Train and tube strikes

[uneffingbelievable]

I can not work from home and my job is fairly essential.

To get to work next week - I have now along with many of my colleagues had to:

1. Book a hotel on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights
2. Pay for parking at the station for 4 full days
3. Organise extra child care and a taxi to pick DCS up from school ( too far to walk and no bus)
4. Will have to pay to eat out for those days

If the rail unions had not noticed we are ALL facing a cost of living crisis - wasting the best part of £500 to get to work is not endearing me to your cause.

The alternative of drive in and out each day in the traffic and pay for parking in London and then walk miles comes in at around £350 and exceedingly high BP.

Your actions are selfish beyond belief and hurt the innocent hardworking majority.

That is the polite version - selfish beyond belief

Should sack the lot of them Don't like the pay and conditions then change jobs like the rest of us do

LMAO. Yeah just pay 'em minimum wage and drag anyone in like sports direct. What could go wrong?

Don't worry they won't!

Quite. They already earn well and they are going on strike before there have even been any talks. They did this with SWR and the guards opening the doors dispute - SWR hadn't even taken over from SWT and they were already balloting for strike action.

I know it's a secret ballot, but it seems to me like people are intimidated into voting for strike action.

Also the RMT's coffers seem to be unlimited so they can reimburse peoples' earnings.

They seem to think that there is a secret money tree for the railways. Yes the cost of living is rising but they have already had one decent pay increase this year. If it's such an awful job they can always leave to do something else.

I agree with this though I wish more underpaid workers had strong unions who were prepared to take industrial action. It's a disgrace that we have CEOs earning millions while their subordinates are struggling with basic costs and poor working conditions. Other unions are a bit lame. But I think there's a happy medium. The RMT action will directly lead to harm for other people on low incomes. Those on medium and higher incomes are usually the ones who can also work from home and therefore shrug their shoulders.

Don't be dramatic.

When's the last time one of them has died on the job?

They don't earn anywhere near the minimum wage.

People are striking for safer working conditions so that they too can go home at night to see their children rather than dying on the job

you haven't honestly swallowed the nonsense about safety have you? It's all to do with money.

They don't earn anywhere near the minimum wage.

No, they don't, indeed.

How much do railway workers get paid UK?
Figures released by the Department for Transport (DfT) showed that last year, the median salary of railway workers was £44,000, about 60 per cent above the national average of £26,000. By comparison, nurses earned £31,000, teachers were paid £37,000 and care workers just £17,000.9 Jun 2022

By coincidence I just saw a link to this pop up on my Twitter. Those commenting on this thread might be interested: t.co/e7EUtsRsig

a podcast with Nick Robinson talking to Mick Lynch

Employees who strike are treated like children and are accused of having a tantrum. But no, by all means call me "dramatic" for disagreeing with this.

And the safe working conditions are to ensure they won't die on the job. If things keep going it won't be long before they will. Should they wait till one of them dies? Would you be willing to do that for a job?

As I said, don't be dramatic and don't try whataboutery because that's not serious.

Do you actually know what they want? Before you hope they don't get it?

Not followed this in great detail but it sounds like the establishment spin machine has done the standard job of triggering the Green Eye of envy.

Usually done by the spin masters looking at the potential earnings of the highest salaried individuals going on strike, often pad the numbers with the best combination of extra payments (e.g. duty allowances, any extra pay for training, supervisory or even, heaven forbid, payments for management responsibilities) and get that number out into the press using statement along the lines of " Unicorn Wranglers, who can earn 50,000..."

In general conversation that quickly becomes "they're all earning 50, 000 you know", and any thoughts that the group has serious safety concerns or the fact that most Unicorn wranglers and associates are on sub 25k gets drowned in the "greedy " rhetoric.

Hilarious - this thread is so Mumsnet.

Widespread cancellations at airports which are predicted to go on for months and the government doesn't act nor has an opinion.

Rail infrastructure company proposes to introduce working practices that potentially has safety implications, refuses to increase pay by 3%, refuses to entertain cutting managers jobs, and the government responds they want to introduce legislation.

No one ever wants to go on strike.

Totally agree. It is already a really stressful time.

Widespread cancellations at airports which are predicted to go on for months and the government doesn't act nor has an opinion.

Tangential to the thread but I'm not sure that is actually true.

There's been a meeting and "the Government" has acted by telling the airlines that in the Governments opinion they airlines must review their schedules...That of course was something most if not all UK airlines were already doing before the meeting....

I'm sure there will be similar examples of Government action and initiative in other sections of the transport sector

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jun/14/airlines-must-review-schedules-to-avoid-summer-flight-chaos-says-dft

I have two jobs, midwife and lecturer. One can’t be done from home the other can some of the time. I’ve been on the picket line as a midwife when we had strikes quite a few years ago and I’d strike again if the union called us out.

I completely understand your frustration. I live in London and would have been affected by the tube strike. I cancelled the work I had booked on that day giving apologies as would have been caught out giving the strike action. Was caught up in the 6th June one so learnt my lesson. I don't begrudge people striking though, I am not a rail worker so cannot act like I fully understand their working conditions. I do feel though that for them to cause this level of disruption that things must be untenable. So to me, no one is unreasonable here. It's just what they feel they need to do to get heard.

I think the government is happy to have an opportunity to have a go at a trade union and the Labour Party in advance of a by-election.

I do feel the unions have done a poor job at communicating the issues so lost public sympathy. I would like to know what negotiations have taken place and broken down to get to this stage, what the issues are, and what are the biggest concerns from staff. The union spokesperson is too bullish and many people I’ve spoken to think it’s about compulsory redundancies and nothing else. However I’ve recently heard about other unions balloting such as the salaried staff one, and I assume there are complex issues related to the reorganisation of the rail network which is effectively being nationalised.

I support the right to withdraw labour, I supported my colleagues when they did this, but it has to be recognised it’s a significant disruption so should be used responsibly.

Personally it’s costing me about £100 extra to travel to the airport by car and park, instead of the train service. It does make me think that the train service is probably underpriced!

What in my comments do even hint at 'whataboutery"?

Do you even understand the definition of the terms you use? What makes either of my comments 'dramatic'?

It was extremely foolish of you to rely on one type of transportation for your education. Why didn't you live closer or buy a car?

See how that works? You get no sympathy for your situation if you can only copmplain about how their problems 'inconvenience' you.

@Leftbutcameback

I do feel the unions have done a poor job at communicating the issues so lost public sympathy.

I think it's been very hard for a long time for unions in the UK to across get the minor points of any dispute that leads to IA.

I'm not working now but when I was and was in a Union on the few occasions we did ballot for IA the Press simply weren't interested in fine details about safety etc, , MSM coverage and any subsequent debate, e.g. BTL, quickly regressed to how much the chief Unicorn Wranglers earned and how wrong that was...

I guess the details for this dispute might be available on the Unions website but I bet it doesn't make gripping reading.

I have a car. But my 15 year old doesn’t. How foolish of him.

I’ll be using my car to get to my student nurse placement that I have no say in where I’m placed and will not paid be for, so that I qualify to do a job that will earn less then those cry babies. They’re idiots who do not have the support of the majority of the public.

Interested to know how driving to and parking in London costs £70 a day…

@notimagain i agree - I work in the public sector and it’s taken several years of repeating the same messages, and lots of very careful comms work, for our board to get a single message out there.

I would say they’ve succeeded now as I hear other people repeating it back, including the press. It’s part of the battle ground now esp with social media sounions need really good comms professionals working on this (although I suspect they can’t afford that).