Pay, strikes and how we value people

[JustMeAgain45]

Grant Shapps said: "The median salary for a train driver is £59,000, compared with £31,000 for a nurse and £21,000 for a care worker."

If the pot of money is only so big, am I unreasonable thinking the 4% pay rise for rail workers is ok & And maybe some money needs to go to society care? Money allocated to social care keeps getting reduced or delayed.

For context, I work in Social Care (not elder care - I work in the 3rd of the sector which is not older people in care homes) Most social care employees are on low pay, A train diver gets 1.7x their hourly rate for overtime. Most social care providers don’t enhance overtime. A social care employee is accountable for medication, peg feeding, keeping people alive. The biggest and most real risk a care worker takes in is death (admittedly a train driver is the same, but they’re paid a bit more!). They could be hit, scratched, spat at, shouted at etc. through the course of their jobs. They’re on their feet all day and need to manual handle people. And yet, I’ve never had a career that is more inspiring/rewarding and never worked with a more committed group of people.

Social care as a sector is made up of lots of different providers, and often lobby the government for money but lots of providers are easier to ‘swot away’ than the transport unions! Dimensions have started a petition -
https://www.change.org/p/save-our-social-care-align-care-and-support-worker-pay-to-nhs-pay-bands

Im just very angry at the whole lack of balance! So hoping for validation and possibly more people signing the petition (I don’t work for Dimensions)

Rail unions represent more than train drivers.
There's a reason why sound bites focus on drivers and pay and it's because it ignores all the other people who are represented and ignores the terms and conditions aspects.

What you should really be asking is why some workers in a range of sectors should be fighting each other for crumbs instead of looking further up where the top are making huge sums of money.

Fight for your own sector to have decent pay, terms and conditions, but don't snipe at other workers for wanting to protect their terms and conditions.

I don’t agree.
It’s not a relevant comparison.

What is it about train drivers that gets petiole foaming at the mouth so regularly?
You’re comparing one of the highest paid players roles on the rail network. Most of the RMT workers will be station staff that are not on anything close to a train drivers salary.

There is no need to pit sectors against each other. It creates a nasty attitude in the country and allows political extremism to thrive.

Well, you could train to be a train driver if you think it's a much easier job?

Social care workers deserve higher pay but comparing just makes you look bitter. I earn £24k a year and I'm not resentful towards people striking.

Agree it's not a relevant comparison.

Rail workers includes station staff that earn probably not much more than NMW.

While driving a train might look like an easy job, it's highly skilled, hard to do well and the driver is responsible for the lives of hundreds of passengers. It's also restrictive on a normal lifestyle due to shifts and restrictions on alcohol consumption.

If Grant Shapps wants to take issue with the low pay of graduate professionals like nurses and essential staff like care workers, he might want to look towards the party who's underfunded the NHS for years, and contracted out care work to private organisations more interested in making a profit than paying its staff well and putting it's service users first.

Top tip from me to you @JustMeAgain45 :

Never, ever, ever believe anything that comes out of Grant Shapps mouth.

He is a big liar.

He can't be trusted to tell the truth about his own name.

If Grant Shapps wants to take issue with the low pay of graduate professionals like nurses and essential staff like care workers, he might want to look towards the party who's underfunded the NHS for years, and contracted out care work to private organisations more interested in making a profit than paying its staff well and putting it's service users first.

Well said. It's almost like they've forgotten they've been in charge all these years.
My Tory MP blamed Blair when I complained about lack of NHS dentists.

I'm a train driver - it's not the % of increase that I have an issue with. It's the terms and conditions attached to that increase.

They are awful. Now at least I know if I am on early or late shifts, my rough start and finish times etc.

I can arrange appointments and things around my working day. With the new proposals I would be able to be moved all over the show with little notice.

We have drivers with child care - how will they arrange that when their shifts can be moved from day 7am to 2pm?

My company want to give us a pay rise. They are happy to talk with our union and sort it. They will be funding our pay. Not the government. But the government will not allow them to talk to us.

I don't disagree that other striking workers deserve a pay rise and I support them. But tbh I'm pretty sick of the government rolling out the "train drivers earn XXX" every time there is a rail strike, even when it's one not involving us and the public believing it.

I was going to say exactly this!

But also, no one wins in a race to the bottom. Train drivers deserve a pay rise, carers deserve a pay rise.

Train drivers are highly qualified important roles.

And I agree about terms and conditions - this government does not want to provide good jobs.

Some of the conditions I agree with and they are fine. The railways must move with the times. We have no issue with these.

Some and downright dangerous and unsafe. And our union and us, will never agree to them. And I hope neither will the RMT.

I forgot to add - office staff, management etc at my company were all given a 10% pay rise. That was fine and allowed.

It's just the union member grades that the government feel don't deserve anything.