National rail strike on the cards

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  • Workers vote overwhelmingly in favour of national rail strike
    The Rail, Maritime and Transport union’s leaders will now decide when to call strikes, which will bring huge parts of the network to a standstill
    www.standard.co.uk

    Here we go again, the unions flexing their muscles at the worst possible time. Is it time yet to make trade unions illegal, clip their wings or replace them with staff associations?

    Maybe we should bring in the Ukrainians - they seem to know how to run efficient railway systems!

  • Labour are keeping very quite on this, now correct me if I am wrong perhaps the fact that the Unions fund the Labour Party and low on funds may just have something to do with it :whistling:

    t

  • I wouldn't make unions illegal, no. I wish I had a union to help me, but these actions seem out of order to me.

  • Unions have helped me in the past so I wouldn’t want to make them illegal. Can understand the frustration here though and all the disruption it will cause.

  • The problem is when other rights are taken away or made difficult like protests for example ones hand is then forced to use stronger measures. Take unions away and you may get train derailments or worse maybe arson or explosives to cause disruption. The thing is if it doesn't hurt you wont get anywhere and will simply be ignored and when things are taken away one has to step up their game each time getting more extreme until things change. They have the attention now and most likely will get their pay rise. We need more unions not less. Every worker in hospitality should have a strong trade union. That would sort the country out and get rid of food banks.

  • To be honest, Idon’t think unions should be illegal either, but their power to cause disruption should be clipped. They should be financially liable for the costs and lack of income suffered by the targets of their attacks.

    There should be alternative representative bodies available to put the staff case to management and negotiate without the threats of disruption.

    I do think that workers who strike should not do so with impunity. Their employers should be able to give notice of dismissal if they are not carrying out the duties for which they are being paid.

  • Many years ago I had to join a Union I did not want to but no choice ( Closed Shop) if I had not done so I could not work in my chose profession even though the owner wanted give me a job and he tried to employ a Non Union Member it the Union would have called a strike .

    After being made redundant more than once I moved down South for work , I have never had to join a Union again against my will

    Tube Drivers in London are well paid with perks early pension scheme £60,000 a year with overtime much more , most of the their passengers don't get paid anywhere near that , no they are Rail workers are going to damage our economy again its is fragile enough as it is thanks to Covid .

  • Driverless trains are already in use on a number of undeground lines, notably in Singapore. It's only a matter of time before the drivers and their union is obsoleted.

    History is much like an Endless Waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever.

    4312-gwban-gif

  • Driverless trains are already in use on a number of undeground lines, notably in Singapore. It's only a matter of time before the drivers and their union is obsoleted.

    It won’t happen here unless the unions have their power to disrupt taken away. If we want to progress as a country, we can’t continually get dragged back to the beginning again by reactionary trade unionism.

  • They are still mentally in that era, which is why they are increasingly seen as unrepresentative of public opinion and even many of those they represent.

    We need a strong PM with a good majority who is determined to deal with the important problems of the day such as the trade unions, the NHS…and of course the wokerati!

  • To be honest, Idon’t think unions should be illegal either, but their power to cause disruption should be clipped. They should be financially liable for the costs and lack of income suffered by the targets of their attacks.

    There should be alternative representative bodies available to put the staff case to management and negotiate without the threats of disruption.

    I do think that workers who strike should not do so with impunity. Their employers should be able to give notice of dismissal if they are not carrying out the duties for which they are being paid.

    Unions operate from the socialist principle that the means of production lay with the people. Therefore the collective power to control the means of production to their advantage creates the "Union" between the workers.

    Personally I don't have a problem with that provided the collective power of the workers is not used for political purposes such as the Miners Strike which was targeted not just at stopping pit closures which I can support but also to bring down the Margaret Thatcher lead Conservative government which had vowed to crack down on Unions after the damage they caused in the 70's culminating in the winter of discontent.

    The rail union has always been powerful because for the most part the employer cannot substitute cheap external labour into the pool to protect against unionised strike action. There is a level of competency required for a lot of the rail work which cannot be kept in reserve. One may argue about what skills a guard may need but that is another discussion.

    Some may argue that rail workers are already well paid for what they do but I would refer you back to my previous statement that the rail union has always been powerful so what would you expect.

    What the rail union is pushing back against these days and actually for some time is the drive to reduce manning levels on the railways. I actually support this push back as it is another case of technology being used to cut humans out of the loop to increase profits. Now many will say they don't care about automation and technology as long as their trains run on time and are affordable but I would warn against taking that simplistic view. The machines are coming for everyone eventually, one day it will be your job that is to be replaced by technology and then what? Redundancy, retraining/re-skilling, starting a new career from the bottom, loss of earnings, reduction in quality of life, these are the things that are being fought against, who can blame them. Sure they may be taking the piss with claims for pay rises but underneath there is a good cause.

    Celebrate it, Anticipate it, Yesterday's faded, Nothing can change it, Life's what you make it

  • The average rail worker I think is on about 25 grand, guards (do they still have them?) are on around 35 and drivers around 45 but then they can make massive amounts on top doing overtime or working hours on their days off, bank holidays and the rest of it. Then there's the cleaners, station assistants (trolly dolly's), ticket office etc and all those are most likely not on much more than minimum wage.

  • Indeed they are paid a good salary , experienced London Underground Drivers earn about £60,000 a year with working overtime they can £100,000 plus, but its basically a closed shop they only recruit from within

  • https://www.aol.co.uk/news/rail-stri…-095313492.html.

    RMT says there could be more strikes as ‘people can’t take it anymore’
    Strike action may also be taken by unions representing teachers and the NHS later this year
    www.standard.co.uk

    Apparently, RMT leader Mick Lynch fancies himself as the modern day Arthur Scargill.

    His argument is with the rail companies, but he wants to make this a political war. Although the general public are the collateral damage, he is deliberately inconveniencing the public by striking every other day next week. If the unions cannot behave responsibly, they will have their legal privileges taken away, and they will become liable for the cost of damages to industries that they cause.

  • I blame the government for these strikes. They’re refusing to get round the table and talk and have no interest. Why may I ask?

    I think they’re too busy playing politics. Publicly condemning the strikes but privately hoping they take place and there’s disruption so they can blame Labour for “being in the pockets” of the union barons. It’s a classic Tory electoral ploy and rather underlined the cynicism of this government.

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