What percentage of the passenger market do you think rail has? At present, Buxton has one train an hour towards Manchester but a bus every 30 mins (change at Stockport at the same bus stop onto a bus every 5 mins).only if you cancel most of the countries regular services though, someone needs to drive them, maybe the signallers could be trained.
Plus many of those who were furloughed were able (and legally entitled) to seek employment opportunities elsewhere whilst still receiving full furlough payments.
A large proportion of the freight will happily run in the daytime you know. Given the passenger operators are going to be on strike as well that's not going to be too difficult.
A bus already runs between Buxton and Manchester Airport, it's not long distance. Lots of people use it end to end.
The thresholds are of course for each individual ballot.
What would your thoughts have been if there had been no Governmental furlough scheme?
Not so sure that there are many ‘full’ buses these days…
I'd like to think that your union exec would recognise that if it actually came to strike action though. The very real risk from their point of view is that strikes can't be sustained for very long, exactly for the reason that you state. The mandate alone sends a powerful message though, and the mere threat of even a couple of carefully considered strike days puts more pressure on a Government who are seemingly already feeling nervous (and rightly so). Removing rest day work will certainly cause them some problems (but not necessarily everywhere?), and in reality that's probably what'll have the greatest impact, but the membership saying "no, we won't go on strike" is a serious sign of weakness.
A few years ago, was the day of the Grand National at Aintree a date targeted for a rail strike day?
You seem to be very sure of yourself. All but 1 out of about 25 signallers I've spoken to have voted yes.
A strike isn't just about getting a few extra pound notes in your pocket. The writing is on the wall, GBR on the horizon and it will be a case of our way or the high way unless the workforce stick tougher. Same happened with Railtrack and hence the 1994 strikes.
It happened in 2017. Don't know if it was a coincidence or targeted deliberately.
There was 49 RMT ballots in 2020? And with half the year being in lockdown, I’m guessing this was lower than normal
Presumably, the RMT were very proud of the action they had taken. It does rather emphasise how out of touch they are.
Ballot results are all archived on the RMT website.
96 years ago, there was a National Strike, in which the railway unions went on strike with other trades unions. It started on 4th May 1926 and ended on 12th May 1926.
How long is a piece of string? But it's likely that there will be at least one day of industrial action in every week. For example Aslef members could strike on Fridays and RMT / TSSA members on Sundays. And then the next week they might swap around. It might be Saturdays instead of Fridays. Multiple sets of members might also take Industrial action at the same time.
Plus of course striking for 24 hours straddling two days, meaning two days are effected with only one days pay lost. Seems to be a trick they often use on the London Undergound
