What the f*** do the RMT think they are playing at.....

[fuming12]

So, the RMT are striking for a pay increase....during GCSE's. The poor kids who use the train to get to school are going to be left up the creek without a paddle, but no, a £44k average salary is not enough and they have decided to hold the country to ransom for more money.

There are 4 (possibly more) GCSE's being held next week and probably many a-levels too, schools are already warning that if pupils are late the exams will have to start regardless.

They cancelled trains that got kids to school during the pandemic, they are paid above average.

I would actually like to see the RMT fail, and be called out, on this one, AIBU? They are a disgrace.

I am a union supporter generally, but this is greedy in the extreme and smacks of extortion to line their members pockets at the expense of the general public. Higher wages = higher fares.

"gat cat" - that's a new one on me. The correct Tory term is 'Barons' - you know those aristocrats ennobled by the royal family and their lineages.

Those complaining about the strikes might like to read this

newsbeezer.com/uk/the-strike-chaos-on-trains-is-set-to-continue-as-ministers-will-not-allow-railway-companies-to-negotiate-pay-with-union-rmt/

Johnson like chaos over which he presides as it deflects from his utter and total criminal incompetence. Britain is falling apart but the Daily Mail would like us to blame it on workers and migrant boats and whether women can have penises. Don't fall for this bullshit - the real criminals are in power.

Correct

Might sound massively cynical but it wouldn't surprise me if the government will enjoy using this situation to create division whereas actually, have they done everything that they can to try and avert strike action?

My DP is a member of RMT, worked all through lock down on freight making sure Tesco and others could fill their stores. He's a transport manager, telling trains where to go and where to load etc. Literally 24-7 He was being called to sort out problems, directing trains, often stupid o'"clock in the morning- still happening now. You can moan and whinge all you like about exams, children etc, but what about the people who are working/running this service and get paid a pittance to do so, do they not have rights, do they not have a right to be paid a proper wage for the job they do. I've lost count of family days ruined because DP is being called.to sort out problems, He's left so many family meals, birthdays, etc so trains can run delivering food for your table. Just think about that, shouldn't he very paid for a job he does, paid properly and have proper working conditions. Its not about your son having an exam.and this is going to make things shit. It about doing your job and being paid accordingly
Look past your own sodding nose!

So robots are going to go out into the boonies at stupid o'clock in the morning with a torch to find a cable fault affecting the signalling are they? Ridiculous. What about cleaning up bodies on the tracks, robots?

SandT, the maintenance side of things are looking at massive changes which is part of the reason for the strike and as a signaller I wholeheartedly support this action, despite losing pay (and I'm on nowhere near 44k, despite working solo and having responsibility for my entire section when on duty, along with 5 crossings. I trained for most of last year for this role after it took.me~18months to get accepted and rigorous training it was to, away from.home.for weeks and weeks at a time and then trainjng in the box and being tested on ALL the 1000s of rules). I'm up at 4am or not home til midnight depending what shift im on, longer if engineering is on, and the set of SnT that work my stretch, and all others, are out in all weathers, all hours, and often overnight. The smooth running of the railway relies on them, and signallers like me, and station staff, and everyone in between. Damn right I support them all

Oh and to add, I'm.sure you wouldn't want your child travelling on a track that had the maintenance schedule cut, which is what will happen if some of the mooted changes go ahead, that we are against. Perhaps educate yourself before spouting selfish shite

If the strike caused no disruption, it’d be pointless. I’m guessing op, you’re all for the right to strike as long as it doesn’t personally inconvenience you.

They are striking about pay and likely redundancies for ticket staff - when frankly ticket staff are on the way out anyway...striking to protect unnecessary jobs really is the height of folly.

OP Ticket Staff are not unnecessary for lots of people. I have a relative who has no Internet access or bank accounts with card payment facilities. She struggles to use the machines.

For her Ticket Staff are her only way of travelling.

Even I struggle sometimes with the Ticket machines when the journey is complicated. I found Ticket Office Staff invaluable.

Yo have the capacity to just order things online or use a ticket machine is not something open to everyone.

O and I support them despite it directly affecting both my oldest two children.

I know it isn't about drivers but they deserve decent salaries due the trauma they suffer when there is a fatality.

