I’m a management grade and they’re constantly offering me extra pay if I learn safety critical roles such as train manager and dispatch and are willing to pay for me to have hotels up and down the country on strike days to do contingency work.
My family member who works at the airport all night doing a 12 hour shift travels 61 miles each way to get to work and home, sometimes, mostly Sundays it takes him 3+ plus hours to get home. He works weekends too. He doesn’t whine about it he just gets on with it. He does 4 nights on 4 nights off. He knows the train journey can be erratic so he leaves early to compensate for that. He’s also paid to spend 4 nights in a hotel nearer to the airport when the strikes are on. So yes it’s fine that he will more than likely lose his job this time as he has had disciplinary action taken against him for being absent after being told that he knew what the journey would be like before he took the job on. What he didn’t know was that there would be rail strikes. So yes, I will be angry about these strikes.
If being a Train Driver wasn't such a 'closed shop' occupation, then I'm sure many people would love the opportunity to apply to be one.
Just because your family member is okay with being exploited by his employer, doesn’t mean that everyone else should be.
Broken down train at Hampden Park, couldn’t be moved until a fitter arrived as the train couldn’t be moved without him. Missed the connecting train to Gatwick. Told to get a train to Brighton, boarded the train, then told to get off as no driver was available. Waited for another train. At Brighton was informed by a worker that there may or maybe not a train to Gatwick, all depends if a driver turns up. Finally arrived at Gatwick 5hours after leaving Hastings. My family member works at Gatwick, doing nights for just above the minimum wage and relies on the rail network to get him there. His job is now hanging in the balance because of these strikes. I agree we do need inspectors on board but unfortunately ticket offices in rural and smaller towns will eventually go because of progress. Many workers in various industries have lost their jobs because of progress and many more will.
I don’t think rail staff really want to strike, at least not any of the ones I’ve spoken to. But the unions have been negotiating for over a year at this point, and the companies don’t care. Staff are getting desperate and are struggling with the cost of living and poor work conditions
www.bbc.co.uk
Where will people go when the train is cancelled and need a note to get on another train?
The main redundancies that they want to make are safety critical roles, mostly the people who inspect and maintain the track.
In all honesty this government doesn’t give a damn about every day working people. They’re lining their own pockets whilst they can because when we get to vote, they will not be in power anymore. They are not willing to meet up with any of the unions to negotiate deals. Unfortunately Mick Lynch (in my opinion) doesn’t come across to well on tv.
We have a very obvious fare split that makes a huge difference in price when travelling to London. The jobsworth at our ticket office have refused to serve me this split in the past
I know three people whom work on the railways for train operating companies.