Rail industry preparing for national strikes

[ANorthernGuard]

Lots of wasted time and the RMT lost.

They Lost because Aslef threw them under the bus

 

[LowLevel]

24th May 2022

DEFEND JOBS, PAY & CONDITIONS - EAST MIDLANDS RAILWAY



I write to advise you that the ballot has now closed and the result is as follows: -



Are you prepared to take strike action?



Number of individuals who were entitled to vote in the ballot: 773

Number of votes cast in the ballot: 496

Number of individuals answering “Yes” to the question: 405

Number of individuals answering “No” to the question: 89

Number of spoiled or otherwise invalid voting papers returned: 2



Are you prepared to take industrial action short of a strike?



Number of individuals who were entitled to vote in the ballot: 773

Number of votes cast in the ballot: 496

Number of individuals answering “Yes” to the question: 464

Number of individuals answering “No” to the question: 32

Number of spoiled or otherwise invalid voting papers returned: 0


Seems fairly conclusive. I can't say I necessarily agree with striking but I do feel a touch of despair when I see my petrol prices ever increasing and talks of the fuel cap terrify me.

 

[nedchester]

Remember, like it or not, you’re one of the miners!

But I remember how it turned out for them.

 

[yorkie]

Id sooner have a guard than a pay rise. I hate DOO. 23 years of it with current TOC. 12 years before with a guard . I prefer my mate at my back

And I much prefer a DOO train with a friendly ticket inspector as on Scotrail electrics than someone at the back, but we can't always get what we want!

The people who can work from home are already doing so and won’t be impacting. You’d be surprised at the number of railway staff who are still working from home.

Leisure travel is the cash cow, not commuter traffic

Except it's not that much of a cash cow, and it's a more discretionary, fickle market, which may be best not taken for granted.

 

[ar10642]

The people who can work from home are already doing so and won’t be impacting. You’d be surprised at the number of railway staff who are still working from home.

Leisure travel is the cash cow, not commuter traffic

There is no cash cow, the whole thing is propped up by taxpayer's money! Honestly I'm a big fan of train travel even if it costs me more but this is making me want to go full Beeching and rip them up.

 

[DanNCL]

Workers do have rights. But would any of you be happy if one of your loved ones died as there was nobody in A&E to save them as they'd all gone on strike? No you wouldn't. Obviously a train not running isn't the same life or death situation, but it's still an essential service and should still be protected from this level of chaos accordingly.

Leisure travel is the cash cow, not commuter traffic

It's the leisure travel that'll start voting with their feet.

And I much prefer a DOO train with a friendly ticket inspector as on Scotrail electrics than someone at the back, but we can't always get what we want!

I'd just settle for a train that turned up and got me to my destination these days!

 

[Andyh82]

Oh come along now. Let's be honest. The government have been totally incompetent. They and their cronies have blocked any form of pay negotiation. All they had to do was get around the table. Inflation is at 10% and rising.

If you want to see incompetence. Look to a government who's amazing leader between getting Pissed and telling lies, openly admitted he signed the NI protocol believing the EU would never hold him to it.

There Sherlock is your villain's. Not workers who turned up for work during a pandemic to be coughed, sneezed and in some cases spat at.

Give over, you’ve already said you had less than 10 passengers per trip, and we all know that ticket inspections were suspended and areas around the cabs were taped off. Working in the lockdowns sounds like the ideal job, you get to work the trains, on full pay, but with no annoying passengers getting in the way

 

[the sniper]

The one where the BR Board was on the point of issuing redundancy notices to everyone and shutting the railway down, resulting in ASLEF caving in?

RIP the railway, 1825 to 1982. The passengers just never came back...

 

[ANorthernGuard]

Give over, you’ve already said you had less than 10 passengers per trip, and we all know that ticket inspections were suspended and areas around the cabs were taped off. Working in the lockdowns sounds like the ideal job, you get to work the trains, on full pay, but with no annoying passengers getting in the way

It was the most boring and worrying time of my 19 Year Railway Career

 

[ar10642]

They Lost because Aslef threw them under the bus

Whatever. There's literally zero difference travelling on a Southern train after the changes happened.

