To want to know if the ruddy rail workers are striking or not?

[AbsoluteGonk]

Booked half term trip to London for DS, DN and me. Then heard about the proposed strike. Tried to cancel tickets but was told I had to wait until Monday to see if the strike goes ahead!

Anyone have any idea?

60% voted to strike

Wasn't it something like 80% of the 60% that voted that wanted to strike? S

Employers don't make allowances? You need a stronger Union.

Nobody likes letting people down. For you, it's others at a conference. For someone else it's a child's half-term treat. For others it may be the future of their chosen career.

Yes, more unions

I cannot support the rail workers striking at all.

The service is terrible normally.
The only people who are impacted are commuters. Rail bosses are not impacted at all and still get revenue so they don't care.

The rest of us lose money when these selfish twits strike.

So basically they are punish us because they not getting their own way. They deserve neither my respect or my support.

Margot - you are incredibly naive if you think most non public sector workers have access to a union.

Margo.

They may refund a bit of the ticket price. What about my daily pay that I lose because I cannot get into work. Will they refund that? Thought not!

Is that a good thing that you don't have access to a union?

Do you all work on Bank Holiday and use the train? Or is it a general, more ideological, moan?

'On 12 May, the RMT announced the results of its ballot – on a turnout of 60 per cent, 80 per cent voted in favour of taking strike action

On 15 May, the TSSA announced the results of its ballot – approximately half of TSSA members voted, of whom 53% voted in favour of taking strike action'

...and the TSSA has just called off its strike.

The strike is for 24 hours from Monday 5pm so that means no one can get to work on Tuesday morning .Also there is an overtime ban for 48 hours covering Monday and Tuesday so that means trains will in effect be disrupted until late Tuesday night or Wednesday morning because they won't be in the right place to start journeys.Plus the maintenance work scheduled on Monday won't get done so will need to be rescheduled meaning more disruption .

I take it you are not a regular train traveller Margo.

Pretty much all services have been cancelled on Monday and Tuesday. Plus some on Wednesday morning.

It's been called off, according to the news.

According to the proposed new strike laws, 40% of the union membership need to vote for the strike in order for it to proceed.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32702585

According to RatPig's post at 14.28 the RMT ballot would be valid under the new proposals as it equates to 48% of the membership (0.6 0.8 100) but the TSSA one would be invalid as it is approx 26% who voted to strike (0.5 0.53 100)

Just seen it has been called off so relieved as I would have been moving into a cheap hotel from Sunday night onwards, it's my busiest week at work

It has been called off:

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-32832191

Well thank the earth and stars for that.

Thankfully this question is academic now, but those of you who can afford a car, who can afford an overnight hotel stay, who can afford to lose a day's pay, who can afford to stay at home, who have sympathy for those who can afford to take part in an unpaid strike, where's your sympathy and support for those who can't afford to do those things?

"Do you all work on Bank Holiday and use the train? Or is it a general, more ideological, moan?"

In order, yes I do, yes I do, no it isn't.

May it be noted that thousands of us will hold the rail companies in contempt for a long time to come for trying to pull this stunt on us, the paying but powerless public.

Talk for yourself. Reserve your contempt for those who screw you.

Oh I am, Margot, I am. And I'm sure I'm not just talking for myself.

Let's all go for a pint while this blows over.

I'm not employed in a public sector job and I'm in a union. Anyone who wants to join a union can do so whether or not their workplace recognises unions for negotiation purposes

Sarascompact. I've come late to this and I'm with you. So that's two of us!

I've put on another thread a few weeks ago about the conversation I had with a train driver after a train strike back in the 80s. We'd got talking at a party and he'd said something about being shocked how rude the public were when he'd mentioned he was a train driver - he had thought the country would have supported the workers trying to get a better deal. I said something like 'well you have just been on strike. What do you think about me having to get up two hours early to get to work, a journey by train that usually takes me an hour, taking three by taxi which I had to pay for, or lose a day's leave. I don't have leave left so I'd lose a day's money. What do you think of that? Couldn't your ticket collectors just not collect money that day? Fill the trains with non paying customers?'

His reply 'I don't give a toss. This is about my salary. What you have to go through is nothing to do with me'. So he didn't care about my problems and I sure as hell don't care about his (or his successors) now.

Gosh, Esmum, do you bear grudges over decades like that? A drunken conversation at a party in the 80s. Blimey.

Are you a train driver, margo ?

No, I'm not a train driver. I'm not Cameron's gardener either, but if they feel they have to strike, it's their right to do so. I'm not going to hate them for the next 30 years based on personal antipathy.

I'm not bearing grudges Margo. I'm simply pointing out that I doubt the conversation would be much different today as the way in which big unions go about getting their deals hasn't changed.

Every time a union goes on strike it hits their users more than it hits the bosses. And the unions have never tried to do things differently - that strike I spoke about was 30 years ago as you quite rightly pointed out. The newspapers and media have interviews every time there is a strike with people who have had to struggle to work, school, hospital appointments etc so the unions are well aware of who gets hit by these strikes.

Still, 30 years later, the rail unions stop working to prove a point. They can't think of a way of hitting the people who need to be hit with minimum disruption to people who also have to earn a living wage? Seriously? Or is it that they can't be bothered and have an, albeit small, contempt for everyone else? And they want the country to unite behind them? That's all I am pointing out.