Tube strikes

Absurdistan

Bob Crowe, gone but not forgotten.

In response to plans to modernise and improve your Tube service, and despite us offering significant changes, the RMT union has called a further five days of strike action.
Travel advice
If the strikes go ahead, Tube services will be affected from:
• Around 21:00 on Monday 28 April until the morning of Thursday 1 May
• Around 21:00 on Monday 5 May until the morning of Friday 9 May

We will do everything we can to run as many trains as possible, but there will be significant disruption. Our Travel Ambassadors will be on hand to offer help. The DLR, London Overground, and other rail services will operate normally and we will enhance bus services on key routes. Please also consider cycling or walking if possible.

Huskaris

That's the greatest thing about being a union member. It's the only place where you can absolutely fleece the public and be guaranteed the support of a group of people because they are infatuated with the ideas of unions.

Just as well its all a matter of keeping us safe apparently!

PL54

The scum bags strike again

C.Walsh'sLoveChild

Awaiting NorthStandDamos words of wisdom

Tunwellsaddick

Where did we get Tube from and which team did he score for?

PL54

Tunwellsaddick said:

Where did we get Tube from and which team did he score for?

Tube(s) plays a holding role for Oxshott Royals. Fact.

csr_cafc

Getting home from the Watford match will be fun.

killerandflash

csr_cafc said:

Getting home from the Watford match will be fun.

We'll be floating home on a wave of ecstasy

vff

Huskaris said:

That's the greatest thing about being a union member. It's the only place where you can absolutely fleece the public and be guaranteed the support of a group of people because they are infatuated with the ideas of unions.

Just as well its all a matter of keeping us safe apparently!

Conversely there are some on here who automatically oppose unions whatever the story or issue. The newspapers and TV are mostly heavily against Unions, and those on here swallow the opinion without any thought. Easier than forming your own opinion, I guess.

Managements are not perfect and if there was no unions then wages and conditions / safety would not automatically be in any decent shape. Safety on the tube is not something that should be taken lightly for ourselves and all our families who travel on it.

Thats not even getting started on how crap the Oyster ticketing system is and the many times it takes money off your cards wrongly. Good luck spending an arm and leg getting the money back via the 0845 number.

AddickFC81

That idiot BJ who runs London needs to swallow his pride and get involved in the discussions instead of letting it fester but he never does.

Leroy Ambrose

Anyone read the thread posted recently about working hours?

Just putting it out there, like...

DamoNorthStand

C.Walsh'sLoveChild said:

Awaiting NorthStandDamos words of wisdom

Love a good strike, me

SELR_addicks

Add the firefighters to that too:

Firefighters in England and Wales to stage strikes on May 2, 3 and 4 over long-running pensions row

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-27142753

Greenie

Huskaris said:

That's the greatest thing about being a union member. It's the only place where you can absolutely fleece the public and be guaranteed the support of a group of people because they are infatuated with the ideas of unions.

Just as well its all a matter of keeping us safe apparently!

Where did all you non union members get your paid holidays, sick pay, reasonable working hours, health and safety at work, decent pay, maternity and paternity leave etc. etc, from? Oh yes on the back of the unions and TUC back in the day.

See the reasonable unpaid working hours thread for why we need unions.

'If you know your history'............

Er_Be_Ab_Pl_Wo_Wo_Ch

Greenie said:

Huskaris said:

That's the greatest thing about being a union member. It's the only place where you can absolutely fleece the public and be guaranteed the support of a group of people because they are infatuated with the ideas of unions.

Just as well its all a matter of keeping us safe apparently!

Where did all you non union members get your paid holidays, sick pay, reasonable working hours, health and safety at work, decent pay, maternity and paternity leave etc. etc, from? Oh yes on the back of the unions and TUC back in the day.

See the reasonable unpaid working hours thread for why we need unions.

'If you know your history'............

Good point, hadn't thought of it like that.

Addicted

Takes the piss in my opinion. Cant stand this tube striking, should be an essential service. The tube network needs modernisation.

On the plus side I'll be cycling to work this time round due to how bad the roads were last time. 5 days = 110 miles so should at least help my health.

Absurdistan

Addicted said:

Takes the piss in my opinion. Cant stand this tube striking, should be an essential service. The tube network needs modernisation.

On the plus side I'll be cycling to work this time round due to how bad the roads were last time. 5 days = 110 miles so should at least help my health.

Unless you get hit by a car ;-)

Dippenhall

Greenie said:

Huskaris said:

That's the greatest thing about being a union member. It's the only place where you can absolutely fleece the public and be guaranteed the support of a group of people because they are infatuated with the ideas of unions.

Just as well its all a matter of keeping us safe apparently!

