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

To the people moaning, join a union. Any one that will take you. By joining one you become part of collective bargaining strategy to improve matters in your workplace.

I'm an RMT member and TfL tube station employee. TfL want to cut 600 colleagues from stations and are looking into changing our pension. Personally I think the pension is unsustainable but I will withdraw my labour to protect jobs.

If you are an average person with no extra needs you barely notice us or what we do. It's only when you have a disability, or age-related difficulties, or you've fallen over somewhere, or you are considering suicide, or you are flummoxed by how to pay, that you realise how important the people are.

The biggest weapon at workers disposal is the threat of withdrawing their labour. For instance, in a separate bullying case of a manager versus the staff at Green Park, where TfL dragged their feet on a resolution that suited everybody, the staff were about to walk out over the Jubilee weekend when suddenly TfL decided to move the manager somewhere else.

We also have overtime bans. TfL relies on a lot of staff goodwill to keep stations open. (which us why some stations have closed due to insufficient staff). That's another form of industrial action. We are not sufficiently staffed at the moment and yet they want rid of another 600...we are run on OT as it is, and we are limited to doing 30% of extra hours a month (due to the risk if fatigue and hence, accidents happening). This is the LAW.

Train operators are not in this dispute but some may think twice about crossing picket lines in solidarity. And don't bring up automation: the DLR is automated but still employs "Train Captains" for safety reasons. They can still strike if they want to and cause delays and cancellations. The main Tube network is made up of lots of different train stock from the ancient Bakerloo line to the modern District line trains, so automating the lot will mean new stock, new signals, new track, new signage...and this costs BILLIONS. TfL don't have billions. The Govt don't want to invest in TfL but they do want to privatise it because they have their vanity projects like HS2 which they all have their grubby hands in, profit-wise.

I understand other people have jobs to go to including those in keyworker roles but when the time comes when they cut jobs in those areas I will support your cause 100%.

I've already said this but join a union.

You do realise that the strikes could be averted if the government spoke to the unions? It’s also unions that fought for things like minimum wages, employee rights, maternity leave, pensions… honestly I’m really sick of uneducated entitled people moaning.

I'm a disabled traveller, without humans I would not travel. It's so very simple. The person who said the station staff are talking when she passes them, I presume she isn't needing assistance. I have asked for assistance several times when travelling without issue. I often travel without booking assistance but am reassured that if something goes wrong there are staff on board who can help me. I almost had a meltdown once when my train got held for over 2 hours and we didn't know if we were getting home or not. The only thing that made that disruption bearable for me was the presence of staff who could not have been more helpful once they were aware of my needs.

Yes, but the government is quite happy for all those hard fought for rights to be eroded.

Please can you point to the evidence that union bosses are paid hundreds of thousands?

The amount of flack MP wage increases get is immense! There’s no point in getting a wage increase if it just puts the price of everything else up. You’ll never catch up unless the people that make stuff get paid the same as the people that just add value to stuff, not the other way round.

I'm glad you haven't had an issue, but as a wheelchair user I certainly have. Assistance booked but not actually avalible when I arrive isn't unusual.

You don’t get a better service by not investing in staff properly. You get disengaged, overworked and demoralised staff. Some of whom are doing extremely dangerous jobs.

Absolutely strike for pay and conditions.

...I really hope you're just ignorant to what these strikes are really about because if you've actually done your research and feel this way then that makes you seem like such a harsh, hateful person OP...

I'm glad you haven't had an issue, but as a wheelchair user I certainly have. Assistance booked but not actually avalible when I arrive isn't unusual.

Do you think this is as a PP suggested staff are talking to each other, or is it maybe a communication/organisation failure that needs a bit of upgrading, investment in staff training?

Mixture of both. I have been 'ignored' by talking staff which as someone in a wheelchair isn't unusual and some situations where computer says no and it has actually been other passengers that have helped me.

