to be pissed off at the tube drivers for going on strike....

[ihateminecraft]

I've got the week off and have planned special things for the dcs including a theatre trip (tickets booked and paid for months ago) and another day out in London with friends, both of these things fall on the worst days of the strike.

Too pissed off for words........

rabbitatrest so we should all accept whatever management tells us to do? We should all follow the example of the tube workers, then perhaps we'd all have better working conditions and gnot begrudge them so much.

Yanbu. My SPD kicked in with a vengeance this week and it's 4 miles for me to walk each time they strike. Ive worked in London for over 10 years and this is the worst it's been. Almost makes you miss Bob Crow.

rabbitatrest so we should all accept whatever management tells us to do? We should all follow the example of the tube workers, then perhaps we'd all have better working conditions and gnot begrudge them so much.

People holding jobs that are obvious candidates for automation who are paid 50K per year should probably get a grip and stop striking already. The've successfully inflicted untold misery on the people of London.

This isn't a one day strike but almost an entire week. And it's not the first. And they're planning even more strikes. I have no sympathy whatsoever. NONE.

I can't believe some people on here think it's ok to cripple a city like London for an entire working week. Those tube workers signed up for a job that already included night shifts. They are going to be compensated for the extra night shifts but they want more. And they're striking because they know how miserable they can make it for the rest of us.

If you can't or won't do your job anymore, leave. There are thousands of people who will take the job. This government should not allow them to hold the rest of us up for ransom. It's a disgrace.

1/ I hope no one here complaining about the strikes ever has cause to need a trades union to protect their own terms and conditions?
2/ To people moaning about how the tube workers have good Ts and Cs already. Well, that's because they're willing to fight for them, not because management was desperate to give them.
3/ To the people complaining that the strike inconveniences them. Well, that's the whole point. The purpose of the strike is not to make you feel sorry for them, but to send a message to management. A prearranged absence from work that causes no inconveniece is called annual leave and tends to be an ineffective tool in industrial disputes.

They don't have it too bad, do they? Very little sympathy for this strike.

Enforced overnight working would cripple my family; our childcare costs would be unmanageable. Not to mention the loss of years off your life that overnight shift working is associated with.

I hope the workers win, so my employer doesn't think it will be possible to impose this on me or DP.

As I doubt anyone on this forum has no inside knowedge of how ACAS talks are proceeding, I don't think it's sensible to form an opinion on how much the unions or management are compromising.

For those of you worried about the affect the potential strikes will have, please remember that it is the RMT and TSSA this time so it will be different than the previous strikes that have included ASLEF.

For those of you planning to travel, I believe an announcement as to whether they are going ahead will come late today or tomorrow.

Well said allfalldown they have got what they've got because they are willing to make a stand. It's not the tube workers you should be angry at. We've gotton to a ridiculous point in this country where we accept unquestionably the right of the establishment to impose anything they want on the workers, and any resistance is deemed as selfish and met with scorn. Strikes such as this do well to remind those who have all the money which makes them think they have all the power that without the plebs doing the work for them, they wouldn't be anywhere.

Before you direct you misinformed scorn at those willing to stand up to the sort of establishment that oppresses us all, ask yourself do you want to live in a world where these bastards have complete autonomy over us? And they have the money to properly compensate the tube workers for the extra work, they just don't want to, because they want it and are therefore willing to fucking up your travel plans to keep it.

Why aren't you pissed off at tube management who've forced the workers to strike? Duh.

I just feel sorry for all the retail workers etc who actually have no option but to try to get in to work. I work in an office so I'm ok, I can work from home.

I don't think the working conditions proposed are that unreasonable either.

Tube staff were offered consultation on the new rosters, they weren't just flung out of thin air. Yet they are demanding a 32 hour working week. The night tube thing isn't even the big deal it's being made out to be - station staff will be expected to work on average 3 nights per year.

London is a 24 hour city and it should have a 24 hour tube. I work in an office because I like my 9am - 5pm existence. If they want that too they should probably do something similar.

It's the equivalent of nurses and doctors demanding never to work nights. Completely ridiculous. No sympathy at all.

Its not the same as doctors and nurses not working nights. Most ridiculous comment on this thread. Firstly, when medical staff entered into their contract, they agreed upon working nights. Secondly, thousands of people would probably die if medical staff didn't work nights.

A 32 hour working week?????

That's simply not true. Neither is only 3 nights per year. In fact most of the staff who have been restructured into a new different grade will be expected to work to seven nights every three weeks, where previously they have worked none. They are doing the same job as the grade above them but with no extra money. A forced, unwanted "promotion" with no pay increase.

Also, however cushy you think workers' t&c are, management's better. And however inconvenienced you are next week, the workers face a major upheaval to the rest of their working lives.

If you are a worker paid less than these workers, facing an intransigent employer next week, your personal position and capacity to demand better treatment is improved if other groups of workers can win industrial disputes. If the tube workers lose, all workers are weakened in relation to their employers.

Exactly outsSelf the establishment is still using the age old technique of divide and conquer.

I think if anyone actually bothered to read properly what the union are actually complaining about, if they had any sense, they would support the tube workers.

It's going to make my week considerably harder. But I am annoyed with the LT management (and Boris, who has been cheering them on), for buggering up the tube, not the unions. I want a clean, safe tube system, as I use it all the time. I want staffed stations, well-rested drivers, and all the rest of it, and they are under continual threat. Although it's a massive pain in the arse, I am glad the unions are onto this.

Rabbit how many times do people need to point out drivers are not striking this week?

Yeah workers of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains. MN could do with being turned into a hotbed of socialist revolutionaries.

tfl.gov.uk/info-for/media/press-releases/2015/august/statement-from-london-underground-as-trade-unions-reject-new-off

Sample quote:

The unions are continuing to demand more money, the hiring of even more staff - including for ticket offices that customers no longer use - and further guarantees on what they consider to be issues around work-life balance, including a 32 hour, four day week.

I consider the tube an essential service and I don't think it's wrong to expect that it runs all night. It's a job that requires shift work.

Well some drivers are.

We no longer use ticket offices because the bastard management have shut them. I'd like them re-opened.

All those slagging off the tube workers who dare to assert their right to withdraw their labour are coming from an intrinsically right wing position that's been drummed into people by unrelenting propaganda. Summed up simply by the race to the bottom.

44% increase on assaults on staff. Understaffing will increase this risk. The night rails will run on a skeleton stagff. Sexual assaults on woman on tubes are on the increase. More unmanned staff will increase this riisk. Staff will be expected to deploy to any station with 24 hours notice making planning your life outside work incredibly difficult

It's not just about night shifts and not enough money, it's about the staff and passengers being placed in more dangerous situations die to staffing cuts.

The tube is an essential service, and no one's saying it shouldn't run all night, but safety (of staff and passengers) and the work life balance of staff has to be taken into proper consideration.

I'm left wing actually, but I don't agree with strike action because I think it affects too many other people. And in this instance I don't think it's justified.

you don't think people are justified about standing up to unsafe working conditions that put them at more risk of being assaulted at work? Wow.