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SWR: Guards/RMT Industrial Action. Next strike dates: 30/31 August, 1/2 September 2019

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Goldfish62

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I’m sure if Labour win the next election, Mr Corbyn will do anything to avoid a huge public war with the likes of Mr Cash, so chances are guards would be ok, however it didn’t stop his colleague Mr Khan quietly axing all the bus conductors Boris recruited, so I’ve no idea who’s really truthful about a genuine commitment to public transport, workers rights etc etc
Sadly, the "conductors" were taken on by BoJo under false pretences. They were utterly irrelevant and never had a future. Their only role was to massage BoJo's ego.
 
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theironroad

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Sadly, the "conductors" were taken on by BoJo under false pretences. They were utterly irrelevant and never had a future. Their only role was to massage BoJo's ego.

As were the buses they were employed to work on. Massive waste of money.
 

greaterwest

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Anyone know if South Western Railway have been able to runs any more services today? I had been told on Twitter that this Saturdays timetable would depend on the number of staff avilable.

I can't imagine the precise same number of staff are avilable each Saturday.
Somehow they managed to produce and run a timetable of half hourly Woking - Alton shuttles yesterday for most of the day, despite the buses running to/from Farnborough, which were not withdrawn.
 

infobleep

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Somehow they managed to produce and run a timetable of half hourly Woking - Alton shuttles yesterday for most of the day, despite the buses running to/from Farnborough, which were not withdrawn.
Thats really good and in fact a better service than normal. I imagine the Alton Line Users association would rather have regular direct trains through to London than a shuttle to Woking and bus to Farnborough.
 

TEW

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A reduced service has run from Waterloo to Portsmouth via Guildford. I believe the route via Eastleigh may not have had a service on every strike day.
 

pompeyfan

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A reduced service has run from Waterloo to Portsmouth via Guildford. I believe the route via Eastleigh may not have had a service on every strike day.

Portsmouth Waterloo via Guildford has been 1 stopper 1 fast per hour.

Via Basingstoke has been either Eastleigh or Basingstoke shuttles.
 

infobleep

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Have the Portsmouth to Waterloo services run ok during the strike?
Whenever I traveled during the Saturday strikes, I had no problem getting a seat. Those are the ones with the most reduced number of services.

Whether they would be busier in the autumn when people are back at work I wouldn't know. Be interesting to see if they undertake Saturday strikes in the autmun.

They do seem to cause a lot more services not to run and I assume that's there intention.

I wonder what impact there would be if they striked on a Sunday. There are less trains running but would there be even less contingency guards to call upon?
 

Goldfish62

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Whenever I traveled during the Saturday strikes, I had no problem getting a seat. Those are the ones with the most reduced number of services.

Whether they would be busier in the autumn when people are back at work I wouldn't know. Be interesting to see if they undertake Saturday strikes in the autmun.

They do seem to cause a lot more services not to run and I assume that's there intention.

I wonder what impact there would be if they striked on a Sunday. There are less trains running but would there be even less contingency guards to call upon?
There has been a strike on at least one Sunday and from what I recall it was pretty much a normal service.

The issue with the summer is that the contingency guards will themselves be on holiday as will the drivers of replacement buses.
 

infobleep

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There has been a strike on at least one Sunday and from what I recall it was pretty much a normal service.

The issue with the summer is that the contingency guards will themselves be on holiday as will the drivers of replacement buses.
I had forgotten that.

Perhaps they could have striked Saturday 12pm to Sunday 12pm during this current summer, that would then affect two days whilst still being a 24 hour strike.
 

pompeyfan

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I had forgotten that.

Perhaps they could have striked Saturday 12pm to Sunday 12pm during this current summer, that would then affect two days whilst still being a 24 hour strike.

The RMT tried that on Southern, and GTR found a loophole that allowed them to dock the guards two days pay for guards that were affected by both days.
 