 

[DanNCL]

Give over, you’ve already said you had less than 10 passengers per trip, and we all know that ticket inspections were suspended and areas around the cabs were taped off. Working in the lockdowns sounds like the ideal job, you get to work the trains, on full pay, but with no annoying passengers getting in the way

The sceptical side of me thinks that this is exactly what some people want - empty trains to work on full pay.

 

[adc82140]

Oh come along now. Let's be honest. The government have been totally incompetent. They and their cronies have blocked any form of pay negotiation. All they had to do was get around the table. Inflation is at 10% and rising.

Far from it. The government know exactly what they are doing with this. And the RMT have unfortunately fallen hook, line and sinker for it. They can now blame all their shortcomings on the unions.

 

[43066]

But I remember how it turned out for them.

Ultimately I’m sure none of us relish the prospect of industrial action, and I’ve made my own views clear on whether I’d personally vote to strike over pay, but this union represents many low paid workers and we have to respect the evident strength of feeling here.

 

[Carlisle]

That list of ticket office closures they published was a load of bollocks, but no doubt it'll have convinced some people to vote for this action who otherwise wouldn't have.

Can a ballot be ruled illegal over that ?

 

[43096]

RIP the railway, 1825 to 1982. The passengers just never came back...

Freight in many cases didn't.

 

[Cletus]

At least 14 days' notice of a strike is required. Of course it's possible that people will already start refusing to work overtime/rest days now that the result has been announced, with deleterious consequences for the service (as has happened over at ScotRail).

In reality I would expect the first strikes to be announced for mid-June. And to continue for months.

Thanks.

Damn - I'm in Scotland for a week in mid-June and in the west country in July. Non-refundable hotels and advance tickets booked. It wasn't looking good for train services in Scotland to begin with

Won't be planning any railway journeys now for the foreseeable future

 

[Signal_Box]

I did warn you.....and so did your colleagues. So .... signalling staff , guards, and drivers all strike on separate days. Each grade loses a day's pay, but the railway shuts down for 3 days. That's the likely reality. And it could well go on for a long time.

You did indeed, and I’m women enough to eat my hat.

 

[cuccir]

Well done to RMT members for taking this vote. I will be among the commuters put out by any strike, but it is vital that workers start pushing for their rights in this country. There are too many who don't want others to have a good life. I hope you win, I hope that doesn't require strike action, but many will be behind you if you have to take it.

 

[DanNCL]

The BBC are reporting that 13 operators have voted for strike action:

Rail strike: RMT union votes for national action

RMT members vote in favour of strike action across Network Rail and 13 train operating companies.

www.bbc.co.uk

RMT workers at 13 train companies also voted in favour. These were Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern Railway, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast and West Midlands Trains.
GTR (including Gatwick Express) voted only for action short of a strike.
And Island line on the Isle of Wight voted against either.

 

[ANorthernGuard]

Can a ballot be ruled illegal over that ?

If it could than the Tories should be thrown out lol

 

[Swanley 59]

Well, they've got their mandate and no-one can argue it isn't a strong one. Personally I'm just sad. My gut feeling is that this will not end well. This Government and in particular the Treasury I can't see having any inclination to do anything other than offer perhaps a modest pay increase (well below inflation). I suspect anything else will require job cuts or productivity improvements. I hope I'm wrong and that the HM Treasury are bluffing and now having had their bluff called will do a deal. But I doubt it.

