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Rail Strike


whelk
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1 hour ago, whelk said:

Must admit quite impressed by Mick Lynch but don’t know too much about him. 

 

 

 

I heard him interviewed on BBC radio last week, seems very astute. He grew up in London, the child of immigrant Irish Catholics, and became a builder, which led to him being illegally blacklisted for joining a trade union - something he only discovered about 20 years later. He says that politically he is most definitely not the radical left winger certain sectors of the media paint him as.

Edited by badgerx16
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Could probably add this in the small things that annoy thread but strikes are meant to have an impact. Why the fuck do people not get this? Yeah no trains between Yeovil and Salisbury between 1am and 6 am. That will get our grievances aired.

So ministers bemoaning that this impacts people. Err yeah it will!

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And no way Johnson wants this resolved. Another red meat battle where he can pull out all his quips.

If MPs took the lead and took a 5% pay cut i might have more respect for this ‘just fuels inflation’ line

Edited by whelk
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3 hours ago, whelk said:

And no way Johnson wants this resolved. Another red meat battle where he can pull out all his quips.

If MPs took the lead and took a 5% pay cut i might have more respect for this ‘just fuels inflation’ line

Grant Schapps/Michael Green doesn’t feel the government should broker - another way of sewing the seeds of culture war. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61854567
Not that someone like him would ever need to use trains https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/15/grant-shapps-admits-he-had-second-job-as-millioniare-web-marketer-while-mp

Fine if he wants to do that but his constituents had housing and other pressing concerns whilst he was channelling his inner Harry Enfield character:

 

Edited by saint1977
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9 hours ago, saint1977 said:

Grant Schapps/Michael Green doesn’t feel the government should broker - another way of sewing the seeds of culture war. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61854567
Not that someone like him would ever need to use trains https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/mar/15/grant-shapps-admits-he-had-second-job-as-millioniare-web-marketer-while-mp

Fine if he wants to do that but his constituents had housing and other pressing concerns whilst he was channelling his inner Harry Enfield character:

 

I also understand that he uses the names Alex Law 76

and  Batman 

and Delldays 

😁😁

 

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So many of the Press are obsessing about Starmer and referencing the 70s.

Yours guys have been in power for 12 years but hey let’s make it about the leader of the opposition. Quite sweet really that they are so one dimensional. But Sir Kier but Sir Kier

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42 minutes ago, whelk said:

So many of the Press are obsessing about Starmer and referencing the 70s.

Yours guys have been in power for 12 years but hey let’s make it about the leader of the opposition. Quite sweet really that they are so one dimensional. But Sir Kier but Sir Kier

To be fair, it seems to be Sir Kier's M.O. at the moment. It's almost as if his only tactic against one of the most inept PMs in history is to hope he can win the next election on the "anyone but Boris" ticket.

No surprise then that the Tory press have a simple job on their hands throwing as much mud as possible that they can then take up during the election campaign.

Would be nice if either of them actually came out and said what their principles are and then stood by them!

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I don't really have an issue with them striking but wouldn't really say i support them either.

They are never going to get scale of increase they are asking for but i can understand why they'd want to try and get more than 3%.

Equally i can see why network rail etc would want to get agreement to some element of modernisation alongside a higher than cap increase.

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2 minutes ago, Winnersaint said:

Sounded like he was trying to pin the blame on Harold Wilson at one point. What cunts these people are.

Their oh so clever spin doctors “keep referencing the 70s” “keep mentioning train drivers’ salaries” “keep saying that we aren’t hearing from the party that hasn’t been in power for over 10 years” oh and the money we gave from covid.  

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Where the pandemic caused a seismic shift towards homeworking and hybrid working, rail strikes will be less effective than they have been in the past.

Many of us are used to working from home and have the infrastructure to do so. So it's not such a big deal as it was 30 years ago

It's this seismic shift that has caused passenger numbers to drop and the need to restructure the railways, so it seems the unions are going to drive more people away, which will need more restructuring further down the line

I feel sorry for the small independent business owners, whose trade relies on passenger footfall. They are getting royally screwed over

Edited by Johnny Bognor
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31 minutes ago, Johnny Bognor said:

Where the pandemic caused a seismic shift towards homeworking and hybrid working, rail strikes will be less effective than they have been in the past.

Many of us are used to working from home and have the infrastructure to do so. So it's not such a big deal as it was 30 years ago

It's this seismic shift that has caused passenger numbers to drop and the need to restructure the railways, so it seems the unions are going to drive more people away, which will need more restructuring further down the line

I feel sorry for the small independent business owners, whose trade relies on passenger footfall. They are getting royally screwed over

No doubt two sides so not clear cut and more the way being done I think but obviously govt out misleading line ‘they refuse to modernise’ 

I know someone who works on railway and he says the calibre of management has fallen of a cliff in recent years. He is a moderate as well and only comparing with previous competency.

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The government's entire play seems to be "train drivers are already being paid £44k, that's loads compared to nurses, they should be happy with a 2% pay rise" ignoring that a) most drivers are part of a different union, the RMT covers most of the other railway staff and b) this just shows how poorly the govt pays nurses, not how well train drivers are paid!

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44 minutes ago, igsey said:

The government's entire play seems to be "train drivers are already being paid £44k, that's loads compared to nurses, they should be happy with a 2% pay rise" ignoring that a) most drivers are part of a different union, the RMT covers most of the other railway staff and b) this just shows how poorly the govt pays nurses, not how well train drivers are paid!

From the Guardian:
Rail workers are relatively well paid, because they have a strong and cohesive union. The average pay of those on strike is £33,000: that includes cleaners at one end of the spectrum and mechanics and engineers at the other. Well-paid drivers belong to another union, Aslef, which is not on strike, but the government includes their pay to inflate the average they claim that railway workers receive.

