The sooner we have driverless trains the better. They are overpaid for what is not an unskilled but hardly a highly skilled job and will go on strike at the drop of a hat. I also think it's wrong of the club to postpone the game. People will get there if they want to via bus, car, foot, cycle or whatever. Every other London game is on (as far as I know) and public transport all over the country is going to be limited at best. The club shop is open, so the club can't be that concerned about people making their way there. It seems more a case of wanting a break during a hectic fixture schedule.
How many of those have 60,000 fans coming to their grounds? Also, it's not just the Arsenal fans, the West Ham fans will also need the tube to get there. If you drive, where are you going to park your car when you get to the Emirates? So many of our fans use the tube, it's the main source of transport for us. As for wanting a break, erm, we have rescheduled this to January where we will play loads of games, and tough games at that. Putting this game back does not give us an advantage in any way.
There's a strong chance you won't have a game for a week after the new date. I'm not saying it won't be difficult for people to get to the game who normally go on the tube but it's not impossible or unsafe. How about just letting people organise their own way in like every other club? Thousands of West Brom and Southampton fans will be able to get to West London so I don't think West Ham fans would mind too much about a relatively short trip from East to North. People that live within a certain distance can walk. Others can park up wherever they can and walk or get a bus or taxi. Buses are running and frequent. Under an hour from Stratford to Finsbury Park on boxing day says the TfL planner.
Anyone that thinks that virtually any employer pays out a bonus as a sign of gratitude is a naive c... well, you know. You're the sort of person that moans about poor working conditions and then also moans when others try to improve theirs and it negatively affects you.
I don't think anyone can justify striking due to not being paid enough of a bonus to work your normal hours due to a sporting event.
It's the numbers. We have the most for football games in London. Clearly the guys that made the decision having considered all those things. I do not even want to imagine the strain the buses will put under if fans tried to use them as one of their main sources of transport. Having the West Ham game played on boxing day helps us more than having it in January, a month in which we take on Chelsea,City,Liverpool and have an FA Cup game away to Swansea. Playing West Ham at the Emirates and then playing a terribly out of form Newcastle at the Emirates again, a couple days after that, does not sound as bad.
Fair enough there's not another sporting fixture in the city with as big a crowd but other events are taking place. No idea how many ****s spend their Boxing Day in Westfield but I'd guess there will be just as many making their way there without the tube.
Why not? It's a contract negotiation and the employer would do whatever they could get away with, as we've seen so many times in recent years. They were in a position of strength and knew that the company would make a ton of money from tourists, so why not try to get some of it? TFL would think nothing of laying the whole lot of them off if it were in their best interests.
Absolutely spot on fella The right wing press are quick to jump on striking workers as 'selfish spoilsports' who are just out to disrupt the public and cause an inconvenience. But as has been pointed out, striking is the last option of a group of workers who have tried to negotiate with their employers and have been refused. What you have to remember is that Large corporations are interested in PROFIT as their main objective. Workers conditions, rights, pay, holidays, bonuses, sickness entitlement etc is only there because the unions have FOUGHT for their members rights. Without them, we would still be working in a Dickensian environment where the mill owners basically owned the soul of their employees. I wonder how many of those on here who are lambasting the Tube drivers would feel if their employers suddenly decided to make them work on Boxing day, with no extra pay and no extra holiday ? And if you refused, you'd be hauled over the coals in a disciplinary. I think if that were to happen to some of you on here, you'd soon change your tune.
But why do they get a bonus in the first place for doing their regular shift? They, as a group, are well treated by their employer which doesn't do "everything they can get away with"- 30 days holiday, generous salaries and lucrative bonuses isn't to be sniffed at. Lots of groups are in a position of strength and could paralyse the country if they really wanted to but don't. I hope TfL do lay the lot of them off some day when we have the driverless trains that others do. See if they can compete in the private sector where you can't just down tools every five minutes and demand a bonus for doing a simple and overpaid profession.
They're well treated now because of similar action in the past. Their employer doesn't try to do too much because they know what will happen. Other groups in a similar position either act in a similar manner or get treated like ****. Your hope that they have to work in an industry where people aren't treated as well merely confirms it.
I'd be all for them striking if the employer was being unreasonable. In this case I don't think TfL are, but the unions now have too much power, where perhaps the TfL/government had too much in the past, and it allows pisstake strikes like this one. It devalues justified strike action.
Who decides what's justified and/or reasonable? If they're losing a previously paid bonus and feel passionately enough about it to strike, then why is that wrong? Where's the line?
Bloody hell mate, if you think the Unions have too much power now, God forbid what you would have thought in Thatcher / Heseltine's day ? The union's are bascially on their knees compared to then. And as Remembercolinlee has pointed out, with that demise we've seen public sector pay freezes, pension cuts, increase in temporary contracts, compromised conditions and the threat of redundancy hanging over workers, who are accused of 'disrupting the public' when their rights are squeezed and they ballot for strike action. I don't know if your commercial analysis work is on a self employed on salaried basis, but I would suggest that you'd be none too happy if you were made to work on Boxing day or any public holiday for no extra money ?
I don't think there needs to be a defined line. Times are tough. I'm no Conservative but the previous government and wider economic circumstances have left the cupboard pretty bare and all companies need to tighten their belts. The bonus was overly generous and really not necessary given the money they're on for the job they do. I'm not saying I'd be delighted about it if I were in their position but I'd suck it up in the same way that the vast majority are sucking up seeing their real incomes stagnate or decline. If we all went on strike and all got good bonuses for doing our regular jobs then we'd all lose out in the long run.
I'd expect a bonus. I wouldn't go on strike if none was coming. I worked part-time in a public sector call centre when I was at school. It was brilliant- nearly double pay on Sundays and a couple of quid extra during evenings. I got over £14 an hour as a 17 year-old on Sundays for picking up a phone and mostly reading a script. It was great, but ludicrous, and then the economy exploded around the time I left to focus on exams and then uni.
