Off Topic Strikes

What is your view on the current rail strikes?

I think that given Labour are part funded by Unions (yes the Tories have dodgy funding sources too DPP).. and that some of the Labour front benchers are defying Kier...and actually standing on the picket lines... there is a degree of politics at play here.. which isn't cool at all...

If the Rail bosses give in to demands.. then it will be other sectors/employers next etc.... and once it hits the public sector it will mean more taxes etc for the many. It looks like the RMT are also crying about some of the modernisation plans afoot which might mean the railways run better... at lower cost and with a slightly lower headcount....

I think these used to get called Spanish practices.

We're all in the **** right now so my view is... let's get out of the **** first... together... and not put certain groups up on a needy pedestal ahead of anyone else....

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The average train drive is on £51k a year and asking for a 7% pay rise - typical nurse is on £28k and got 3% rise - that goes straight into their pensions so they don't see any of it... Know who I'd rather get a pay rise.

The rail line are holding us all to ransom over 2,500 jobs that can be done by a computer - it's the modern way - didn't see any strikes over shop workers being replaced by self service checkouts! I've a colleague whos partner works as a signaler and they are convinced (by the union) they are doing this for the jobs not the pay rise - I'd like to see the owners of the rail companies say - fine we'll keep the jobs but no pay rise... see how the unions react to that guaranteed they'd still want their money where as if you flip it and say here's your 7% but the jobs are going, they'll be back at work by lunch time...

TBH it's the governments fault, gave themselves a pay rise while cost of living increased, taxes increase, National insurance increased etc. now everyone want's a payrise...

 

The Irony is... passenger numbers were down post pandemic and they wanted more to use the railways... then the staff do this... which will put even more off using the unreliable railways which will mean more jobs going.

Unions belong in Beamish and the history IMHO.

Lots of their leaders get pictured on a Caribbean beach from time to time on 'strategy days'.....

 

My union once struck a pay deal with my employer that meant it would take 666 years for me to reach the maximum pay for my grade.
Bunch of ****s.

 

Of course train drivers tend to be aslef not rmt. it’s a tough one, wage rises, except mps, have been low to non existent for years and prices are shooting up.
Most shop workers along with many other workers nowadays aren’t in a union mostly by choice so don’t have the strength in numbers that large unions can give.

 

Good points to be fair especially the shop workers but I find it hard to sympathise with them when they are very well paid, the jobs they are "trying" to protect are redundant now and they are holding us, the general population, to ransom to fight THEIR paymasters.

 

Not all the rail workers are that well paid, the press like to trot out the wages of the drivers who aren’t rmt anyway

 

The problem is a strike rarely hurts the people your trying to get to cave in, personally I mean

 

Something to avoid if at all possible

 

keep going and stop moaning

 

If they're so underpaid why are they all fat

 

Only the one controller is fat. The other one is thin

 

Don't use trains so good luck to them. That being said wage based inflation exists so if everyone got what they wanted, we'd increase the time we have sky high inflation.

I appreciate this isn't just about money. It's about job security too. The future will catch up with us all now. I prefer using machines to people personally

 

But if everyone gets a wage increase then essentially nothing changes and everyone then wants another wage increase.

 

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/wage-push-inflation.asp

This link describes what I want to say but in a far better way.

 

Of course this describes inflation caused by rising wages. In this case the inflation is already there and the wage demand is to help keep up with the inflation otherwise you get poorer every year.

 

The Labour party and the trade unions can all f*ck off.. that said, that c*nt Johnson and his toffee nosed globalist tory mates can all f*ck off as well. Grrrrrrr.

 

Heading to Birmingham nice and early to avoid traffic congestion
Would have been on the train letting someone else drive

 

I have no idea what the situation is like working on the trains but I can't get my head around the continual striking. It's bloody hard recruiting at the moment btw so if it's that bad go and do something else.

A massive problem always is that these institutions are often run by complete tools. Any business has to fight to stay relevant and offer a great product to its customers. Part of doing that is looking after your staff and making it a good environment to work in and often that's not even about money. They've got to get more creative with how they run their service. In my mind of that means more automation and a smaller (happier) workforce then that's the way forward. This new wfh revolution has to be a big consideration too. Many people will give way less of a fk about these strikes now as they can just as easily WFH. If the trains end up making life difficult for people they will simply stop using the service all together and companies will be supportive of staff doing so because they no longer are impacted by staff being unable to make it into work in the same way.

 

And prices will have to go up to pay for all the wage increases.....so people's money doesn't go as far... and so on and so forth....