Strike 5th & 6th August

The press is full of statistics about Tube workers Ts & Cs, but often don't make things clear what is normal for shift workers.

For example, a headline this morning says Tube Workers get 52 days annual leave. Reading further I discover that 43 is a more common allowance, but this is still rather more than my own allowance (32.5) which is considered generous for a 9 to 5 desk job. But of course, I also get 104 weekend days and eight Bank Holidays off as well, so I end up only working 220.5 days. As the Tube runs on bank holidays and weekends, I would guess annual leave arrangements have to take that into account - how does it actually work?

And this much shouted-about 200/shift "for a short transitional period", as the press release has it. How short - A year? A month? Less?

Drivers get 43 days, station staff 52. The 52 days breaks down as 29 days leave, 8 days for bank holidays, as we work them all, the remaining 15 days is a result of us working 2.5 hours a week unpaid over the course of a year.

Yes.

A brilliant article from the telegraph here

Absolutely hilarious. Some of the comments are just as bad!

I counted at least 6 clichés, including gems such as:






and

I appreciate this strike wasn't about money - I have considerable sympathy with staff work life balances up in the air.  I wonder if management introduced negotiations about night tube late to try and prevent industrial action happening throughout the year up until the night tube and keep it to just the last couple of months.  Who knows!  It was disappointing (but not surprising) to hear the BBC refer to the strike simply as a 'dispute over night tube pay' during one of their '60 Round Up' segments.  No more info or details, just that!  

Tube staff really can't win.  A commuter was being interviewed on TV and when they put it to him the strike wasn't about money but ensuring decent customer service, the response was (along the lines of) "If tube staff really cared about customer service, they'd stop withdrawing the service to customers every couple of months."
 And I'm sure people have seen this circulating social media..

I noted that none of my friends who are doctors posted it!

Presumably that works in their favour - "Joe Public" think the strike is about pay, and then criticise the tube drivers for earning so much and demanding such huge pay rises, rather than being about work/life balance etc. meaning that the unions look like the bad guys in the strike?

Some more potentially on the cards. www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/road-and-rail-transport/11796451/Tube-strike-RMT-announces-two-more-24-hour-walkouts-on-London-Underground.html

How are the strikes being received by those at TfL? Are managers becoming more willing to talk, or are they standing their ground out of principle? And for those on the front line, are the strikes believed to be effective and worth losing a fair few days pay over, or do staff feel they're beginning to antagonise the public and it's a pride thing for union bosses?

Excellent, keep up the good work sisters! I'm loving my travels on RTs and RMs, the photo ops, the banter with strangers. Keep them going as long as you can. No one really suffers hardship, they're all making it up for effect. And we all feel your suffering for the shift work and low pay.

I'm not keen on the way, on the mainline, the driving grade has become aloof to other grades. It's true that drivers carry a heavy safety responsibility, but other grades do too, right down to platform dispatch staff.

Fortunately LUL hasn't really gone the same way, largely I think due to the fact that station staff are still fully trained in operational procedures - unlike the mainline where sadly station staff are now largely either dispatch, gateline or booking office. This is partly why disruption on the mainline is often handled badly as many staff simply aren't trained in how the railway works.

I hope LU doesn't follow this unsatisfactory state of affairs. It's in the railway's best interest for all grades to work well together, and for everyone to know and respect each other's job. Sadly I'm getting the impression LU may eventually go down the same road. As an example of why we should resist this path, in the last couple of years I've seen a noticeable increase in station staff reporting train staff for alleged wrongdoing. I've no problem with this if there is a safety issue which needs to be addressed, but the issues I've dealt with have not been safety related, and upon investigation have generally been found to be unfounded, basically the result of the complainant not understanding the train staff's responsibilities. I can also think of examples where the same has happened the other way round. As a company we could do without this unpleasantness, all grades should stick together.