Are you saying no trains will leave Kings Cross without a guard, it's not that many years ago that they needed two drivers why not now?
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Northern rail strike ?
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Are you saying no trains will leave Kings Cross without a guard, it's not that many years ago that they needed two drivers why not now?
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O L Leigh
Established Member
Three members of the same family working at Leeds station...? So what? I used to work in the same office as my Mum when I left university and remained within the same organisation for three years.
It's not a smoking gun and doesn't prove impropriety in the recruitment process. All would have had to apply for a vacancy, be interviewed and pass any tests or medicals appropriate to their jobs.
Opinions are fine, but you seem to be presenting facts. Unfortunately your facts are wrong, just as they were with regard to union actions.
O L Leigh
It's not a smoking gun and doesn't prove impropriety in the recruitment process. All would have had to apply for a vacancy, be interviewed and pass any tests or medicals appropriate to their jobs.
Opinions are fine, but you seem to be presenting facts. Unfortunately your facts are wrong, just as they were with regard to union actions.
O L Leigh
Firstly can you please proof read your posts before posting them as the first part of that makes little sense.
But moving on...
sitting next to a driver still don't mean you know what their job entails or what they earn their money for. Ill admit that before I became a driver I had a train simulation game on my pc. I played it from time to time and I suppose I was quite good at it. I rarely missed stations, passed red lights, went over the speed limit etc but it certainly didn't mean I was an expert train driver when I came to starting the job. I still had everything to learn like anyone else and quickly realised that I wasn't being paid all that money to pull the levers and push the buttons up front. I was being paid for everything else that goes with it.
And I'm still waiting for you to back up your 'facts' from earlier such as your statement that most problems on the railway are caused by driver error.
Hypothetical question-
So mr mac you are employed in a customer facing roll and it takes 3 months to train you up to a reasonable standard, how would you feel if there were 4 vacancies at your place of employment and your boss wanted to employ 4 agency staff (on minimum wage) with a weeks training to do it?
Would you fight your corner or would you roll over and have your belly tickled?
So mr mac you are employed in a customer facing roll and it takes 3 months to train you up to a reasonable standard, how would you feel if there were 4 vacancies at your place of employment and your boss wanted to employ 4 agency staff (on minimum wage) with a weeks training to do it?
Would you fight your corner or would you roll over and have your belly tickled?
How would that affect me. The company will do what they want in the end
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Because they need them for now but if the money was spent there is no reason why the trains could not run without guards or drivers.
Now you tell me how many guards will be on the slow trains say between London and Peterborough
So therefore there is no point trying to protect your livelihood? Just let them sack you and replace you with people in a fraction of your pay? A race to the bottom then.
The company won't do what it wants in the end if its workforce kicks up enough of a fuss and forces them into talks.
Not for a long long time. If you spent the money you could stop cancer, end crime, abolish poverty through the world, get rid of most jobs-train drivers being just one!
But there isn't the money to throw at these things. Considering the national rail network needs so much work (almost rebuilding) to go unstaffed then I can't see it happening in our life times.
Of course it could-pilots, doctors, teachers etc could all be replaced by computer fairly easily but its not going to happen.
Ah so you are a "f#ck you Jack I am alright" type of person!
Says it all really.:roll:
I do honestly hope that at some stage in your carreer you need your fellow workers to back you up and I hope they behave in the same manner as you!
Me to but he thinks there are none and it could never happen, if enough money is spent anything is possible who knows what might happen in next 20 years like I put 20 years ago high speed needed 2 drivers
I think this discussion has gone on long enough and is, at this point, off topic. If there are developments in relation to Northern Rail and possible strike action please feel free to contact a member of the staff team to get the thread re-opened for discussion of that topic.
I have been informed that the results of the strike ballot have been released and as such I'm reopening this thread. I would ask that discussion remains confined to this topic alone and does not wander into discussing hypothetical future train crew arrangements. Further I would remind everyone that these topics can be very emotional, especially when you're discussing peoples employment. As such I'd ask that people think, before they post, about what impact their words might have on other people and keep in mind the forum rules.
If the discussion degenerates again then the thread will simply be locked.
Results of the RMT ballot:
Source
If the discussion degenerates again then the thread will simply be locked.
Results of the RMT ballot:
RMT said:
Source
ANorthernGuard
Established Member
- Joined
- 8 Oct 2010
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- 2,662
Good turnout, closer result than I expected, hopefully this will be enough to get Northern back around the table if not than I hope this is not long and drawn out.
sheff'd victoria
Member
Whos good at maths ?
what % are in favour of strike action ?
what % are in favour of strike action ?
Over 50% which is all that matters...
northwichcat
Veteran Member
57% yes
43% no
<1% spoiled
Although as ANorthernGuard has said hopefully the union and Northern can talk about resolving the problems and avoid going through with an actual strike.
sheff'd victoria
Member
Uncle Bob and the RMT and the word resolving . hmmmmm
Well, considering strike action is pretty rare and most of these kind of disputes are called off after talks between union and management I don't see what you mean by that? I think you have just decided to jump on the media image of him without taking any actual facts into consideration in an attempt to stir things up a bit.
No one wants to strike, no one wins out of it. I'd suggest reading the ret of the thread before commenting as there are numerous posts discussing this explaining that this kind of strike ballot is usually enough to persuade management to actually enter into meaningful talks which is what they were avoiding before.
northwichcat
Veteran Member
Wasn't there a strike called once by one union* for Northern workers before which never went ahead?
* Might not have been the RMT.
Beveridges
Established Member
I'm one of the ones voting yes.
Why the hell would anyone vote no? Never mind 40-odd percent. Shocking, we must have a lot of company-men.
Even though it doesn't effect me, I am never in favour of the idea of agency workers taking over and a race to the bottom in pay and T&C's.
Why the hell would anyone vote no? Never mind 40-odd percent. Shocking, we must have a lot of company-men.
Even though it doesn't effect me, I am never in favour of the idea of agency workers taking over and a race to the bottom in pay and T&C's.
There have been numerous over the uk, plus a number of 'strike ballots' reported in the press which had never been balloted. The press report routine pay talks as possible strike action.
It's very rare for a strike to go ahead but not quite so rare for it to be balloted.
Darren R
Established Member
What was the turnout - can't find any percentage quoted anywhere. Turnout is the figure always seized upon by management (and journalists.)
hairyhandedfool
Established Member
- Joined
- 14 Apr 2008
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- 8,837
The company put out a lot of propaganda (including printed leaflets sent by Royal Mail to employee's homes) trying to tell people they were striking over someone else's job and that it was no reason to lose a day's wages, etc, etc. I suspect a fair few may have bought into that.
northwichcat
Veteran Member
Remember Northern is a big company spread across a lot of bases. How people are feeling in Blackpool or Liverpool may be very different to Hull or Newcastle.
I think that's the key thing. Assuming that this was a Northern Rail wide ballot I suspect most of the negative votes will have come from places like the North East and Hull. Especially the North East as we don't have anyone who's an agency worker because all the staff, as far as I'm aware, are Northern employees, indeed there was a reasonably large recruitment drive six months or so ago for RPOs in the area. The same I think is mostly true of the Hull area. It's only really the North West where agency staff have taken off.
So I can easily imagine staff round my neck of the woods wouldn't want to strike and lose a days wages over something that doesn't affect them at all.
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