ASLEF, the train drivers union, have yet to call anymore dates as far as I am aware.
The RMT, as already mentioned, represent almost all the grades on the railway especially when it comes to frontline staff.
TSSA have got a strike mandate at some TOCs but not all, they are more management side and their membership take up is way below ASLEF and the RMT.
Like many things about the railway, it's multifaceted and complicated to understand from the outside. Which leads to people witrering about train driver salaries and ignoring the actual issue with the proposals: thousands of jobs lost.
Some services run without a guard it's true, the TFL DLR, the Manchester Metrolink. The Metrolink is the wild west without onboard staff prescence: drugs, gangs and sexual offences are rife, people are left to rely on the almost non existent BTP prescence when there is a problem or to try and resolve issues after they have already been a victim.
I was a train conductor for 10 years, I can assure you the general public are thick as duck. My motto to new starts was 'you always think you've seen the stupidest behaviour ever then someone comes along and tops it.' Time and again this was proven right. For every seasond traveller who knows exactly where to stand for their preferred seat there are people who enter a station and their brain falls out.
There are also plenty of chancers trying it on. I have had to deal with on board mass brawls, a drunken idiot slashing his artery punching through a glass panel in the middle of nowhere, domestic violence, indecent exposure, I have been physically attacked by passengers and threatened. I have had to look after people including a new mum with a baby when a train has been stranded in the middle of nowhere late at night due to a fatality further up the line.
Recently, I was travelling back from Manchester Victoria when a woman was sat infront of me with her daughter was bothered by a weird bloke. He was drunk, sat across from them and engaged her young daughter in conversation before threatening to kill her stuffed rabbit. I immediately spoke to my platform staff colleagues (as I was off duty and had imbibed a few beverages) who ejected him from the train and the station. Jobs that wont exist under the new deal.
A good guard can deal with overcrowded services, boisterous passengers, undesirable elements and disruption as well as selling more than enough tickets to cover their salary many times over. On a good Monday morning I used to clear £2000 selling weekly season tickets.
The government and the train companies have a dream though. A dream where they get rid of all the frontline staff, especially competent people who can manage difficult situations, and have a few contracted in drones whilst passengers have to buy online or from a machine. If that doesnt work for you, tough bits it's a penalty fare. Booking offices can make tens of thousands a week even at smaller locations. Where will all this additional profit go if they save all the money they spend on staffing? If you think it will mean cheaper tickets I have some magic beans to sell you.
it’s my nan’s first Christmas without my grandad. I couldn’t go to his funeral either because it ended up on a strike day. I’m so sick of this!!
do you really think train drivers represent the entire striking workforce or did you forget that there are a million other railway jobs out there?