Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Only the apps you allow.

Meet the Other Phone.
Only the apps you allow.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU a strike without popular support is doomed to fail?

129 replies

Mistoffeleze · 13/12/2016 15:23

Along with tube drivers and other workers (teachers) who have stricken (?) in recent years, without the general population behind you, you are doomed to fail and this most recent strike by RMT is a cynical bid to get money for your staff at the expense of anything else in nothing more than a last-ditch attempt to justify the existence of unions.

Good news for Uber, at least. Anyone have shares?

OP posts:
OurBlanche · 13/12/2016 16:07

I broke the 'line' when teachers were pretending to strike on behalf of their students. The most sickening part was the hypocrisy. Had they been demanding fair pay then at least I would have admired their honesty. Well! That shows you up for a misinformed twat then, doesn't it?

Those details are about as wrong as you can get! If you broke the line you did it for some weird reasons you grasped from the ether!

Do a little research, you'll find what I mean!

kirinm · 13/12/2016 16:07

I'm inconvenienced by Southern being utter shit every day. They weren't on strike yesterday but because they don't employ enough people to drive their trains (they rely on overtime) it's a god awful service 100 % backed by the govt. I think the govt are behind this strike and they want the rail unions broken. For that reason alone, I support the strike. Unions do good and they've played a big part in securing workers rights (which we are on the way to losing).

Southern are shit, Govia are shit and Chris Grayling is a disgrace. He said 3 years ago he would not allow TFL to run the service because it could be under the control of a labour mayor. This is all party politics to the Tories. They couldn't give a shit about inconveniencing commuters.

hotmail124 · 13/12/2016 16:10

Quite right, gemma, you don't see any strikes in Turkey or North Korea. And you know what they said about Mussolini's trains?

SaucyJack · 13/12/2016 16:17

"It's the way the industry is going, they refuse to modernise."

Well, good for them.

No one can pretend with a straight face that taking staff off of trains is in the interests of customer service or safety- especially for passengers who are wheelchair users.

I don't care if other places manage to operate driver only trains without having maimed or killed any customers yet. Southern Rail's profits are increasing year by year. No need to take the risk here.

GemmaWella81 · 13/12/2016 16:24

You don't care if other places have implemented DOO safely?

Why let facts get in the way of a good rant eh? Wink

ilovesooty · 13/12/2016 16:26

What OurBlanche said.
Utterly despicable.

GiddyOnZackHunt · 13/12/2016 16:29

Different DOO only system. This has stills not video and doesn't cover the platform or the whole door.

Palegreenstars · 13/12/2016 16:33

You are being massively unreasonable.

I'm a southern customer and impacted by poor services every day. Not the people who have to strike's fault though.

Believe everything you read in the Dail Mail do you?

eurochick · 13/12/2016 16:46

I used to commute on a franchise that was DOO. I did this for years with no difficulties. Apparently about 30% of uk services are run this way according to the report I read.

I now commute on Southern. I think conductors are pretty pointless. They open the doors and make mostly incomprehensible announcements. When I was on a train recently that was stuck between stations with the power turned off because some bloke had jumped on the track at Norwood Junction and was running up and down, the conductor was unable to make announcements. So in any emergency in which there is the power is cut for whatever reason, they would be about as much use as a chocolate teapot!

I support the move to DOO. Tiny numbers of union member (I think it was about 300 when I last looked at the figures) are voting for these strikes. They inconvenience 300,000 people a day. I am paying my nanny a shedload of overtime and missing out on my already limited time with my daughter because of these arseholes. I'm late for work so often it's beyond a joke. It's a fecking shambles.

GiddyOnZackHunt · 13/12/2016 16:49

Only on strike days? Because DH'S commute is a shambles on ordinary days. When Southern are unaffected.

lovelearning · 13/12/2016 16:55

the union's generally do a fantastic job.

Shared a London carpark with TUC - the bigwigs have very expensive cars.

BitchPeas · 13/12/2016 16:55

Woah Mist chill out. You are very misinformed and angry. You have an opinion as to why people are striking. Not actual facts.

HermioneWeasley · 13/12/2016 16:58

In Spain, a socialist country with incredible worker protections, if you strike in an essential service (including transport) the workers still have to offer a skeleton service. So it's inconvenient and crowded, but cities and economies aren't brought to a standstill.

But in the U.K. We allow it to happen all the time. Incomprehensible.

If the government are trying to "break" the rail unions, then good for them. Those unions have behaved completely irresponsibly for years.

nocake · 13/12/2016 17:02

Most of the employee protections, benefits and workplace safety that we all enjoy has come about as a result of employees organising into unions. Without unions we'd still all be working 16 hour days and have no employment protections.

OurBlanche · 13/12/2016 17:02

You'll be sorry when there are no unions left.

Yes, some have acted irresponsibly over the years. But banning them is throwing the baby out with the bath water. Get involved, reform them!

Then again, I am getting closer to retirement. Maybe I shall watch you all cheer when they go... and then realise why they existed in the first place.

I wish you all the best of luck in your post union world. You will need it!

lovelearning · 13/12/2016 17:06

Get involved, reform them!

Blanche, would it not make more sense to cut out the middle man and reform employment law instead?

hotmail124 · 13/12/2016 17:07

Absolutely, original, there are other ways.
You are very lucky you haven't had to strike, it's scary and costly ( including careers!). But because union members have been on strike before, your DH has conditions of service which are good enough for him and you in your union to avoid industrial action.

hotmail124 · 13/12/2016 17:08

I assume these Amazon workers, sleeping in tents are non union.
www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/amazon-workers-sleep-tents-dunfermline-fife-scotland-a7467657.html

0phelia · 13/12/2016 17:09

This is what happens when you vote Tory.
You get strikes across all services. And a total collapse in the £value.

hotmail124 · 13/12/2016 17:12

' middle man and reform employment law '
Good idea: Barbara Castle tried to in her paper "In Place of Strife' in 1960s.
But atm unions are all we have left to defend workers' rights.

OurBlanche · 13/12/2016 17:12

Blanche, would it not make more sense to cut out the middle man and reform employment law instead?

It might seem so, but they do different things. Employment law needs to stopcheck of a union so that if/when it causes hardship, intended or inadvertent, a union can act for all workers.

A union is part of the checks and balances most spheres of life require.

lovelearning · 13/12/2016 17:13

Ophelia news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6729683.stm

hotmail124 · 13/12/2016 17:14

Big petrol tanker drivers strike in 1997 (labour). Brought country to a standstill, nearly!!!!

LaPharisienne · 13/12/2016 17:16

I support those out on strike today.

DeepanKrispanEven · 13/12/2016 17:18

Just like most of us, we aren't being employed against our will. If they don't like it, find another job, end of.

Oh, I know, they could just walk into another job tomorrow, couldn't they?

Oh, hang on ...