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3 hours ago, igsey said:

The government's entire play seems to be "train drivers are already being paid £44k, that's loads compared to nurses, they should be happy with a 2% pay rise" ignoring that a) most drivers are part of a different union, the RMT covers most of the other railway staff and b) this just shows how poorly the govt pays nurses, not how well train drivers are paid!

Exactly.The Tories go on about their desire to pay high pay for high skilled jobs. Then it’s a race to the bottom: “be grateful you’re getting paid a decent salary because look terribly we pay other occupations in the public sector!”.

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On 08/06/2022 at 07:13, whelk said:

Must admit quite impressed by Mick Lynch but don’t know too much about him. 

 

 

 

He works for the organisation that encouraged their members to vote leave in 2016...

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-reiterates-vote-leave-message/

Most unlike the RMT to be wrong on anything.... ;)

image.thumb.png.33ce94922f7e0bae79b119b71ff86bb1.png

Edited by trousers
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6 hours ago, jawillwill said:

Bloody hell, Mick Lynch is doing a marvellous job at embarrassing journos. Couple of my favourite clips from the last 24 hours...

 

Yes very refreshing and clearly not daunted or worried about offending. 

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The rail strikes are working quite well in Chichester.

The biggest cause of gridlock in the city are the level crossings in town, which spend nearly 30% of the day closed. This causes untold issues with traffic congestion.

The traffic has not been this free flowing since the lockdowns of last year

So every cloud and all that....

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Not corroborate, in the DT yesterday:

Demanding “walking-time allowance” of 12 minutes for a one-minute walk, specialist teams refusing to share vans, and engineers being unable to stray 500 yards from their dedicated patch are among the working practices that union chiefs are determined to defend, they claimed.

Anyone heard about these or other practices still around?

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22 hours ago, trousers said:

He works for the organisation that encouraged their members to vote leave in 2016...

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-reiterates-vote-leave-message/

Most unlike the RMT to be wrong on anything.... ;)

image.thumb.png.33ce94922f7e0bae79b119b71ff86bb1.png

Just bizzare.  All 5 of those "benefits" are quite obviously worst under an unchecked Tory government.  "end austerity.." the thing our government initiatives.  "stop the attacks on the NHS..." and entirely domestic policy.  "end attacks on our workers rights..." christ.

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2 hours ago, Doctoroncall said:

Not corroborate, in the DT yesterday:

Demanding “walking-time allowance” of 12 minutes for a one-minute walk, specialist teams refusing to share vans, and engineers being unable to stray 500 yards from their dedicated patch are among the working practices that union chiefs are determined to defend, they claimed.

Anyone heard about these or other practices still around?

I would believe this if Mick Lynch agreed and argued the merits but suspect just bs to undermine support.

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2 hours ago, Doctoroncall said:

Not corroborate, in the DT yesterday:

Demanding “walking-time allowance” of 12 minutes for a one-minute walk, specialist teams refusing to share vans, and engineers being unable to stray 500 yards from their dedicated patch are among the working practices that union chiefs are determined to defend, they claimed.

Anyone heard about these or other practices still around?

Refusing to permit sensors under trains to detect rail faults instead of loads of man hours walking the tracks.

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1 hour ago, rooney said:

Refusing to permit sensors under trains to detect rail faults instead of loads of man hours walking the tracks.

Network Rail has been operating engineering trains for years. They are equipped with lasers and ultrasound to detect faults in the line or the sleepers and track beds. They also use very high speed cameras (70000 frames/sec) capable of capturing every millimetre of track.

 

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7 minutes ago, ecuk268 said:

Network Rail has been operating engineering trains for years. They are equipped with lasers and ultrasound to detect faults in the line or the sleepers and track beds. They also use very high speed cameras (70000 frames/sec) capable of capturing every millimetre of track.

 

Not a usual source of info, but comes top of a Google search.......

 

https://www.funkidslive.com/learn/railways/faults-detected-network-rail-train-lines-find-new-measurement-train/

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1 hour ago, rooney said:

Refusing to permit sensors under trains to detect rail faults instead of loads of man hours walking the tracks.

 

9 minutes ago, ecuk268 said:

Network Rail has been operating engineering trains for years. They are equipped with lasers and ultrasound to detect faults in the line or the sleepers and track beds. They also use very high speed cameras (70000 frames/sec) capable of capturing every millimetre of track.

 

Yeah I had a friend at Network rail, part of his job was to write programs to analyse huge volumes of train sensor data, so this apparent refusal to permit sensors under trains sounds like total BS made up to undermine support for the strike.

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1 hour ago, StDunko said:

 

Yeah I had a friend at Network rail, part of his job was to write programs to analyse huge volumes of train sensor data, so this apparent refusal to permit sensors under trains sounds like total BS made up to undermine support for the strike.

Surely nobody in Government or the media would use such deceitful and underhand tactics.

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  • 1 month later...
2 hours ago, whelk said:

Enjoyed listening to recent James O’brien interview with Mick Lynch. Very interesting and eloquent character and pretty balanced.

So I presume that you won't support Truss' proposed legislation to further constrain the right of Public Sector workers to ballot for and take industrial action. If the UK currently ranks alongside Russia in terms of Global trade union rights, we will soon be slipping further down the list.

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  • 4 months later...
On 30/07/2022 at 13:38, badgerx16 said:

So I presume that you won't support Truss' proposed legislation to further constrain the right of Public Sector workers to ballot for and take industrial action. If the UK currently ranks alongside Russia in terms of Global trade union rights, we will soon be slipping further down the list.

Oh yeah now I remember Truss.

look who has employed the bots?

 

D8C4B747-AB8E-4D4F-8E43-B74A4A658937.jpeg

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