On the plus side, loads of work can get done on the network by non NR staff 😀

A lot of the main signal boxes will be manned by management so don’t expect a total halt to all services, maybe a vastly reduced one, but trains could well run on main routes.

To be fair, 35hr weeks, rosterd days off an free vehicular transport while in work isn’t that bad

What’s the crack with the free travel? A mate worked for them and said the full Europe wide free family travel for life was taken away for new staff in ’95?

I was planning to spend the weekend In my Weymouth flat. Now I can’t get my bike back and probably not myself either. Bum holes!

ernie_lynch – Member

… shut the network for a critical day

Critical? It’s planned for a Bank Hoiliday, you know …. when most people won’t be working. Which is obviously a lot less critical than a normal Monday.

24 hrs from 5pm Monday isn’t it? So a bit of the bank holiday and most of a normal Tuesday.

So most people will be able to get back from their bank holiday weekend, perhaps even eddiebaby. Excellent. What was the critical day hora was talking about then – tuesday ?

Vans & cars to use during the working day with no tax implications due to them being pool vehicles

I hope that they are very proud.

ernie_lynch – Member

So most people will be able to get back from their bank holiday weekend, perhaps even eddiebaby. Excellent. What was the critical day hora was talking about then – tuesday ?

I guess even though the strike starts at 5pm, the trains might be cancelled all day Monday. Probably Sunday as well just to be safe.

Well as far as I am aware any industrial action before the stipulated time will be illegal so unlikely to take place I would have thought.

Although there is likely to be extensive disruption anyway on the Bank Holiday as the Network Rail considers Bank Holidays an excellent time to carry out engineering work.

Massive disruptions were already planned in just the London region, whether or not the industrial action goes ahead :

Spring Bank Holiday 2015 train disruptions

Quote : “There’s going to be lots of engineering work on Bank Holiday Monday May 25 2015”

For the record I support the strike and I’m a train driver, as for Scotrail most routes that dont need a signal box will run . By this I mean major routes like Glasgow to Embra where little semaphore boxes don’t need to open .
On another note It’s Network rail that are striking (and quite rightly so) so don’t go moaning about individual TOC’s i.e Scotrail, Virgin , Northern , Xc etc etc.

Diddums. You don’t get a pay rise, so throw your toys out the pram, and cause gridlock across an entire country on a Bank Holiday, and then you expect me to give you sympathy

What planet are you people on ???

The one in which people are allowed to demand to be paid what they think is the value of their labour? Free market isn’t it, if people want to band together and demand more then let them.

Network Rail can either try to fire all of their staff or pay them more.

Northwind I dont see the management threatening to shut the network for a critical day. Its blackmail. Is that grownup? Will the travelling public back the strike?

Shops don’t have to sell you their goods, people don’t have to go into work to sell you their labour/service.

surely a more effective way of making their point to management would be to operate trains as normal, but allow folk to get on and off without a ticket.

That would be an effective way of enabling management to sack all of them for gross misconduct. Properly-called industrial action is a protected activity and you can’t be fired for engaging in it.

They couldn’t fire that amount of staff anyway.

Sometimes I really wonder why the peasants aren’t swinging from the roof of Parliament and sacking Buckingham palace and why we haven’t descended into some sort of North Korea knock off considering the levels of blind deference to authority that we have. The British seem so averse to any sort of industrial action or protest.

…..you can’t be fired for engaging in it.

Oh yes you can. Employers have always had the right to sack strikers. I don’t think there’s ever been a time in British history when they haven’t had that right. And it’s a right which they occasionally exercise.

EG Rupert Murdoch sacked 6,000 employees for going on strike.

Although obviously for practical reasons it easier for employers with smaller work forces to sack strikers.

And btw they must sack all those on strike, they can’t sack say just half of those on strike, that would be considered discrimination in the eyes of the law.

Diddums. You don’t get a pay rise, so throw your toys out the pram, and cause gridlock across an entire country on a Bank Holiday, and then you expect me to give you sympathy

No, I think they expect you to be inconvenienced.