Other RMT Staff less well paid have to attend these incidents too.

I support the strikers. Be good if Sir Kier came out to support them too

I agree with striking as a way of getting your point across when negotiations have failed, so I support the rail strike.

Why shouldn't they expect a pay increase? Inflation is over 10%, MPs gave themselves a nice pay rise earlier this year, benefits are due to go up by 10%, yet working people are expected to take pay cuts (any rise less than the cost of inflation is in effect a pay cut) and £44k after tax is £33k per year hardly a fortune.

Perhaps Grant Shapps can set a good example to these workers by agreeing a pay cut to his generous MPs salary and pension before expecting other workers to effectively take a pay cut?

Indeed. Look at the main reasons for poor service:

• Staff shortages. Solution: employ more staff.

• Equipment failures. Solution: employ more staff so that they can repair them quicker and perform preventative maintenance.

• Overcrowding. Solution:employ more staff so that you can run and maintain more trains

• High fares. Solution: employ more staff to collect revenue.

How do you employ more staff? You increase the depot headcounts in order to cover for absences, including gaps between one person leaving and their replacement being fully productive. To attract and keep good staff you have to treat them well.

Computers are best at working within the system. They can reliably react to signals and speed restrictions. They don't get fatigued or let their attention wander. What they can't do is react to external factors. A computer can't reliably recognise an animal on the line, a fallen tree or a tractor misusing a crossing. Humans can do that.

Humans can also think creatively. Computers are limited by the extent of their programming. This matters in a crisis.

The whole system is very badly run. Tickets are so complicated. It should be a matter of just getting on a train, going to where you need to go, and paying accordingly. You shouldn't have to plan months in advance in order to not pay through the nose. It should be affordable to everyone, anyone should just be able to jump on a train and go where they want without having to think about how they will pay for it.

They're living in the dark ages when you look at rail services in other countries which run with a high degree of automation.
The tickets are extortionate, how is it you can fly between most major UK cities cheaper than taking the train.
You don't need a person selling tickets on a platform when you can purchase them from the conductor.
Their wages are pretty good compared to other sectors, the rail network is heavily subsidised by the government and needs modernisation, increased efficiency and investment. The service is an embarrassment compared to most developed countries and striking year on year is destroying the network and pushing people away from public transport not attracting them.
The RMT could not have picked a worse time to strike for students attending exams.

That salary quote is grossly incorrect. I agree with anyones right to strike. Strikes are meant to cause disruption.

Putting “HTH” at the end of a post rarely helps.

HTH

Agree - strikes, like protests, are designed to cause disruption

They have my complete support. Why would we condemn working people for wanting to be well treated at work and to get a pay increase to keep up with rising costs in daily life? This government would like us all to think strikers are the enemy while they are giving sweetheart tax deals to multi-billion earning companies, take donations from Russian oligarchs, have offshore bank accounts and so on.

It's not the regular working people of this country you should belittle, berate and condemn.

I agree with every word you've said there @Florenz. They make a simple process complicated, charge give shoddy, unreliable service and charge a fucking fortune for it.🥴 Railways in the UK are the worst I've travelled on.

However none of that is the fault of the strikers.

I will be striking. We haven’t received a pay rise the past 2 years despite many of us working right through the pandemic.

£44k average salary?!?!?! Yeahhhhh right, Please don't believe the media, that is a load of rubbish! Fair play to them all for standing up for their rights, Government and BOE have made inflation go past 11% and are expecting normal people to not take payrises as they don't want inflation going any higher, there's loads of things they could do but don't, as for people complaining about others not received a payrise then you need to do something about it, not just say its not fair I've not had a payrise and attack others for standing up for themselves, probs the same people who moan about £2 litre petrol and yet do nothing about it

I support the strikers. I am a passenger and I want well supported, rested, properly paid staff because the alternative is both unsafe and unfair. It shouldn’t be a race to the bottom to pay people who do work providing services to the public as cheaply as possible, despite what the Tories always think.
If they get away with this time it just encourages them to freeze and cut pay it in every other public sector as they have been doing since austerity. This is exactly how taxpayers end up with shit, dangerous and ineffective public services. So I support the strikers.