Current Affairs Rail strikes

[Daveysgingerlovechild]

I'm employed by a couple of Rail workers as an House Cleaner, I often nose through their stuff and look at their wage slips. How the other half live is all I can say

Fixed that for you.

Where do they keep the sex toys?

 

[Littlesue]

Fixed that for you.

Where do they keep the sex toys?

Lol, that's funny as the wife used to be an Ann Summers manager before she worked for the trains

 

[peteblue]

I'm flying in to Gatwick on Friday and was more worried about getting out of there. I still don't see it very clear. It's a few years since I've been in london

Horrible place mate, fly into somewhere else…..

 

[Tin-Tin]

Some of the responses to this and other strikes. "Well I earn less so they should be grateful", or the "my pay is low so everyone else's should be". How about you fight for decent pay rather than criticise others.

Its absolute genius how the mega rich have conned people into thinking other working class people are being greedy and turn them against one another. Anyone fighting for better conditions should be applauded

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Some of the responses to this and other strikes. "Well I earn less so they should be grateful", or the "my pay is low so everyone else's should be". How about you fight for decent pay rather than criticise others.

Its absolute genius how the mega rich have conned people into thinking other working class people are being greedy and turn them against one another. Anyone fighting for better conditions should be applauded

I suspect it's more that many workers don't operate in monopoly industries where they can use strike action to blackmail employers into giving them what they want.

 

[tsubaki]

I suspect it's more that many workers don't operate in monopoly industries where they can use strike action to blackmail employers into giving them what they want.

TBF the power the rail unions wield, in a time of declining union power generally, is almost entirely down to how privatization of the rail network was carried out and then ran for the past nearly thirty years. They've basically improved, reformed, efficiencied and all the rest of the management speak the workforce down to a lean state, so lean that withdrawing a small amount of voluntary labour can wreck a TOC (as with Avanti at weekends) never mind closing almost the entire network down (as we have seen on these strikes). Having all the TOCs compete for trained staff, rather than recruit their own (or have some other centralized recruitment) has turned drivers and some other roles into very highly paid people (edit) when there really is no reason why that should be the case.

In a true monopoly (as under BR or even the Big Four and pre-1923 companies) they would have far less power, be paid less and there would be a lot more of them. If the Government really wanted to screw with the RMT they should look at bringing that sort of thing back, not only would it in the medium term reduce union power considerably. it would also be (at least according to the vast majority of polling on the subject) be very popular and it would almost certainly save hundreds of millions / billions (which could be passed on to the users).

 

[Bruce Wayne]

TBF the power the rail unions wield, in a time of declining union power generally, is almost entirely down to how privatization of the rail network was carried out and then ran for the past nearly thirty years. They've basically improved, reformed, efficiencied and all the rest of the management speak the workforce down to a lean state, so lean that withdrawing a small amount of voluntary labour can wreck a TOC (as with Avanti at weekends) never mind closing almost the entire network down (as we have seen on these strikes). Having all the TOCs compete for trained staff, rather than recruit their own (or have some other centralized recruitment) has turned drivers and some other roles into very highly paid people (edit) when there really is no reason why that should be the case.

In a true monopoly (as under BR or even the Big Four and pre-1923 companies) they would have far less power, be paid less and there would be a lot more of them. If the Government really wanted to screw with the RMT they should look at bringing that sort of thing back, not only would it in the medium term reduce union power considerably. it would also be (at least according to the vast majority of polling on the subject) be very popular and it would almost certainly save hundreds of millions / billions (which could be passed on to the users).

By monopoly I mean if you want to get the train from A to B there is typically only one way to do that. For instance, the 2019 strike at McDonald's was much less significant and effective because people can just go to Burger King or KFC or whatever. Strikes are effective when there are no alternatives for consumers to use, so it becomes a major ballache for all involved.

 

[tsubaki]

By monopoly I mean if you want to get the train from A to B there is typically only one way to do that. For instance, the 2019 strike at McDonald's was much less significant and effective because people can just go to Burger King or KFC or whatever. Strikes are effective when there are no alternatives for consumers to use, so it becomes a major ballache for all involved.

Often it is possible to fly, drive, motorcycle or take a coach or bus instead to those destinations - its not that there is only the railway to travel on. There are also several cities (Birmingham and points on the ECML being the two most notorious) where its possible to travel on two or more TOCs to get there, so if one goes on strike the other may be running.

 

[Diogenes the Cynic]

Often it is possible to fly, drive, motorcycle or take a coach or bus instead to those destinations - its not that there is only the railway to travel on. There are also several cities (Birmingham and points on the ECML being the two most notorious) where its possible to travel on two or more TOCs to get there, so if one goes on strike the other may be running.

I don't drive and rely on public transport.

I had to cancel a weekend in Weymouth last week as there was no alternative mode of transport.

If it was a simple as just choosing an alternative mode of transport then the strikes would hold no power.

 

[NilSatisOptimum]

Some of the responses to this and other strikes. "Well I earn less so they should be grateful", or the "my pay is low so everyone else's should be". How about you fight for decent pay rather than criticise others.

Its absolute genius how the mega rich have conned people into thinking other working class people are being greedy and turn them against one another. Anyone fighting for better conditions should be applauded

You won't see the same sharpening of claws heading into Barrister strikes or debates... At best they are this-

"They are casting their problems at society. And, you know, there's no such thing as society. There are individual men and women and there are families. And no government can do anything except through people, and people must look after themselves first." Thatcher Womens own.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I wonder why rail workers are unable to get the pay they think they deserve elsewhere too?

 

[edge]

Next strike the 30 th of September.

 

[edge]

I wonder why rail workers are unable to get the pay they think they deserve elsewhere too?

Basically there isn't a markets for working in other companies in the industry, 4 options at best down here northernrail, , networkrail, merseyrail, or an agency .
The first 2 are shedding staff , merseyrail are not taking on and hundreds of there staff are on fixed term contracts.
Most of the agencies workers are on minimum wage or just above
Why Don't nurses ,care workers ect do the same if it was that easy they operate in a more open market?
Have a look at the job vacancies available in Merseyside, station staff are on £22.000 , find a job on that's salary around here you would have to be lucky most are between minimum wage to around £17 000 starting.
Most people are not in the position to hop skip and jump from one job to another, unless your agencies staff, in which case it wouldn't really matter.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

Basically there isn't a markets for working in other companies in the industry, 4 options at best down here northernrail, , networkrail, merseyrail, or an agency .
The first 2 are shedding staff , merseyrail are not taking on and hundreds of there staff are on fixed term contracts.
Most of the agencies workers are on minimum wage or just above
Why Don't nurses ,care workers ect do the same if it was that easy they operate in a more open market?
Have a look at the job vacancies available in Merseyside, station staff are on £22.000 , find a job on that's salary around here you would have to be lucky most are between minimum wage to around £17 000 starting.
Most people are not in the position to hop skip and jump from one job to another, unless your agencies staff, in which case it wouldn't really matter.

Given the highly skilled nature of the rail workforce they would presumably have transferrable skills that would be highly desirable in other sectors though? That seems to be the case with nurses, as around 20,000 left the profession entirely over the past year. If that's not the case for rail workers then perhaps a bit more humility would not go amiss.

 

[Jebus_lives]

Don't need to, they very generous and pay me 25 quid for two hours work

Trickle down economics