I suspect that HM Treasury will be rubbing that hands in glee at the opportunity to finally do something about the blasted railway and that bottomless pit of money (in their mind) that it consumes. I have no doubt that they're probably still irritated that whilst they were able to force pay freezes or 1% rises on the public sector the railway was able to get above inflation rises back during the worst of austerity in the early 2010s. Equally I'm sure that they're still rankling at the millions that they poured into the industry during Covid. I have no doubt that given their time again they'd have told all the TOCs to just furlough staff and not bother running anything other than a true skeleton service over most routes (enough perhaps to keep up route and traction knowledge with staff shuffling on and off furlough in sequence, see Eurostar for the example). Then there's the bunch of shysters that make up the actual Government. I have no doubt that they'll be ecstatic at the opportunity to have a good punch up with a Union. That's some nice juicy red meat to feed to their base and to the Daily Mail et al to distract from their mates ransacking the country and all the booze fuelled parties that were definitely work events.

Hopefully I'm just pessimistic and this will all work out okay in the long run. But right now? I can't help but feeling that even if a short term deal is secured in the long run the Treasury will finally be able to manoeuvre things to do real damage to what it sees as a blackhole eating it's money.

Excellent post. I fear you'll be proved right in the long run.

 

[DanNCL]

Can a ballot be ruled illegal over that ?

If it can be proven to be deliberately misleading then I believe it can, yes. If I were in the shoes of any of the TOCs I'd be seeking to urgently prove that the ticket office closures document published by the RMT was a load of nonsense.

 

[Robertj21a]

You could also be angry with the govt for not authorising any pay award offer to head off the likelihood of

That's One hell of a blow to the Gov

A strike is only going to boost the Tory vote at the next election.

 

[ar10642]

Well done to RMT members for taking this vote. I will be among the commuters put out by any strike, but it is vital that workers start pushing for their rights in this country. There are too many who don't want others to have a good life. I hope you win, I hope that doesn't require strike action, but many will be behind you if you have to take it.

Nobody will win. All this will do is accelerate the inevitable cuts to services.

 

[TUC]

This will be the Tories Miners dispute for 2022.

I hope I'm wrong but they've been waiting for this fight for a while.


Exactly this.

And I hope it ends in a similar way.

 

[nedchester]

Ultimately I’m sure none of us relish the prospect of industrial action, and I’ve made my own views clear on whether I’d personally vote to strike over pay, but this union represents many low paid workers and we have to respect the evident strength of feeling here.

In many ways I don't disagree with that but I have said all along I think the current Government have been up for a fight with the Rail Unions. In the past the privatised operators have, as a rule, shied away from major confrontation. Now because they are effectively publicly owned the battle is at the door or the Government.

This could be a watershed moment for how the rails are operated and funded.

 

[dk1]

Some dramatic comments here tonight lol.

 

[Tomp94]

Thanks.

Damn - I'm in Scotland for a week in mid-June and in the west country in July. Non-refundable hotels and advance tickets booked. It wasn't looking good for train services in Scotland to begin with

Won't be planning any railway journeys now for the foreseeable future

Can you not get a refund for the un-used train tickets, assuming there's a strike on your day of travel...

 

[Horizon22]

I’m personally not surprised by the ballot in the slightest.

Moral amongst colleagues is at an all time low and I’ve never worked in an industry like it where every single member is annoyed, feeling undervalued and unappreciated by those who employ them. I can’t even recall getting a Christmas email of the top management this year and the employee appreciation board has been ripped down and replaced with notices

I certainly agree with the undervalued and unappreciated bit. I think some of this has been to certain individuals / managers / teams being able to work from home and there being a disconnect there. Simple things seem to be missing.

I am not surprised the strike reached the threshold as it is clear people wanted to be stood up and heard and want change. However, much like certain decisions in politics over the last decade, people need to be careful about the what this could mean in reality going forward. It’s going to be a messy few months I feel.

Also if others unions push forward with strikes/industrial action as has been alluded too, then it will feel more like a combined “summer of discontent” and that would hopefully be more desirable as it makes the railway look like it doesn’t stand alone and making ‘outlandish’ demands.

 

[yorkie]

Can you not get a refund for the un-used train tickets, assuming there's a strike on your day of travel...

For the train tickets, yes. But if the hotel is non-refundable that's a big hit to take.