Stanfree thanks for the clarification

supposed to be travelling back to London for work on Tuesday am. probably gonna have to wait till Wednesday now absolutely devastated 😆

They’re not striking to get the support or sympathy of the public. It’s between the staff and the management.

I’m self employed so striking doesn’t work out well for me. Just piss myself off.

They’re not striking to get the support or sympathy of the public. It’s between the staff and the management.

Two things. Firstly I think that union leaders (management?) need to think about PR more. While I agree that a strike that inconveniences no one has no impact so is pointless they need to consider how the public will react. Ultimately if they continue to annoy “hard working people” then they will lose support. Generally union membership will decline and people will begin to support changes to limit their power – e.g. changes to voting rules and reducing strike options on “essential services”. They seem stuck in their past in terms of attitudes. They have done a great service to working people but need to adapt with the times.

Secondly, I am always intrigued by the concept of staff vs. management. Maybe I have never worked in that kind of job long enough*. Where I am now we have management level staff and general staff but there isn’t really an us vs. them attitude, just people with different responsibilities who work together to get the job done. Not sure I’d be happy working in an environment like that and it seems to only exist in heavily unionized environments but that is a bit chicken/egg. We don’t have a strong union presence on our site despite being a predominantly factory environment in the NE.

They seem stuck in their past in terms of attitudes.

Oh here we go. Better wages and conditions is so out of date.

🙄

seems to only exist in heavily unionized environments

I dis-a-agree.

I’ve worked in a few non-unionised places where this is the case. Usually because all the crap travels down and all the gold travels up.

Like this case [as far as I can see].

The US concept of paying managers 20,30,100x as much as the frontline staff is stupid and divisive; it’s been carefully constructed by some people for their own benefit. Now might be too late to jump straight back to reality I admit, but it’s not actually adding anything to the value or quality of the company.

https://mafhom.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/23-things-they-dont-tell-you-about-capitalism.pdf

So a lot of people have some beef with their employer.

They withdraw their labour for a day and in return lose a days pay.

Whats so wrong with that?

If you were self employed, didn’t like the money someone was offering you for a job and could afford to turn it down, would you? I can’t really see the difference.

all the gold travels up

You mean like Network Rail’s boss who gets £675,000 despite only having 18 months work experience in the rail industry ?

Strike suspended

ayyyyy

Boo, working opportunity gone.

Although the possibility of strike action has been averted, it remains to be seen how many trains will run on Monday evening and Tuesday with many operators previously claiming they would not be running services irrespective of whether the strike was called off.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/train-strike-rmt-calls-off-bank-holiday-strike-action-10267273.html

This is how it’s supposed to work: management and unions carry on with mediated negotiations until they reach a compromise.

Ultimately if they continue to annoy “hard working people” then they will lose support.

The miners gave us rolling powercuts yet still retained widespread public support…

I hope that they are very proud.

Sounds like the union negotiators held their nerve and reached some sort of better agreement.
Not sure how different this really is from business negotiations, where customer wants to pay the least possible, and provider/seller says ‘find someone else to do it for less (ie sack us for striking), or choose us for this price’ and they meet somewhere in the middle. I hope that ‘somewhere in the middle’ represents good vfm for the union members’ subscriptions. Morally i see this as no different to large corporations who lobby westminster or buy their way into charity meals with ministers in order to lobby for their interests direct with the legislators.

Really, having lived (and gone on strike 😀 ) in France, the panic about this one felt like a storm in a teacup.

We were advised today that no Traffic Management would be put in place on Monday and Tuesday due to the rail strikes.

can you talk us through that one witton?

afaik “traffic management” is used to increase traffic flow, therefore a busy bank holiday weekend made busier by a rail strike would be a monumentally bad time to abandon TM and a cynic might wonder whether the powers that be were intentionally making things worse*.

or do you mean work on implementing TM eg on the M60, will be delayed? Not clear from your post what you mean.

*or didn’t want (stupid) motorists complaining about TM during a rail strike, despite fact TM should help matters.