What do people think about rail strikes?

[ITUnurse]

I cannot find any threads on the rail strikes / opinion of them.

I personally do support the strikes. We in the NHS will face a similar struggle shortly. I support the rights of workers to strike. Conditions at the moment are dire.

However, if England is so right wing and strikes aren't supported and the Tories continue to be voted in. I've not seen much public support online except from a few and I'm at risk of being in an echo chamber.

Ultimately if England is so under the thumb of the tories, I'm not sure what the long term solution is. The rest of the UK doesn't return the Tories in such numbers.

If you don't support strike action, what do you think the rail workers, NHS workers etc should do? We've already got people leaving enmasse. It's difficult to comment on the conditions of a job you don't work in and nurses regularly get gaslighted on here I am genuinely concerned as to what is going to happen to the public sector of the UK with this right wing stranglehold.

Thanks

Exactly. The Tolpuddle Martyrs must be turning in their graves.

@LadyWithLapdog just look at their other posts

www.theguardian.com/society/2022/aug/21/staffing-crisis-leaves-many-english-care-home-residents-basic-needs-unmet Meanwhile elderly in care homes have sons basic needs unmet due to staffing crisis. Will you be telling those workers to just piss off and find a better job? Maybe they have and this is what happens.

Always a good argument to pick out the bits you think are relevant to help your battle and ignoring the rest of the post. Point scored to you!

@goshy I’m on my mobile and I don’t know how to search anymore :) I’ll work it out.

Always a good argument to pick out the bits you think are relevant to help your battle and ignoring the rest of the post. Point scored to you!

💃💃💃 victory dance, whoop whoop 🙌🏼

No. I think rail workers wages are far too high for what they do.

Yes, teachers/nurses/doctors/police need pay rises desperately but considering the public purse is finite...rail workers are not the most deserving by far.

All this is going to do is push rail fares up and rail travel is not worth the cost it is at the moment, let alone if prices increase. I think the rail workers striking have got it petty cushy actually, and they won't quit and get another job because they won't find one that pays so well for little skill.

Oh & I just ignored the parts of your post that were nonsense @Toomanylosthours

All this is going to do is push rail fares up and rail travel is not worth the cost it is at the moment, let alone if prices increase.

And yet rail fares have gone up every year where I am & the service hasn't improved despite falling staff wages in real terms.

No. I think rail workers wages are far too high for what they do.

What do you think they should be paid?

I can't allocate a wage. But I do think they are less valuable to society than (for example) TAs who earn between 13k-18k. Obviously TAs are vastly underpaid but the point still stands. I really can't get behind rail workers strikes when they are doing pretty damn well in monetary terms for a medial job. Not to mention the pps that have already said, strikes barely put a dent into the rail companies profit. It disproportionately affects the customers and serves no real purpose. It just makes more people wfh or drive themselves therefore making rail travel and the workers even more redundant.

So it's a race to the bottom?

It disproportionately affects the customers and serves no real purpose

and yet we have better employees t&cs because of unions.

He who shouts loudest....

Meanwhile, the workers who really need to strike because of abysmal working conditions and pay can't until it reaches breaking point because they know the impact to their patients/students is too great!

Signallers last walked out nationally in 1996. Hardly striking "over every tiny thing"

This thread is quite heartening to come back to, I'm glad to hear of support for strikers.

I'm interested reading the rationale for others

I think the wage aspect is the wrong way to play it when some (not all) are very high earners. The safety aspect would win them a lot more support. People don't realise how bad it is. There will be another Hatfield if they (government) don't start taking safety seriously.

Another one who believes the government propaganda.

Do you consider 21p/week to be "generous"?

Would you be happy to work an extra five hours per week to get that 21p?

Quite a few employers have offered their staff much more than the 4% per year that NR are offering (never mind that the TOCs have offered precisely zilch). Arriva Bus have just agreed 11.2%.

Remember that many of the workers involved here haven't had a rise at all in three years, so have seen a 20% cut to their pay in real terms.

Any TA earning less than £18k is not on full-time hours. I'm not sure that there are many TAs who work anti-social hours either, nor are responsible for the safety of 1,000 people.

My husband is a train driver and hasn't had a pay rise in 3 years yet the cost of living is continuing to rise at an extortionate rate, we are genuinely struggling at the moment as are a lot of people, we don't expect to to be rich, just to be comfortable, all these people saying that train drivers earn a fortune need to be educated, they certainly don't! They earn what is expected to be responsible for their many passengers safety. We can barely manage at the moment and him being in such a safety critical job it's just wrong! He worked right through the pandemic as a lot of others did and they should definitely get a pay rise!

@PLI...definitely not!

@FunnyBeaux that's bull shit!

@FunnyBeaux How does that work for NHS staff that have spent years training for a degree to do their job? That have student loans to pay back? If they can’t pay their bills do they just leave? What happens to the NHS then?

My partner is ex railway and still has mates on the railway, this is his take on it all. In some ways it's a shame that the argument about pay is happening at the same time as sweeping changes to working practices and T&Cs as it muddies the water.

To begin with there is an aim to close all ticket offices except at big mainline stations because 'everyone buys online now'. The 1000s of staff will simply be discarded to save money, totally overlooking the fact that the railway is a public service for all and not just those with a smartphone.

Secondly it is proposed that all service and maintenance intervals be extended. So monthly inspections will become every other month and so on. This is a potential major safety issue and solely aimed at saving money. Many current NR trackside employees will be made redundant and the work contracted to companies who will pick up and drop cheap agency workers as it suits.

Lastly - and a bit complicated - track walk inspections are done in daylight with a look out man to protect the men working. NR aim to scrap this method and do all the inspections overnight, temporarily closing a section of line to check it. To achieve this the lineside workers will forced to agree to a new contract and will have to do a minimum of 38 weeks of nights. Or they'll just ship in agency staff on lower pay and poor conditions of service.

My only concern about these strikes is the Tories will use them to justify changing laws to prevent withdrawal of labour. Its their go to when someone does something they don't like.

Oh yes and the PP who's never seen a guard or ticket inspector on a train in ten years - calling total BS on that one.

Finally to the PP suggesting striking should be illegal and workers should just quit if they are unhappy. That's all well and good if its a job you can pick up in a morning but train drivers, signallers and a whole host of technical and maintenance staff take years to train and learn their patch. In a way it would serve that PP right if they did ban strikes and these people walked away. Cheap agency staff your way out of that one....

If everyone would leave, pay would have to rise.

Do you realise that that kind of negotiation happens daily all over the country. An employee thinks they should be paid more, so they ask for a raise and tell their boss that if they don't get it they leave. This literally happens all the time.

@FunnyBeaux you do talk a lot of tosh.