Any else not feel any sympathy for the RMT/LUL staff strike?

Dj_Jestar

Dj_Jestar

Dj_Jestar

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Anyone else getting sick and tired of them spitting dummies everytime something doesn't go ludicrously generous in their favour?

Metronet went bankrupt. £2bn over budget (and then slated/blamed their investors/beneficiaries for not coughing up cash to fish them out) so unsurprisingly went under. Metronet staff were "promised" that no one would lose their job. RMT aren't happy and call a strike for 72hours.

That's how I see it from what I've read in t'news. Pitiful. Not a good pity, either. Now we have 9 lines closed :| Buses are uber packed too, a lot of them not even stopping because they are so packed.

Add to this they earn a chuff load of wedge for what they do. £33k+ for drivers, last I heard, probably more. Platform staff don't do badly either, £24k for "joe schmo", up to £50k+ for group station managers. (Note: figures are hear say.. but I doubt they are far wrong, from what I saw when I visited during my induction - which I'm glad to say I said 'no' :o)

Part of me just wants to ask the RMT **** er.. I mean "Representative" just what the hell are they doing? What will the next strike be over? They don't have Charmin to wipe their holier than thou arses? "That's it! Everyone out, we are on strike until we are given our blessed botty wipes!"

GRRR!
 
Well due to the strike I'm on 3 days forced leave...

Here's some stuff:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/6977260.stm

Important points of note being:

“I suppose I might understand if they were doing this because something had been imposed on them but this is about taking pre-emptive action, which ultimately is mucking up people's lives across London."

And:

“The RMT have been given cast iron guarantees that no staff will lose jobs, pensions or be transferred as a result of Metronet's collapse. The other unions have accepted these guarantees. The RMT have ignored them, harming Londoners and their union."

It seriously makes the mind boggle... The RMT has far too much power and seems to be striking not for any goal, but more ‘because they can’

*sigh*

Oh yeah, there’s talk of another 72 hour strike next week... I’m nowhere near important enough to be worried about not being able to get in to work again, but I’m loathe to use another 3 days leave because of these ****s.
 
jamief said:
Exactly!

I work in IT. If I wasn't getting paid enough, I would get a new job. I wouldn't stand outside my workplace demanding more money.
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why not? Someone has to do the work. Problem with the railway is the money split. medium to high jobs are very very well paid. The low end jobs are rubbish pay. Especially seeing as you work bankholidays, shift work etc.
when did anything improve if you take the apathy route.
 
Proof that public private partnerships don't work. A 72 hour strike is dreadful behaviour. It's not even about pay at the moment, their company has gone bust and want guarantees that they're going to get pensions and no one will lose their job. No one else in this country is going to get a pension, they (RMT) just have ridiculous power with which to demand them. Weren't all their demands met anyway, hence the other two unions cancelled their strikes?
 
Samtheman1k said:
Then work a bit harder and rise up the ladder to the higher paid jobs...
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I'm trying to, It's the governments own fault for privatising the railway. Then on top of that i's the train companys which make all the money. Leaving the infastructure in a bad way.
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Anyway this strike isn't really to do with pay. It's mainly to do with what will happen know. RMT want the tube to come under network rail. They don't want the goverment to **** up again. If the goverment messes up again, you'll be the same people complaining then. It's better to have everything under one roof. It brings standardisation and increases health and safety.
 
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tom_nieto said:
Proof that public private partnerships don't work.
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Not really - the other maintenance firm, Tubelines, are doing everything on time and to budget I understand.

I'm definitely don't share the hardcore capitalist/corporatist attitude of many on here, but I've long since run out of patience with the RMT.
 
AcidHell2 said:
I'm trying to, It's the governments own fault for privatising the railway. Then on top of that i's the train companys which make all the money. Leaving the infastructure in a bad way.
#
Anyway this strike isn't really to do with pay. It's mainly to do with what will happen know. RMT want the tube to come under network rail. They don't want the goverment to **** up again. If the goverment messes up again, you'll be the same people complaining then. It's better to have everything under one roof. It brings standardisation and increases health and safety.
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Its looking like the maintenance contracts will come under TfL control, hence why Ken gave assurances to all of the RMTs demands.

This pre-emptive strike is nothing more than Bob Crow being the vindictive militant he always is and causing trouble when its totally unecessary.

All its done is made the general public anti-metronet workers and the RMT, it doesn't 'highlight the plight of metronet workers', most people on my train this morning agreed that they see the RMT workers as selfish whilst demanding assurances that 95% of the UK population don't get.

If my company goes bankrupt will i keep my job? no, will i keep my pension if the company goes bust like standard life? no.

Plus i don't see how you can really blame the government, yes they privatised it but the consortium that made metronet used it for profit making rather than a public service, so if anyone is to blame its them.

I walked past some RMT strikers outside Holborn this morning whilst i was making the forced 2 mile walk across London, they had some guts judging by the looks they got from the public, better than Crow who hid out over in Golders Green.

Edit* Oh and a big thumbs up to all TubeLines workers :cool: who have saved me from taking all of my remaining leave.
 
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chimaera said:
Plus i don't see how you can really blame the government, yes they privatised it but the consortium that made metronet used it for profit making rather than a public service, so if anyone is to blame its them.
.
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What did they expect, when it was privatised. It along with power and water should never off been privatised.

chimaera said:
If my company goes bankrupt will i keep my job? no, will i keep my pension if the company goes bust like standard life? no.
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doesn't make it right though does it.
Pensions should always be protected. As for your job it's a little difference. These guys are needed to keep the trains running. Getting rid of them would either cost loads in training other people up or compromise safety.
 
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The RMT want to keep the same working practices that sent metronet bankrupt, great, just what the tube workers need. If Metronet had been a proper privatised country the union would have succeeded in getting their members on the dole...
 
AcidHell2 said:
What did they expect, when it was privatised. It along with power and water should never off been privatised.
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As scorza said, TubeLines are doing very well, whilst privatisation of power especially has reduced prices considerably.

Water I agree with you, but only because you can't exactly create competition when only one company supplies each house.
 
dymetrie said:
*yoink*
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It's Dym!

You can probably see me on your cam's during the working day.. I believe you have view of Holborn? (When you can get to work that is :p)

AcidHell2.. welcome to life. I was under paid at my last job.. so I left. You speak of apathy.. that's exactly what the staff on strike are doing, taking the apathetic route by not looking for work elsewhere if they are not happy, but instead sitting still in their "comfort zones" and waiting for someone to bail them out.
 
Dj_Jestar said:
I was under paid at my last job.. so I left.
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Trouble is, if you're a tube train driver and you're not happy, who else is going to give you a job except for LUL?

The fact you can always quit your job and get another one does not excuse management exploitation imho. The RMT are dinosaurs, but there has been plenty of good things that have come out of the union movement.
 
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