To think this spineless government will give in to grabby train drivers

No, just very basic emergency requirements.

Sack a few and replace them. Most bus drivers would apply,
Far easier and much better pay.

IME being senior in large organisations generally means no one gives a fiddle about MBAs - which seemed quite a younger persons comment, but apologies for misunderstanding.

I have hinted as much about my spouse’s and my level of seniority as I would wish to. I assume you don’t want to out yourself either. So I think we have to leave this.

Your ideas about capitalism and labour regulation are certainly original.

So many complex jobs can be reduced to “pushing buttons” - pilot, dialysis nurse, anaesthetist, nuclear power plant operative. Crane operator. Lots more can be reduced to “just sitting in front of a computer”.

It’s a remarkably silly criticism, and I’d immediately write off anyone who made it as an idiot not worth engaging with.

Actually, you can thank Mrs Thatcher for this shit show. We are one of the only countries that do not allow workers protesting pay and conditions to punch up rather than down. The neo liberal witch outlawed it. In other countries, when stuff like this happens they run the infrastructure but make it free to use so it hurts shareholders but doesn't affect the workers. We are only allowed to hurt the people who are relying on the infrastructure, which leads to there being little support for strikes. Divide and conquer. The British way.

FWIW, i met someone recently who has extensive experience of TFL and specifically the tube network. Her assessment was that if the public knew how dangerous the network was and how much it relies on luck for safety, no-one would get on a tube train ever again. So think on before you try nailing the drivers to the floor for wanting better conditions.

https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/tfl-abandons-plans-for-driverless-tube-trains-77435/

"Despite the claims that it would prevent strikes on the tube, the reality is that it wouldn’t, as driverless trains would still have staff on board, just as the DLR does, and the DLR still has strikes."

Some of that does only come with the seniority of my level, but the point was benefits vary across employers. It’s not public amazing private terrible

We live in a capitalist society so it doesn’t matter who is more deserving- the market dictates what value people hold financially and how much they can demand to be paid.

in the sectors that can’t operate under capitalism (much of transport, education, housing and in the uk, health and social care) the government step in to regulate and financially/ legally support the industry.

if no-one worked for the GCSe charity mentioned above due to its crap pay and conditions, it would cease to exist and the commercial sector or the government would step in to deliver its services. It’s not needed, it’s just the way it’s run now.

you can’t put emotional logic into capitalism, it doesn’t care about that.

I’d like to know where you work so I can apply!

DH and I have been PAYE in the private sector in the UK for 25 years, working for FTSE companies, sometimes top 5 global companies. We both have MBAs. We have never, never had such good terms.

I do believe you, but I think you are so unrepresentative that you are an irrelevant example when comparing public sector vs private sector.

I agree but the PSA must be qualified to drive a train in an emergency otherwise he couldn't move the train.

OP, there are a whole bunch of threads on the site at the moment outlining how dreadful it is that foreigners insist on coming to the UK and then refusing point blank to "respect the culture". Well, the thing is that the UK was the first country in the world to introduce a right to withdraw labour in furtherance of an industrial dispute. It's part of our culture and something to be proud of. British workers are not slaves.

Oh, and that was 1875, long before there was a Labour Party.

How very scandulous that you don't respect British democracy and culture, and think everything is about whether it inconveniences you or not.

But equally why do train drivers "deserve" more? They had a huge pay increase and have generally good working conditions due to aggressive and militant unions.

Ah I know, it's because they are on Labour's list of what a "working person" is, nurses aren't.
I work 45 hours per week and I'm definitely not on the list of what a working person is purely because I don't work for a state run organisation. Yet is my job of enabling children to sit GCSEs and Alevels which improve their life chances any less important?

They have a “passenger service assistant” on board who can take control in an emergency but their role is to make announcements and check tickets (even though that’s automated but it was a union thing). I assume that’s what the poster is referring to. But they do not have drivers on board.

😂 he’s behind you.

But no, no it doesn’t have drivers. There’s a guard who turns a key for the doors, could activate train instructions in case of an eg. Derailment. Also unnecessary on every train really, but a good human interface who doesn’t need to be paid as much as ‘drivers’.

it’s not a race to the bottom though is it? Wouldn’t it be nice if you had the same opportunity to control your working conditions? You don’t, but it seems odd to expect that means everyone should join you

Oh yes it does!

No it doesn’t

Pilots who fly to Europe and back don’ t factor in jet lag

I suppose you could potentially say the same about aeroplanes. The pilot has to be there - and I don't doubt that their skills are great - but the plane already does a lot of it automatically, so how long would it be until it could do 100% of it without any human skill required?

Obviously, with a plane, there's the need for a human to intervene just in case something goes wrong - driverless cars have proven not to be 100% infallible, even if on average they proportionately cause fewer deaths than cars with human drivers - and of course, people will always have more trust knowing that a human is there and in charge, even if they actually have nothing to do.

😂 true. They can’t even claim to be dizzy and disorientated any more ;)

Pilots have jet lag to factor in too. No much of that on the circle line.

Agree

Well apparently pilots do.

And being responsible for the H and S of a large amount of passengers must be quite hard.