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.

I think it is a disgrace to disrupt the exams of the young people who have worked so damn hard through the pandemic and had such disruption to their education already.
I don’t mind the union strike action and fully support and understand it must be disruptive. But it would not have mattered if it waited two weeks to clear the exam period and then target the action to hit the commuters and businesses. Surely that would have had the same effect but possibly more support from the general public.

Yet their actions may ensure that those students taking exams have jobs with good terms and conditions in the future…

This with bells on

It's not just about pay if that's what bothers you. It's also about the proposed redundancies of railway safety workers. Surely anyone in their right mind would support a strike to keep our railways safe. Trains need bouncers these days, seems to be endless gangs of people on stag/hen dos nevermind the safety of the actual track and train

IMO the biggest threats to the kids exams/ futures have been the exam boards with their very unhelpful advanced information.
One child taking A Levels had so many questions not on advance information. The get out being doesn't apply to low tariff questions. Well 6 marks is not my idea of low tariff.
And yes my kids do travel by train.

The point of striking is to inconvenience people, to try and get you to empathise. They wouldn't be doing it if pay & conditions, like so many in this selfish, Thatcherite, country, weren't in need of improvement. Collective bargaining & striking is all we have, and the establishment have done a good job of demonising workers rights, while attempting to erode them as far as possible.
Support the strike, its the principle at stake.

Well it appears that the government is intent on confrontation. Legislation apparently on its way to enable the government to break strike action by allowing the use of agency workers. This will of course be used in any potential future strikes too.
Worrying times ahead - this government will stop at nothing in order to politicise strike action for their own ends despite the fact that the use of agency workers might compromise public safety.

The salary you quoted, isn't that for a driver?

The RMT is a union for more than just drivers.

The strike is about huge cuts to funding, changes in working hours, pension, benefits, redundencies.

When I travel by train I want a driver who knows what they are doing and is well rested.

I want the track to have been inspected and be safe.

I want signals to work and people to repair them if they fail.

A driver is responsible for the lives of people on the train, that can be 100+

You obviously don't live in a rural area do you? Our local high school does run buses, but these are over subscribed. The actual public transport buses run at peculiar times in the morning, there's one that arrives at the school for around 8am then the next is almost 2hrs later. There's one train an hour from the next feeder town, which is usually packed. All those children won't fit on the bus that comes from the same town.

I agree with RMT about the need for these strikes, huge numbers of commuters can work from home so there will be a lot of sympathy about enforced changes and the government's refusal to engage.

However the OP is right about the impact on exam week. Trains carry large numbers of school children and in London areas particularly there is the real potential for gridlock. I think there is an element of the male dominance in my Union leadership.

Not mine specifically - don't know where that came from!

This a million times over.

People know they’re not earning enough wages to live, and are struggling. They should ask themselves why is that?

if they wanted a payrise, how do they think they get one?

Coaches can be hired. As can taxis who often have minibuses.

It might even be possible to get the local bus company to put on more busses for the days of the strikes.

I daresay that the posters who have said YABU aren't being affected by the strike.

I feel sorry for the students at the 6th form college in the next town as a lot of students can only get there by train.

I expect my drive to work will be busier, but I can suck it up.

I'm shocked at the startling lack of awareness from some union supporters.

Trains offer a low cost way to get to school, around here they are free for younger school children and reduced for A-level students.

The the people I am worried for are the ones whose parents can't hire coaches....

Gosh I worked through the pandemic and didn’t get a pay rise. I’m in healthcare so people clapped on a Thursday night which totally got me through 🙄

They can crack on with the strikes, it helps the WFH argument.

It’s about time we stopped these long commutes on 17th century technology when people can work from home.

Well you should have done. Saying it's shit for me so it should be shit for you is self defeating.

The problem is that there is a real lack of vision over what a post-pandemic pre-climate catastrophe world should be. Travel should be minimal and purposeful with real incentives to take the most green form of transport.

DH is on strike today. It inconveniences us, but we are looking at the bigger picture here. It's all being done after all other avenues have been exhausted the past three years.

Signallers are downing tools, so very little can happen on the lines today. NR maintenance teams will be waiting it out too.

This needs to be done.

We seem to have a better service on our rail line off-peak than we'd have on a normal day today! Maybe there are a lot of non-unionised members who are working today.

I wonder how the railways plan for a strike day because as far as I know, they can't ask staff if they are planning to work.

The problem is that there is a real lack of vision over what a post-pandemic pre-climate catastrophe world should be. Travel should be minimal and purposeful with real incentives to take the most green form of transport

Well that's another thread but yes.

It’s about time we stopped these long commutes on 17th century technology when people can work from home

19th century tech, but yes to this too. But so many people will tell you that everyone is lazy and does no work at home/close to home.

Im in London. No trains from my London suburb. No tubes today either. Just packed buses. I left home at 5.30am to be sure of getting on one. I can't work from home and if I don't get to work I don't get paid.

Looking around (currently in a Pret near Victoria) it seems like a lot of people have found a way to get here.

They can go fuck themselves. I have no sympathy at all. I hope they lose their jobs.

This needs to be done

i left the house at 0645 and just dropped off my DC at school, one for an important GCSE tutorial. It took an hour and a half to drive them in.

I got 2% pay rise this year on a much lesser salary than the average rail worker gets. If rail workers get their wish, my cost of living will again be increased as the costs are passed on to 4 people commuting into work and school via train. Why is it that the rest of us have to get on with it and cut our coat according to our cloth, but you are different?

Honestly, dicking around with my kids commute to his GCSE’s has absolutely enraged me. But hey, so long as you are just mildly “inconvenienced”.

So many ‘I’m Alright Jacks’ on this thread and it’s certainly not the OP

Some posters cannot comprehend the large number of school children who rely on trains (and tubes because remember there are fog today too) just because it doesn’t happen in their area

I have now been waiting over an hour for a bus. No I can’t get to work any other way in this area. If some of the exam age looking kids that are also standing at this bus stop miss their exams then that is unforgivable imo

Why should their future earning potential be ruined to support other people’s salaries/jobs

But it's never another thread.