a fat slice of the tax-payer subsidised UK railways, the Avanti West Coast line and the Essex Thameside route. 

Yes, a forrin government's publicly-owned railway company privately owns part of the UK's railways and receives subsidised profits from UK taxpayers because having a nationalised UK railway system would not work in here.  Presumably, profits, share dividends, go to support Italy's public railways.
The 100% state owned Deutsche Bahn similarly own the UK's biggest railfreight operator DB Cargo (formerly the US-owned EWS, who bought 5 of the 6 freight companies formed during the privatisation of BR) and the Arriva Group, whose UK rail operations include London Overground, CrossCountry and Chiltern Railways. They also operated Northern Rail until 2020 when the Government took it over. Arriva also operate bus franchises throughout the UK.

Buelligan

I don't know how these people, the Conservative Party, get away with it.  And all the time they're forcing this scam on us, they have the outrageous gall to tut and shake their heads as if anyone who says Hang on a mo' isn't this perverse, illogical and downright wrong? is either an idiot child or a bad actor.

Dérouler les guillotines !

shoulders


Video Game Fan 2000

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on June 28, 2022, 10:15:55 AMRMT chief Mick Lynch: We refuse to be poor anymore: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b_v0U6__Ukg

"Identify with unity" !

So long twentieth century

Fambo Number Mive

Clearly the RMT weren't pro-Brexit enough for this Oxford gammon.



Johnny Yesno

What do you expect? He was reading and agreeing with an article entitled 'The RMT is engaged in economic vandalism'. Where was that letter snipped from? Would it be the Telegraph, perchance?

Fambo Number Mive

I found it on another message board but I suspect it was from The Sun. It has been years since I read a printed copy (I used to eat in a cafe where they had lots of newspapers) but it looks a similar layout to their letters page. Any Sun readers on here confirm?

Twit 2


imitationleather

Quote from: Johnny Yesno on July 02, 2022, 02:01:51 PMWhat do you expect? He was reading and agreeing with an article entitled 'The RMT is engaged in economic vandalism'. Where was that letter snipped from? Would it be the Telegraph, perchance?

Don't Telegraph letters begin with "Sir"?

ajsmith2

Just saw while looking up something else that just last year the RMT put an end to trains in London dumping human shite created within their toilets directly onto the tracks below.


https://www.mylondon.news/news/zone-1-news/londons-disgusting-secret-dumping-human-21268878.amp

Fambo Number Mive

Good for the RMT. Let's hope they can get toilets that flush onto the tracks off the remaining lines that have them.

Given it's pretty disgusting for people who live near rail lines and passengers waiting on platforms when people ignore the "don't flush while in a station" rule as well as train staff, you'd think the RMT would make more of this success for PR reasons.

From a 2015 BBC Story:


Presenter Mary Rhodes took a journey across the West Midlands to discover the extent of the problem and was surprised to find raw sewage on rail lines and at railway stations.

Quote...She also met Susan Lea from north Wales who has experienced toilet waste from trains on a nearby railway line being strewn across her garden.

But does toilet waste from trains pose a risk to the public and railway workers? BBC Inside Out asked Dr Martin Cox from Coventry University to test random samples from rail tracks for analysis.

The findings revealed there could be potential risks to public health from raw sewage being found on railway lines...

Fambo Number Mive

This is Tfl, not National Rail, but shows that those at the top of the transport industry are still doing alright no matter the economy:

QuoteNearly 600 executives at Transport for London (TfL) were paid at least £100,000 each last year, as the transport agency prepares to cut back bus services to make cost savings.

The 597 making six figures in the 2021/2022 financial year, which includes 40 Crossrail staff members, was an increase of more than 30 per cent on the previous year, when 455 executives got £100,000 or more. Of those 597, twelve made more than £315,000 last year, with one executive netting more than £625,000...

Who needs more than £100,000 a year to live on?

QuoteThe highest earner at TfL last year was departed head of customers, communication and technology Vernon Everitt, who made £626,037. Of that, some £352,697 was a severance package, with a base salary of just over £200,000.

Other high earners included:

Commissioner Andy Byford, on £355,792
Chief finance officer Simon Kilonback, on £407,461
Crossrail chief executive Mark Wild, on £447,717
Chief capital officer Stuart Harvey, on £375,276
Chief customer and strategy officer Gareth Powell, on £380,294...

https://www.southwarknews.co.uk/news/nearly-600-tfl-executives-got-100k-or-more-last-year/

shiftwork2

If there really is surprise and outrage at this I think it says a lot about the low status of engineering in the public consciousness.  Similarly-qualified professionals in other fields carrying the same level of responsibility wouldn't get out of bed for less.  Of course there may be a lot of business grifters in the 597 figure and perhaps five of those appear to be listed but I'm guessing most will have hard-won expertise and direct responsibility for hundreds of lives on each train.

Zetetic

Seems as relevant to this thread as any other - France nationalising the remaining bit of EDF, don't give a fuck.

(I mean possibly socialising a bunch of costs as much anything useful, but still.)


Fambo Number Mive

Members of ASLEF and TSSA have voted to strike:

QuoteDrivers at eight train companies have voted to strike over pay, raising the prospect of further widespread travel disruption this summer.

Members of the train drivers' union Aslef at Chiltern, Great Western Railway, London North Eastern Railway, London Overground, Northern, Southeastern, TransPennine Express and West Midlands all voted overwhelmingly to go on strike.

Thousands of TSSA union members at Network Rail have also voted for strikes, in separate ballot results announced on Monday.