Monty

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Saturday's strike has been suspended, just got the text message from the union this afternoon.

Will post further updates when more details become clear.
 

infobleep

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South Western Railway saying strike cancelled to allow further talks.

Interestingly the people updating the Web Site disruption info had provided comprehensive disruption information for this Saturday. Far better than previous Saturdays. Closed stations having bus info that seems to be accurate. No having to view the gender FAQs for the bus info to Shepperton. No telling you Berrylands station is closed (even though trains stopping there). I guess that means you can no longer use the K2 bus.

Only few minor things I noticed on the new info page that could be changed - one of which I alerted them to.

All that work, which would have been useful on previous Saturdays, up for all to use and now the strike is postponed. Typical.

Hopefully they will archive this in case it is of use in the future.
 

CN75

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Perhaps the language of the press releases from SWR and the RMT suggests the RMT wanted the strike suspended this week. Some unlucky guards may have lost four days of pay in the last month and see the cost on payday. SWR have increased some services on strike days, which is only possible with more guards available.

In fairness to the RMT things are looking awkward now, as everyone involved knows they have no more time after these strikes before having a third ballot. There must be a significant chance it would not renew the mandate given how slim it was last time. If that happened, there is precious little negotiating time left until they are spent and drop out of the discussion.

The SWR offer on guards is far better than Merseyrail or Northern’s already, and with some negotiated tweaks it could easily keep some significant power in the RMT’s influence, which is what this is all about. Whether those options are still available to be negotiated or not remains to be seen.
 

infobleep

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Perhaps the language of the press releases from SWR and the RMT suggests the RMT wanted the strike suspended this week. Some unlucky guards may have lost four days of pay in the last month and see the cost on payday. SWR have increased some services on strike days, which is only possible with more guards available.

In fairness to the RMT things are looking awkward now, as everyone involved knows they have no more time after these strikes before having a third ballot. There must be a significant chance it would not renew the mandate given how slim it was last time. If that happened, there is precious little negotiating time left until they are spent and drop out of the discussion.

The SWR offer on guards is far better than Merseyrail or Northern’s already, and with some negotiated tweaks it could easily keep some significant power in the RMT’s influence, which is what this is all about. Whether those options are still available to be negotiated or not remains to be seen.
In what way is it better? I've not followed the other DOO for Merseyrail or Northern.
 

Robertj21a

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Perhaps the language of the press releases from SWR and the RMT suggests the RMT wanted the strike suspended this week. Some unlucky guards may have lost four days of pay in the last month and see the cost on payday. SWR have increased some services on strike days, which is only possible with more guards available.

In fairness to the RMT things are looking awkward now, as everyone involved knows they have no more time after these strikes before having a third ballot. There must be a significant chance it would not renew the mandate given how slim it was last time. If that happened, there is precious little negotiating time left until they are spent and drop out of the discussion.

The SWR offer on guards is far better than Merseyrail or Northern’s already, and with some negotiated tweaks it could easily keep some significant power in the RMT’s influence, which is what this is all about. Whether those options are still available to be negotiated or not remains to be seen.

No doubt SWR fully realise that the RMT may not get the mandate renewed and could decide that they have now done more than enough.
Whether the RMT will see sense is another matter.
 

CN75

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In what way is it better? I've not followed the other DOO for Merseyrail or Northern.

Southern, SWR and Greater Anglia all always agreed to a guard/OBS wherever there already was one, unless there were exceptional circumstances. Then the train would run with passengers until a guard/OBS could be provided (and so far, the Southern model appears to show this arrangement works well).

Merseyrail’s plans were completely DOO and later changed to a second person after 8pm.

Northern have a contract to run 50% of their trains DOO. Half the guards stay on board and the other half do a station, accessibility and ticket checking job.
 

pompeyfan

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I’d say the comment about the Southern model working well is optimistic at best, just ask the ABC and their DOO evidence.
 

