Disgusted at the amount of people jealous of tube drivers pay

[Itsawd]

They do a job dealing with the public, unsociable hours and god knows what when they get a jumper. We should congratulate them on doing well, not look at them with green eyes.

Its a free market so if anyone wants a job as one they are welcome to apply!

YANBU, I see hardly any vitriol towards bankers bonuses or the wages that footballers earn. It's like people don't want any decent jobs to be out there, why is that? Why shouldn't people be paid a decent wage? The strike isn't about wages anyway, it's about conditions.

Tube drivers illustrate why unions are actually a good thing because they fight for decent working conditions.

Imagine if tesco workers (for example) had unions. Tesco bosses would be shitting themselves but I doubt the company would go bust.

Driverless trains seem the way forward. I was under the impression it was a closed shop and they have not recruited outside of the union in over 7 years. They also have some of the best terms and conditions. They should not be striking.

They don't advertise the driver jobs because you need to work your way up. Not unlike plenty of other companies. You also don't start in the NHS as a Band 8 nurse, you go in as band 5 and work your way up.

I get 14,000 a year as a HCA working 12 hours shifts without sitting down. Night shifts, weekends and holiday's.

I am envious of their wages for sure, but I took the job knowing the pay so...

I don't understand why footballers earn so much compared to those who save lives etc.

I am not horribly jealous, but it doesn't make much sense to me that some of the important care jobs are paid so poorly when they are responsible for keeping people alive and work some of the longest more anti-social shifts going.

YANBU, I see hardly any vitriol towards bankers bonuses or the wages that footballers earn.

You don't read much Mumsnet, then.

Virtually everyone deals with the public in some way. They don't deserve a premium or some special status because of it.

I'm not jealous - I'm perfectly satisfied with my own salary.

I also don't believe we should reduce salaries to lowest common dominator- everyone deserves decent pay for the work they do.

However there is something hugely unsavory about striking given their circumstances when you consider it's a closed shop and they earn 100% more than many who are far more qualified and frankly more deserving

It seems that the tube workers repeatedly hold London to ransom until they get what they want. Again and again and again. Who says that what the tube drivers want is the best outcome for London/TfL/the situation at large and not just the tube drivers?

The race to the bottom mentality annoys me. The tube drivers have one of the last decent unions left.
In any case the current dispute is about conditions not pay.

What is your own knowledge of / involvement in the role, OP?

Aye that doesn't really make a lot of sense. How does working in a station, manning barriers or assisting with ticket sales make you a better tube driver?

Why are mainline train jobs advertised to the public if you need some sort of apprenticeship on the platforms?

What I don't understand is if they don't want to work night shifts, as it will affect their work life balance (because the strike is not about more money according to the union), then why don't they just recruit drivers to work the night shifts ? I'm sure they would have people queueing up. Seems simple solution to me

You also don't start in the NHS as a Band 8 nurse, you go in as band 5 and work your way up

You are free to nurse outside the NHS, you can't train and work outside the underground and then apply for a tube drivers job. All the strikers are doing is making a case of an automated system.
They are overpaid, over zealous and I have lost any sympathy for them.

Good point iggly

If people are going to get annoyed about the unreasonableness of a group of peoples pay, why don't they start with footballers? Tube drivers have worked their way up to a decent wage and its largely thanks to their unions that their so well looked after.

It's ok to envy a good salary.
Or a good life.
Or a nice house.
Or anything really.
It's human to have feelings of envy and wish you had something that you see as desirable.
That doesn't make someone a disgusting person.

Interesting to learn though that it is not a free market and anyone can not apply.
That doesn't seem right.
Or actually justifiable.

I think the money footballers get paid is ridiculous.

I think the money bankers, ceos and the like get paid is ridiculous.

The gulf between the pay of ordinary people and those at the top of the tree is obscene.

But the op is talking about tube drivers.

I agree with the union boss who said it's not that tube drivers are overpaid, rather that most London workers are underpaid.

