UK Rail Strikes
- Thread starter TheReligion
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I’d vote for Mick Lynch tomorrow.
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Hope it works and spurs on more action.
Wasn’t sure what the effect would be on the roads. Yesterday seemed fine on the m6/m1. Today was a nightmare on the m6.
Wasn’t sure what the effect would be on the roads. Yesterday seemed fine on the m6/m1. Today was a nightmare on the m6.
Smug, patronising tory cnut getting verbally bodied just warms the cockles of your heart.
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Tbh it’s not that surprising as the RMT did a great book on Connolly a good few years back.
Thanks everyone for clarifying on this point
Seems like all public sectors are gonna go on strike soon.
Trains (again) teachers, Royal Mail and others.
Also the reason the government gave about not paying them the money they deserved was just crazy.
We have shafted you deliberately for ages and we know you deserve more money, but we want pay rises ourselves and by shafting you, it means we can get more money and carrying on being corrupt as hell for longer.
Trains (again) teachers, Royal Mail and others.
Also the reason the government gave about not paying them the money they deserved was just crazy.
We have shafted you deliberately for ages and we know you deserve more money, but we want pay rises ourselves and by shafting you, it means we can get more money and carrying on being corrupt as hell for longer.
Don't forget the criminal bar, given they are paid around £12,500 a year.
The look on the cnuts face when Mick brings up RPI and he tries to work what how runs per inning has to do with trains.
My point was questioning a poster when he said train drivers deserve a pay hike , nothing about who was actually striking. And shouldn't the drivers be out supporting their brothers and sisters anyway? They may have different unions but a little solidarity goes a long way.
Yeah I agree. By saying they are both the one day each year I was being sarcastic.
I like this guy.
They most likely will be soon.
Some already are to be fair. The RMT does have some drivers.
How do you know they're not?
Sticks to his brief well doesn't he? I saw him interviewed on BBC news 24 about a month ago and thought then he would shine in this dispute.
Tories think this is the same labour dispute as the 1970's, they are in for a real shock. They are being handed their backsides one after the other.
I love that they keep referencing the miners strikes thinking people haven't learned better in the interim and there weren't multiple investigations showing the police and government were total scumbags.
All true, but I was thinking more of the idea of union excess which prevailed at the time and underpinned the Thatcherite attack. That perception doesn't exist now and it is going to backfire on them if they keep trying to pretend it does.
If they are smart they pay up and get him off the airwaves as he is killing them.
I genuinely think they'll try to ride it out, the Tories aren't smart. If the volume of passengers were at 2019 volumes we would see much quicker discussions around the table. The fact most have resorted to WFH probably gives them some view that public fallout isn't that significant.
While i hope they do pay up, I dont think he's unique and i'm sure the teachers, nurses etc will have someone competent enough to run rings around this tory government.
At the very least, he’s given those other unions a play sheet to follow that the tories don’t know what to do in response. Making it easier for them to run rings around them.
It's a fine balance. The RMT have a terrible reputation for holding the public to ransom, more than any other union, so they don't have too many opportunities to strike before the public turn on them. They were despised in London under Bob Crow.
The government know that and I think are purposely baiting them into more and more militant actions, which they're all too happy to do.
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A spectre is haunting Britain — the spectre of Scargill.
They will try that. No doubt.
And if it was only the RTM, that could be a tactic.
But they are supposed to be the government and they will not get away with burying their heads in the sand.
And it isn't going to just be the RTM. The strikes will build and build up the pressure on Boris.
You can run, but you can't hide.
Too right, BA cut their pay by 10% during the pandemic and hasn't reinstated it.
The last 3 days my commute has been 5-6 hours each day. Pretty brutal. Support the rail workers though.
His point here is a really fair one. I am a regular train user for my commute to work in London. My ticket fare has, in the last 10 years, risen at a considerable rate. Not only have they used RPI, which itself is not what is typically considered in salary rises, they have added % on this too, typically.
In a low interest low inflation environment, train fares have increased at rates far beyond that.
And all it’s done is line the pockets of the operators. People will get frustrated by the strikes, but it’ll be a big mistake for the operators and government to think that would necessarily outweigh the hatred some of us have for how fares have changed in real terms.
Good, we all should strike as everyone deserves more money.
That's not really true. The TOCs make 2-3% profit, which isn't much and plenty of them do lose money and subsequently lose the franchise.
The big earners are the train manufacturers and the government, who take a shed load out on franchise payments. However overall nobody gets rich running railways, I'm not sure there is a network in the world that is genuinely profitable. They all require government investment and subsidies. The real reason fares are so high is the relative low level of subsidies compared to the rest of Europe.
you don't generally support unions at all do you? asking because you seem to hate RMT more than the rest.
lynch has been great imo. he's set an example for other union leaders to follow.
Your right to. Probably a miserable experience but your protecting the future of the service.
I'm supportive of unions generally, but I hate hypocrites and the RMT are still one of the worst for me personally. Openly supported and pushed for Brexit knowing that it impacts workers pay & conditions long term, and despite openly criticising BP and the oil sector in February for the profits they're making, has £1.2m of shares in both BP and Shell. Lynch is a bit of a meme at the moment with the interviews, clear and succinct in his points however it's pretty easy to bounce back against some of the Tory drones. However I do laugh when he talks about relating to the working class when he's on a six figure salary, a champagne socialist if ever I saw one!
Can't be on as big a wedge as the people he's negotiating with...
Exactly. It’s only 3 days (maybe 4 tomorrow), I will have forgotten about it in a couple of weeks.
Even if that’s the case, it still seems to be that in its present format, it is the consumer and the employee who is suffering the most at the expense of the government and the train operators.
Very true, but I don't think they're pretending to be something that they're not.
Is he? Why you can't be a socialist and earn a good wage?
isn't the point of a union in a modern capitalist country that it has to play by the rules set up to keep workers down? so they'll have investments in companies they ideologically disagree with because they need to put their money somewhere to see returns on their investment for the sake of the union. and there will be people earning relatively large salaries because large unions require their heads and spokespeople to be highly competent across a broad range of tasks. i'd say lynch and others in similar positions are worth their six figure salary more than just about every mp currently in parliament. as for brexit, many union types and traditional socialist types generally supported leaving the EU for decades. their reason for leaving was due to migrant labour bringing down the value of domestic labour which is the oldest trick in the capitalist playbook. there were certain kinds of brexit which might have made sense to union figures but few of them will have voted for it if they thought that this was the best they could get. but brexit is largely a sidepoint in all this. the primary point is working class people demanding better working conditions after many years of being shafted by government cuts to the public sector.