TEW

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The latest letter from SWR to the RMT suggests a shift in position from SWR, and that is why the strike has been called off for further talks.
 

TEW

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People who have reason to see it will have seen it.
 

TheManBehind

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Interestingly the people updating the Web Site disruption info had provided comprehensive disruption information for this Saturday. Far better than previous Saturdays. Closed stations having bus info that seems to be accurate. No having to view the gender FAQs for the bus info to Shepperton. No telling you Berrylands station is closed (even though trains stopping there). I guess that means you can no longer use the K2 bus.

Only few minor things I noticed on the new info page that could be changed - one of which I alerted them to.

All that work, which would have been useful on previous Saturdays, up for all to use and now the strike is postponed. Typical.

Hopefully they will archive this in case it is of use in the future.

It was a bit of a labour. Happy to feed back any bits that need changing (K3 to Surbiton has been added). And yes - all kept for next weekend...
 

Carlisle

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The latest letter from SWR to the RMT suggests a shift in position from SWR, and that is why the strike has been called off for further talks.
They’d be rather foolish to completely back down to the RMT if the industry and politicians still harbour any hope of achieving deals on northern, merseyrail or anywhere else, that don’t require a second safety critical person on every train at all times.
 
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TEW

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They’d be rather foolish to completely back down to the RMT if the industry and politicians still harbour any hope of achieving deals on northern, merseyrail or anywhere else, that don’t require a second safety critical person on every train at all times.
There are certainly hints that that is the way it is going. What we don't know yet is whether SWR are serious with this offer, or if it was just a way of getting the strikes called off again, which is what they did with the planned strikes over the Royal Ascot meeting. We'll know more next week when we get a sense of how the talks are going. The RMT have already said next weekend's strike will be called off in the talks are going well.
 

3141

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They’d be rather foolish to completely back down to the RMT if the industry and politicians still harbour any hope of achieving deals on northern, merseyrail or anywhere else, that don’t require a second safety critical person on every train at all times.

You may or may not (be old enough to) recall that in the early 1980s the government was forced to give way over proposed coal mime closures after the National Union of Mineworkers threatened to strike. The country would have run out of coal in about six weeks. But when the miners went on strike in 1984-85 substantial stockpiles of coal had been built up. The situation on the railways is different, of course, but we could consider the possibility that the government realises that the present disputes over a second person on a train are not getting anywhere, and it's better to give up the struggle for the time being, especially as Brexit is a much bigger issue and will continue to present challenges after next March. However, they might draw up plans to approach the matter in different ways in future. For example, there might be generally lower fares per mile on routes than were DOO.

This is entirely speculative: I have no inside information, and I'm just thinking about possible pragmatic approaches.
 

dk1

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They’d be rather foolish to completely back down to the RMT if the industry and politicians still harbour any hope of achieving deals on northern, merseyrail or anywhere else, that don’t require a second safety critical person on every train at all times.

Greater Anglia guards have thankfully already cracked that argument. Guaranteed second person on all trains that have them now until the end of the franchise in 2025.
 

dk1

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There are certainly hints that that is the way it is going. What we don't know yet is whether SWR are serious with this offer, or if it was just a way of getting the strikes called off again, which is what they did with the planned strikes over the Royal Ascot meeting. We'll know more next week when we get a sense of how the talks are going. The RMT have already said next weekend's strike will be called off in the talks are going well.

Again very similar to GA who found common ground with the RMT at the 11th hour with action called over the upcoming Family Fun Day at Newmarket Racecourse & the hugely publicised & very first Great Yarmouth Airshow.
 

TEW

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Greater Anglia guards have thankfully already cracked that argument. Guaranteed second person on all trains that have them now until the end of the franchise in 2025.
It looks like it is something similar to the Greater Anglia deal that SWR might go for too, with a second person on all trains, but not necessarily operating the doors everywhere. Whether ASLEF on SWR would sign up for operating the doors is another question.
 
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