I don't resent the Tube drivers their £50k salary. I think good on them for sticking up for their rights and they deserve to be fairly financially rewarded for the job they do.

£50k should really be the average wage for London imo, taking into account house prices and cost of living.

It makes me cross that nurses [for example] are paid around £20k for a starting salary. Jobs are advertised for experienced nursing staff with this and that essential qualification and a degree and promise a 'competitive' salary... which turns out to be £25 - £29k

No need to wonder why there are so many vacant nursing posts and London in particular has to recruit from the EU and beyond.

Saying one person does not deserve a good wage (for a challenging job) because another does not get it is a reductivist attitude. What do you want to do - rip everyone who works to shreds until everyone is on minimum wage? Good jobs deserve decent pay (all workers not some) and if you want to say that there isn't enough money the I suggest you all start boycotting Amazon, Starbucks, Boots et al who take our £ but don't pay tax and return it into the economy. You could also add in the lovely MPs with all their expenses dodges and 10% pay increase. We're all at the bottom of the heap (ie ordinary workers) and we need to stick TOGETHER otherwise the Tory fuckers and fat cats at the head of tax-evading businesses have won.

SUPPORT THE UNIONS!!!!!

Oh here we go again.
Tube drivers are recruited internally from TfL so that means office staff, bus drivers, etc are free to apply. I was one of the lucky ones, I only had 2 years on the stations being abused before I got the train job.
Also 20,000 people went on strike last time. There are 3,000 drivers. So it really isn't anout drivers greed.

Its not jealousy, its exasperation. They have got very very good working conditions because they are able to hold other workers to ransom, stop them getting to work and possibly cause people who are paid much less than them to lose pay, over and over again.
Footballers pay is disgraceful, but the only people who lose out are people who voluntarily pay the massive Sky subscription or who voluntarily go to games and pay extortionate prices. Bankers pay is disgraceful and we all lose as a result. Its been said over and over again. Every person who works in Central London and has to use the tube loses out when tube drivers make demand after demand over every single thing.

My H works as a bus driver in a Capital city in the UK.
He does a 40 hour week.
Yesterday he was vomited on at 12 lunchtime.
Today he had a fight on the bus, and a person with a severe learning disability got on the bus and emptied a can of coke over H's head.
3 people stepped in front of the bus today and 4 did yesterday
(Edinburgh Festival).
His very first week in the job, a junkie got on and pointed a gun at him.
He has been spat at, and had someone lunge at him with a needle.
He has had people defacating on the upstairs of the bus.
He has had things thrown at him and regularly had his bus 'stoned' (often half bricks) by kids in rough parts of Edinburgh.
He has sat outside a Police station in one of these scenarios and the Police refused to come out to assist him.
This is over and above the daily abuse he receives from the general public.
Shifts can start as early as 4am and finish as late as 2am.
He got not a single days holiday off during the kids entire summer hols this year. He usually gets 2 days at Xmas, and 1 day New Year.
He's been there 15 years now.
He earns around £23K.

He would LOVE to be a Tube Driver, and not have to deal with all of the above. He'd chew his arm off for a Tube Driver job.

More groups of employees should follow suit. it's disgusting that employers think that can just dictate change of terms and people just have to lump it. It's incredibly unnsavoury that we live in a society where those at the top expect the response of "how high?" when asked to jump. And then, when a group of workers excersises their right to strike, they're demonised for it.

But no, we should all just get on with it. Those at the top arn't succeeding in divide and conquer at all.

I know someone who worked in the print then retrained to become a tube driver. Have no idea how he got the job but he didn't spend years working in the station.

at the salary.

If workers in other professions actually joined their unions, turned up to union meetings, volunteered for roles in the unions and actually took an active part in working collectively to improve their terms/conditions then maybe the tube drivers salaries might not look so generous.
It should not be a race to the bottom.
We should commend the tube drivers for not buying into the myth that there is no point in collective action.