Do you support the RMT?

[Stephen230]

I genuinely do not get the need to strike, but I do back them as do I the nurses and posties etc...

For me the very simple solution which will affect the nation would be for EVERYONE to simply work to rule. You turn up for work, but you don't take a train out unless the management can guarantee you will be back at your base by the end of shift. Nurses say no to overtime to cover shifts. Posties the same, no overtime stop delivering at a time which will get you back to the yard on time. Trust me it may take a little longer to have the desired effect, but you will achieve this and more importantly the public will stay onside AND they will realise just how poorly run the businesses are and their dependency on the goodwill of workers.

The trouble with that idea is that most of the lowest paid rail workers are still on archaic British Rail contracts with low basic wages, supplemented with add ons and bonuses to bring it up to something approaching a living wage. These are the people who can least afford a sustained period of a work to rule. Whereas they are also mainly doing jobs that don’t actually stop trains runs.

The people who do stop trains running like drivers and guards have pretty much signed away most of their bargaining powers years ago for an enhanced basic wage.

So a work to rule would hit the lowest paid workers disproportionately, whilst causing manageable disruption for the companies.

 

[Bluesince1979]

My best pals a postie and where as i fully support the right to strike i worry that they are going to be architects of their own downfall.
I see no other outcome other than in years to come the royal mail will be just another DPD or UPS, just another delivery company.
Where as RM lads n lasses want everything ‘just so’ (as is their right) you have self emp delivery drivers dropping stuff at 10pm on a sunday night.
Im not saying either way is right or wrong. I just told him on sunday over a brew that ‘people’ will lose sympathy, they just want their parcels and will use other companies to deliver them

Hes losing £200 a week right up to xmas with strike days so all credit to them for believing in what they are doing. I just worry sometimes that union leaders are playing politics with the workers lively hoods

 

[Rascal]

Think all these strikes are an attempt to bring the government down

Your evidence being?

Ticket offices that sell 17 tickets a week do not need to be there

What do blond and disabled people do if there is no ticket office?

although there should be a prescence on every station whilst trains are operating.

There are already hundreds of stations where there is no staff present, that is why you need guards on trains

The walking of lines looking for cracks is outdated when technology is better than the human eye.

That technology is already being used. I though am quite happy for humans to walk the lines to check as the safer the better.

Guards on trains every train should be a 2 person service no matter what.There are pros and cons to all the conditions to what they are striking for and bosses cannot be allowed to just rip up everything

correct

,but there are also jobs that dont need doing or merging to people with multiple skills.We have to accept that.

Which jobs? Are you insinuating that managers should also clean train toilets?

Fair play to the unions for trying to get the best deal for the members but there has to be compromise.The companies give up something the workers give up something and are compensated as such.

The RMT have consistently said they will compromise, but not on compulsory job losses. Labour is always a cost to any company and cutting jobs is a way to make more profit at the expense of the customer.

 

[Stephen230]

My best pals a postie and where as i fully support the right to strike i worry that they are going to be architects of their own downfall.
I see no other outcome other than in years to come the royal mail will be just another DPD or UPS, just another delivery company.
Where as RM lads n lasses want everything ‘just so’ (as is their right) you have self emp delivery drivers dropping stuff at 10pm on a sunday night.
Im not saying either way is right or wrong. I just told him on sunday over a brew that ‘people’ will lose sympathy, they just want their parcels and will use other companies to deliver them

Hes losing £200 a week right up to xmas with strike days so all credit to them for believing in what they are doing. I just worry sometimes that union leaders are playing politics with the workers lively hoods

How long did that company last who tried to rival Royal Mail a few years ago?

“Other delivery companies “ are big on trying to compete with the business arm of Royal Mail. Not so much when it comes to delivering to a remote private address at the other end of the country for less than a quid.

 

[Bluesince1979]

How long did that company last who tried to rival Royal Mail a few years ago?

“Other delivery companies “ are big on trying to compete with the business arm of Royal Mail. Not so much when it comes to delivering to a remote private address at the other end of the country for less than a quid.

I get that totally, im fully in support of any one who feels the need to strike. Im just thinking out loud. Im not the enemy. Im concerned for my best pal if anything

Was it £400m the RM lost last year? Think i read that if scotland ever got independence then the RM would have to go up there because it loses so much in scotland.

As letters become outdated, and we are only left with parcels then what then for the RM.

 

[BlueHammer85]

Most people in ‘support’ of these strikes don’t actually have a clue about the working conditions, pay, contracts etc of the workers or what the Government is offering

They watch a brief Twitter video here and there and a few soundbites and just say they support the strikes as it’s an easy target at the Government

 

[Fred_Quimby]

Just listened on R4. I was not aware that the railways contract stipulates that any offers given to the union must go through the government first who can boycott it. Also the companies are recompensed for any losses on a strike day by the tax payer. So the strikers loose wages but the companies loose nothing. The companies have already forced through changes to engineering on 15 Dec and that is why the RMT have upped the anti.

 

[Bluesince1979]

Most people in ‘support’ of these strikes don’t actually have a clue about the working conditions, pay, contracts etc of the workers or what the Government is offering

They watch a brief Twitter video here and there and a few soundbites and just say they support the strikes as it’s an easy target at the Government

I support their right to strike rather than the reasons. By losing pay by striking i think they must feel strongly

I did say to my pal that they have to be careful not to stand still. Times change, you have to move with them.
One of the big things is having to work 1 in 4 sundays (still 5 days a week). I get youd be pissed off having to do odd sundays but in the age of 7 days a week deliveries dontbthe RM have to provide that too?

 

[Stephen230]

I get that totally, im fully in support of any one who feels the need to strike. Im just thinking out loud. Im not the enemy. Im concerned for my best pal if anything

Was it £400m the RM lost last year? Think i read that if scotland ever got independence then the RM would have to go up there because it loses so much in scotland.

As letters become outdated, and we are only left with parcels then what then for the RM.

I’ve no idea about the ins and outs of Royal Mail finances. Clearly the amount of ordinary mail that gets posted has reduced dramatically over the years. And will continue to do so. But it’s still an incredible service they offer when you think about it. Stick a letter in a box conveniently situated at the top of your road and have it delivered personally to an address maybe 400 miles away for less than the price of a pint of milk. None of the new kids on the block are offering anything that can compete with that.

 

[Stephen230]

Most people in ‘support’ of these strikes don’t actually have a clue about the working conditions, pay, contracts etc of the workers or what the Government is offering

They watch a brief Twitter video here and there and a few soundbites and just say they support the strikes as it’s an easy target at the Government

And likewise those who read everyone on the railway is earning crazy money and is demanding an inflation busting rise.

For example, how many people realise that the vast majority of people involved in this dispute, those employed by the train operating companies, haven’t actually had any offer whatsoever made to them, even though it is now over eight months since the last pay reviews were due?