Where did all you non union members get your paid holidays, sick pay, reasonable working hours, health and safety at work, decent pay, maternity and paternity leave etc. etc, from? Oh yes on the back of the unions and TUC back in the day.

See the reasonable unpaid working hours thread for why we need unions.

'If you know your history'............

The Suffragettes got women the vote and then became irrelevant because the laws were changed. The Unions have gone the same way because welfare and employment laws are there to be changed and improved where necessary in a democratic way.

Recognising the value of Unions in the past does not justify holding taxpayers to ransom to protect the gravy train that a minority of the upper echelons of the public sector enjoy. It's nothing about protecting the rank and file, its about protecting senior officers and keeping open the ability to abuse early retirement terms of a generous pension scheme, as well as Union bosses enhancing their career and earnings.

If firemen and teachers were promoting democratic change and going on strike to change the law on about zero hours contracts they can take the high moral ground, as far as I am concerned they follow the same moral compass as bankers.

Addicted

Absurdistan said:

Addicted said:

Takes the piss in my opinion. Cant stand this tube striking, should be an essential service. The tube network needs modernisation.

On the plus side I'll be cycling to work this time round due to how bad the roads were last time. 5 days = 110 miles so should at least help my health.

Unless you get hit by a car ;-)

Rylo

Dippenhall said:

Greenie said:

Huskaris said:

That's the greatest thing about being a union member. It's the only place where you can absolutely fleece the public and be guaranteed the support of a group of people because they are infatuated with the ideas of unions.

Just as well its all a matter of keeping us safe apparently!

Where did all you non union members get your paid holidays, sick pay, reasonable working hours, health and safety at work, decent pay, maternity and paternity leave etc. etc, from? Oh yes on the back of the unions and TUC back in the day.

See the reasonable unpaid working hours thread for why we need unions.

'If you know your history'............

The Suffragettes got women the vote and then became irrelevant because the laws were changed. The Unions have gone the same way because welfare and employment laws are there to be changed and improved where necessary in a democratic way.

Recognising the value of Unions in the past does not justify holding taxpayers to ransom to protect the gravy train that a minority of the upper echelons of the public sector enjoy. It's nothing about protecting the rank and file, its about protecting senior officers and keeping open the ability to abuse early retirement terms of a generous pension scheme, as well as Union bosses enhancing their career and earnings.

If firemen and teachers were promoting democratic change and going on strike to change the law on about zero hours contracts they can take the high moral ground, as far as I am concerned they follow the same moral compass as bankers.

The same as bankers?! Not sure I agree with that, but each to their own I suppose...

Dippenhall

Yes, same morals as bankers. Self serving, motivated by greed and funded by other peoples money..

Greenie

Dippenhall said:

Greenie said:

Huskaris said:

That's the greatest thing about being a union member. It's the only place where you can absolutely fleece the public and be guaranteed the support of a group of people because they are infatuated with the ideas of unions.

Just as well its all a matter of keeping us safe apparently!

Where did all you non union members get your paid holidays, sick pay, reasonable working hours, health and safety at work, decent pay, maternity and paternity leave etc. etc, from? Oh yes on the back of the unions and TUC back in the day.

See the reasonable unpaid working hours thread for why we need unions.

'If you know your history'............

The Suffragettes got women the vote and then became irrelevant because the laws were changed. The Unions have gone the same way because welfare and employment laws are there to be changed and improved where necessary in a democratic way.

Recognising the value of Unions in the past does not justify holding taxpayers to ransom to protect the gravy train that a minority of the upper echelons of the public sector enjoy. It's nothing about protecting the rank and file, its about protecting senior officers and keeping open the ability to abuse early retirement terms of a generous pension scheme, as well as Union bosses enhancing their career and earnings.

If firemen and teachers were promoting democratic change and going on strike to change the law on about zero hours contracts they can take the high moral ground, as far as I am concerned they follow the same moral compass as bankers.

Nonsense, welfare and employment laws are not changed in a democratic way, since the decline of the unions we now have a culture of 'volunteers' and unpaid workers who have to do this to get 'work experience', and who gets the benefit of the hours these people work, yes the bosses get richer.
We've gone back 100 years.

Since the decline of the unions the rich have got richer the poor have got poorer, I understand that 93% of the wealth is owned by 10% of the people, that leaves 7% for the rest of us!!!

The conservatives abolished apprenticeships under The Snatcher, we then suffered a decline in quality craftsmanship, now we can't get enough apprentices and kids into apprenticeships to learn a trade.

While I would agree that the unions did get too powerful in the 70's, they union bosses are there to protect their members jobs pay and conditions, if they did not then eventually we would all be doing 65 hour weeks for less money, it is naive to believe anything different.

soapy_jones

Dippenhall said:

Yes, same morals as bankers. Self serving, motivated by greed and funded by other peoples money..

