Okay
colour me confused, yesterday evening the media were unanimous in declaring that
yesterday’s meeting at ACAS had adjourned with little sign of progress and that
further strikes were on their way. BBC’s
transport wonk Tom Edwards even went so
far as to predict that rather than a 48-hour strike which was being touted
around by various sources we’d be staging two separate 24-hour strikes in one
week. This
all came as a bit of a surprise as the word from our reps was that management
have confirmed that the Night Tube duties would not be imposed without
agreement from the union and
that negotiations would resume on Wednesday.
The
predictions of further strikes seems to have started quite a few hours before
ASLEF passed on the positive news to it's members which leaves me wondering if
the tales of doom and gloom had been prepared in advance of the yesterday’s
talks breaking up. With both TSSA and
RMT muttering that Boris is running things from behind the scenes could it be
that his media people are spinning stories to the press without even bothering
to wait and see what the outcome is?
Hey. Leave Tom alone. He...may...talk...very...slowly...and...steadily... but he was Transport Journo of The Year 2014. lol. He does ok. If he wants Transport Journo of the Year 2015, he needs to tell his Editor to shove it and go off script a bit. Be a bit investigative. Like by telling us how much our Managers and Directors are paid and for WHAT??. Does anyone know? It seems The Public have a NEED to know how much we are paid so why not tell them that our Managers are paid just to sit around for 6 hours (at the most) just to wait for us to come in...and then what do they do? Anyone know? lol. Or tell the passengers that when all drivers are gone that London will be held to ransom by a handful of Service Managers (Signal Operators). Its is not inconceivable that Service Mangers will double their pay within the next 5-10 years. Investigate that Tom.
ReplyDeleteWhat's the contingency plan if Service Control staff go on strike? I have never heard of one. I cant even figure out if there could even be a way of operating LU without our esteemed and ever sooo polite controllers. Can they just let the signalling computer (or whatever) run without the Controllers. They probably could BUT would anyone dare to? Whose got a gun to the public's head now, Boris??
DeleteIt seem to me that LU seem to resent the wages that their drivers are on, and are quite happy to tell the world what they earn.
ReplyDeleteHowever, What other grades earn is a mystery.
With LUL quite happy to slag the drivers off, I recently saw a driver at Ealing Bdy being spat at and verbally abused.
As say far too often Tube drivers are paid pretty much the same as other UK train drivers, we get compared to nurses, teachers and the police but rarely with those doing the same job.
DeleteI think nurses, teachers, firemen, the police etc etc are paid shit. Not enough to have a decent standard of living in the capital, that's for sure. Not on a single income anyway.
DeleteASLEF Shrugged - Please don't bring other drivers into it.
DeleteArgue instead that you don't want to be treated in the same appalling way that the government do the nurses, teachers and police are and that 50k a year is not excessive as it is not enough to start a mortgage or cover rent in most parts of London.
So Tom Edwards was right, but it was the RMT he was talking about, with two 24hour strikes in one week. This means that for FOUR days running there will be not late night services, which means ironically as this dispute is about working unsocial hours, this action will effect passengers who work evenings for the FOUR days, but the normal day time passengers will only get hit for TWO days. Brilliant work the RMT!
ReplyDeleteYes I do realise that (see my comments above) that day time passenger will be effected just as much in one way, but I think it is worse for late night commuters with taxi's being more expense and having to stand at bus stops late at night, especially for Women.
ReplyDeleteThe BeeB is now claiming ASLEF is withdrawing from strike action, with RMT, Unite and TSSA still due to strike on 25th and 27th Aug.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-33889205
Jeez what a mess. If the next strike isn't supported by all four unions then we might as well not bother? Train drivers is the difference between a shutdown and a mere annoyance. If station staff end up on permanently changing rosters then it doesn't seem too unlikely that train Ops will be far behind?
ReplyDeleteOne of the issues for station staff, I perceive, is that in the past shift timings have been set per station due to the different times of last service and small variations in the peaks. This made sense at the time - no point paying umpteen staff at a zone 1 section 12 to be twiddling their thumbs whilst the last Vic train is trundling up towards the depot.
ReplyDeleteBut the overnight shift is a different kettle of fish; what they need to avoid is having a shift change at some ungodly hour when station staff are going to be forced into taxis, Night bus or private cars parked in insecure locations. So theoretically they could have an 11-7 shift or a 12-8 at every night station, but details like this are simply not forthcoming so there's natural frustration and concern which could have been avoided by a more proactive management. As it is it appears to be a case of "do as you are told" which only serves to emphasise the divide between management and worker. I cannot believe management grades can be deserving of the salary they command when they blunder their way into an impasse like they have over this. It seems that not everyone could be so poor at their jobs - the rest of the business gets by reasonably well. The only conclusion one can sensibly reach is that this collision has been engineered by 55 Broadway or their puppet masters.