Staff in engineering, maintenance and control roles voted. The turnout in managerial grades was just below the threshold under union laws, but managers voted for industrial action short of a strike, a result that could amplify the effect of a wider strike.

Here's a question. Oxford station has GWR, Crosscountry and Chiltern Trains services. I'm not sure if ASLEF members on Crosscountry are going to strike, but if they don't, I presume I'm not undermining the strike if I travel via Oxford station during an ASLEF strike as long as only use train companies that are not striking. Is that correct? Or is it still undermining the strike?

Fambo Number Mive

Quote'Strikes are always the last resort,' said Mick Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF, the train drivers' union. 'We don't want to inconvenience passengers – our friends and families use public transport, too – and we don't want to lose money by going on strike but we've been forced into this position by the companies driven by the government.

'Many of our members – who were, you will remember, the men and women who moved key workers and goods around the country during the pandemic – have not had a pay rise since 2019.

'With inflation running at north of 10% that means those drivers have had a real terms pay cut over the last three years. We want an increase in line with the cost of living – we want to be able to buy, in 2022, what we could buy in 2021.

'It's not unreasonable to ask your employer to make sure you're not worse off for three years in a row.  Especially as the train companies are doing very nicely, thank you, out of Britain's railways – with handsome profits, dividends for shareholders, and big salaries for managers – and train drivers don't want to work longer for less.'

Being a train driver is a professional, technical, and safety-critical job. It takes a year to train a driver who can be responsible for the lives of up to 1,300 people on any journey.

Mick said: 'We don't think we're special; we believe no worker in this country should put up with pay cuts year after year just because this government has allowed inflation to rise. Whatever happened to the Tory wish for good, well-paid, jobs? Obviously that's only for the CEOs, not for the workers doing the job.

'And, don't forget, if a train driver doesn't get a cost of living increase, it won't mean that a nurse, or care worker, or cleaner will get one. This isn't – or shouldn't be – about setting one worker against another.

'Wage rises aren't exacerbating inflation, anyway. Excess profiteering is. The government isn't asking companies to cut profits or dividend payments to help manage inflation. Wages are chasing prices, not putting them up.'

It's not too late for the companies – or the government – to resolve this situation.

Mick said: 'We're happy to talk to anyone to do a deal and make sure Britain's railways aren't disrupted. The government is restricting what the operators can offer, but then refusing to get involved in negotiation. They seem to have no interest in finding a resolution.'

https://aslef.org.uk/publications/aslef-ballot-results-train-drivers-strike

Buelligan

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on July 12, 2022, 09:02:58 AMMembers of ASLEF and TSSA have voted to strike:

Here's a question. Oxford station has GWR, Crosscountry and Chiltern Trains services. I'm not sure if ASLEF members on Crosscountry are going to strike, but if they don't, I presume I'm not undermining the strike if I travel via Oxford station during an ASLEF strike as long as only use train companies that are not striking. Is that correct? Or is it still undermining the strike?

From a purely personal perspective, if it was proper life or death type urgent, I'd feel it was OK.  If it was something genuinely important, I'd try to reschedule, if it was fun or trivial, I'd cancel.  Solidarity, innit?

Fambo Number Mive


Fambo Number Mive

In related news plans to replace staff on strike with agency staff have been approved by 282 to 202.

QuoteThough agency workers can now replace strikers, questions remain over the numbers of spare teachers, nurses and train drivers who can step in as replacements.

With both the National Education Union and NASUWT threatening strike action in the autumn term, the Conservative MP Jonathan Gullis offered to return to the classroom should those threats materialise.

Just imagining a load of Tory MPs running a railway to strikebreak. Treating the standard class passengers like shit while fawning over the first class passengers. Making announcements about "the wokes" and giving out think tank pamphlets.

greencalx

Given that one of the long-running issues behind the strikes is that the railway industry hasn't recruited enough drivers to operate without using overtime, it'll be interesting to see where all those agency drivers will come from. Presumably, the other railway system we have running in the background.

Buelligan

Or they could bring in some workers from overseas.  Why not?


Fambo Number Mive

Surely train operating companies who haven't recruited enough drivers to run a proper service  without relying on the goodwill of drivers to work overtime should lose their ability to operate services, given that they've demonstrated they can't do one of the basic things of being a TOC which is being able to maintain a correct level of staff. A short term deficit of staff is one thing but if companies have been relying on a certain number of drivers being willing to do overtime each day for a long period that's surely a concern? And the same point goes for other train staff.

On the other hand, you don't want to reduce the amount of overtime opportunities drivers have and lose them money. Although perhaps drivers wouldn't need to do so much overtime if they were paid better (and the same for other train staff).

Psybro

The comedy is that all TOCs rely on overtime and staff are willing to go along with it if they get enhancements.  Now the Treasury ultimately controls the TOC budgets the first thing they've done is go 'Right, no more overtime and try to get these enhancements out of any new contracts."
Basically deducing that the most expensive part of your car is the petrol so you need to remove it.

bgmnts

24 hour strike on Wednesday 27th just so people know.

beanheadmcginty

Quote from: Fambo Number Mive on July 02, 2022, 05:38:31 PMI found it on another message board but I suspect it was from The Sun. It has been years since I read a printed copy (I used to eat in a cafe where they had lots of newspapers) but it looks a similar layout to their letters page. Any Sun readers on here confirm?

As a former presscuttings agency worker, I can confirm that this is definitely from the Daily Express.

Fambo Number Mive

RMT members to strike on 27th July.