Agreed I'm afraid

cafckev

It started with guardless trains.......Dont worry, you will always have the platform staff or driver to help should you need them. Then, unmanned platforms.....dont worry, you will always have the ticket office staff or the driver to help you should you need them. Now, close all the ticket offices......dont worry, you will always have the errrrrrrm driver, oh no his controller has been on the radio and told him that he must move his train as he is holding up the line.
That sure does sound like self serving and greedy people to me, mind you i am talking about the managers who seem to think it will improve the service it offeres.

World of Woe

cafckev - platforms are not unstaffed. Fact. There are actually further staff during peak times specifically for platform/train interface duties (SATS).
Personally I can still not see a 'safety' issue with removing someone from a ticket office with no CCTV, putting them mobile about the station where they can offer assitance more easily.
As always, office jobs are being cut again (3rd, 4th time in as many years) with many staff being laid off, redeployed, forced to take pay cuts, re-apply for their jobs etc.. However I don't see RMT helping those staff out...Unfortunately... I am not allowed to comment any further on this (

Robbo on the wing

WoW, are you a paid up RMT member?

World of Woe

I am a union member... however I genuinely cannot post on this subject...

aliwibble

Dippenhall said:

If firemen and teachers were promoting democratic change and going on strike to change the law on about zero hours contracts they can take the high moral ground, as far as I am concerned they follow the same moral compass as bankers.

As neither firemen nor teachers work on zero hours contracts, if their unions tried to call a ballot on that basis then it would almost certainly be deemed illegal, and people like you would be harping on about unions flexing their muscles for political ends. It's a bit rich of you to advocate them striking on illegal grounds for a cause that you're in favour of, but criticise them for legally withdrawing their labour in a dispute with their employer, just because their grievance isn't important to you.

Steve Dowman

vff said:

Huskaris said:

That's the greatest thing about being a union member. It's the only place where you can absolutely fleece the public and be guaranteed the support of a group of people because they are infatuated with the ideas of unions.

Just as well its all a matter of keeping us safe apparently!

Conversely there are some on here who automatically oppose unions whatever the story or issue. The newspapers and TV are mostly heavily against Unions, and those on here swallow the opinion without any thought. Easier than forming your own opinion, I guess.

Managements are not perfect and if there was no unions then wages and conditions / safety would not automatically be in any decent shape. Safety on the tube is not something that should be taken lightly for ourselves and all our families who travel on it.

Thats not even getting started on how crap the Oyster ticketing system is and the many times it takes money off your cards wrongly. Good luck spending an arm and leg getting the money back via the 0845 number.

I have formed my own opinion about unions, after years of membership/exposure to them, I can conclude that they are generally self serving wankers.

Redvalleyeast

Dippenhall said:

Yes, same morals as bankers. Self serving, motivated by greed and funded by other peoples money..

Wow......As a serving London firefighter with 21 years service im not entirely sure I like being compared to bankers. Self serving and motivated by greed as well? Really?? I have defended myself on here before and will do so again. Not one of us want to go on strike I can assure you of that. All we want is the contract that we signed to be honoured(many years ago in most cases) and not changed on the say so of the high and mighty in Parliament. I pay 15% of my monthly wage into my pension and now im being told that im not entitled to get back what ive paid in, is that self serving and greedy?? Not only that but if we fail to reach the fitness levels at the age of 55 that the government have brought in (despite their own researchers saying the levels are not feasible) then we will be SACKED on capability grounds, lose something like 27% of our pension and not get ant of said pension until the age of 68. Hardly fair is it? Still, people would see how self serving and greedy we are if they ever have the misfortune to need to call us out!

Bedsaddick

Redvalleyeast said:

Dippenhall said:

Yes, same morals as bankers. Self serving, motivated by greed and funded by other peoples money..

Wow......As a serving London firefighter with 21 years service im not entirely sure I like being compared to bankers. Self serving and motivated by greed as well? Really?? I have defended myself on here before and will do so again. Not one of us want to go on strike I can assure you of that. All we want is the contract that we signed to be honoured(many years ago in most cases) and not changed on the say so of the high and mighty in Parliament. I pay 15% of my monthly wage into my pension and now im being told that im not entitled to get back what ive paid in, is that self serving and greedy?? Not only that but if we fail to reach the fitness levels at the age of 55 that the government have brought in (despite their own researchers saying the levels are not feasible) then we will be SACKED on capability grounds, lose something like 27% of our pension and not get ant of said pension until the age of 68. Hardly fair is it? Still, people would see how self serving and greedy we are if they ever have the misfortune to need to call us out!

Your absolutely spot on mate . It's a disgrace how firemen are being treated yet you still get morons on here calling unions and union members wankers.
As I have said many times , my £13 pound a month to my union ( RMT ) is worth every single penny .