I work in the rail industry (currently on maternity).

Across the board in rail, salaries are decent. This strike is absolutely taking the piss. The industry is full of people that love to bitch and whinge, push against/reject change and wrap everything up in red tape. It's a joke.

And I'd bet that they'll all manage to scrape together the funds to get to Rail Live, the annual rail piss up in Stratford Avon (yes, I'm bitter not to be going)!

@BorisJohnsonsvomitbucket my friend is also a customer assistant at the station. She says she does nothing thr whole day, just standing near the gates. The whole day, everyday. But paid more than a nurse.

My dd on £10.05 per hour in central London who finished work at 10.30apm at night has no way of getting home.

She doesn't work, she doesn't eat. I'm really worried about her, it takes over an hour to cycle back home late at night through some not very nice areas.

This is an awful situation for your DD to be in but I can't say it's anything to do with the strikes. Yes the impact of them is awful for her but it sounds like she is already in a critical situation if she is t going to be able to eat sure to missing her shift.

But it's not 1 shift, it's 4 shifts. Tuesday, Thursday and a double shift on Saturday. She's just finishing a postgraduate course so also has to get to uni in the day. There are many people who can't afford to lose 4 shifts pay (she works 6 shifts a week).

Also my husband who is a teacher won't be able to get to work for two days next week. There are numerous children who will struggle to get to their GCSE and A level exams.

Sorry I got that wrong

@HeyBearILoveYou Frankly most of the managers and directors that descend on Rail Live to have a love in with Nigel Harris could easily be cut and hence actually give operational staff a pay rise. Would love to know what your role is.

lol they aren't going to give a shit if you are endeared to their cause, unless of course you will be giving out the pay rises? no? then good we are glad you're late for work, complain to network rail and let's get the job done faster

the rail includes maintenance. Where men go and work on the railway track manually. Digging the stones and leaving them, replacing the track, stressing it to keep it straight. there are accidents all the time. Manual look outs, where men are ON A TRAIN TRACK with people looking out for TRAINS!!!!
People do die, It is sad. There are also close calls, broken bones and everything.

Just like the road maintenance workers who have now put up big signs saying 'please drive safely so my daddy comes home' on the motor way.

They do deserve a pay increase, firstly they were promised one.

Would you accept working for 60-70 hours a week, excluding travel (4-6 hours a day or you will be staying away from your family and homes) just so you can come home and stress about money, use food banks, get into debt? Despite working 20hrs more than others a week with relentless commutes?
Oh and it's dangerous
the over head wired for Instance will boil your blood and then you explode.

But yeah, the CEO can get the pay increase.

You won't find many RMT grades there. I'm sure that it's a good time for management though.

@DdraigGoch I've never even heard of it before!

Wouldn't say it is solely for management @DdraigGoch... it was actually set up by NR track division to encourage boot on ballast teams to get out and see new kit, so they could then feed back TO management the stuff that they wanted to be working with. A focus on safety, innovation and collaboration (Three of NRs favourite words eh?)

And it's quite natural @HeyBearILoveYou for people to be sceptical of change, when they've seen the wheel reinvented umpteen times and most change is for the worse.

At every fares round the system is made more complex - it suits the management to have it this way because they have all sorts of pitfalls available to trip up unwary passengers to fleece them. Front line staff and passengers alike on the other hand just want a simple system so that passengers get a fair deal and we can avoid arguments.

New trains? Often poorly designed, lacking in passenger/luggage/bike capacity, rock hard seats, noisy underfloor engines, lots of gadgets to go wrong, bins placed where no one can find them... Compare that to some of the older trains we recently got rid of, plenty of bike space, massive luggage racks, seventy comfortable seats per carriage (mostly grouped around tables). The old sets were worn out, but their replacements are far from an improvement.

Timetable changes - God, I've seen some really daft decisions where these are concerned.

What was it Gerry Fiennes said? "When we reorganise, we bleed".