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[Crimpsal]

Hope this doesn't effect anyone on here too badly, but looks like it could be major disruption.

Three rail firms vote for strikes
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7949325.stm

[gswindale]

Thankfully the staff who work for my local TOC have sensibly voted against striking.

[AlistairW]

I wonder how much a strike costs a company and how many years wages that would pay. Of course if they didn't strike the jobs will be lost anyway, so the only people to loose out are the TOC's themselves.

[GlennMitchell]

I'm surprised that SWT voted against it after all the allegations coming out about them. Such as the one about them trying to conceal the number of job cuts.

Glenn

[gswindale]

It's because they know that we (the public) will be more annoyed with the lazy strikers than the TOC.
As far as I am concerned, no matter what the situation, disrupting other peoples livelihoods just because they don't like what's happening in their industry is not on.
Should they strike, they should be sacked. End Of.

[AlistairW]

The 'strike' culture on the railways is certainly interesting, I don't see strikes at factories that are having to make lay offs or any other industries for that matter. Then again in most industries such as manufacturing and retail the drop off in sales/demand is obvious to the workforce so people accept that lay offs will be required. Whereas the railways still run the same number of trains, and TOC's are still making large profits, for the time being.

As Gswindale said, it will turn the public against them more than anything.

Cheers,
Ali

[danielw2599]

It's because they know that we (the public) will be more annoyed with the lazy strikers than the TOC.
As far as I am concerned, no matter what the situation, disrupting other peoples livelihoods just because they don't like what's happening in their industry is not on.
Should they strike, they should be sacked. End Of.

Do you think they vote "yes" just for laughs or for something to do? Its not an easy decision to take by any stretch of the imagination, you lose days pay, usually lose any kind of entitlement to bonuses and get a mark put next to your name by managment. No one likes "going out", but it is usually the only way to make managment understand.

I apprieciate the inconvience to some, but if NX are planning to get rid of upto 300 staff, then do you not think that there would be some kind of reduction in service to compensate?...which of course will inconvience the public in the much more longer run.

As for being sacked, they are perfectly within thier rights to strike if it is union sactioned...just like any/most other industries (including no doubt yours), so I would be carefull what you say as one day you might just find yourself in a similar situation.

[gswindale]

We don't have a union as such in my line of work, or at least not one that I'm aware of.

I've been in the situation where jobs have been lost - in all of those cases, we (those who retained their jobs) managed to provide the same level of service to our clients.

Given that it's (from what I've read), ticket office jobs mainly at risk and not drivers. I don't see necessarily that there will be a reduction in service - the new ticket machines available are much more user friendly than the old self service ones. Inconvenient if you need something slightly more complicated, but you save money by buying in advance, so can do that over the phone/internet.

As has been said, you don't see people in other industries going on strike when they realise their jobs might be at risk - instead they get on with it and perform to the best of their ability to try and ensure that they aren't the people picked for redundancy (I know - I've seen it).

By going on strike, you're effectively saying that you can no longer work with your company, and as such, it should be time to part ways.

[205028]

I'm surprised that SWT voted against it after all the allegations coming out about them. Such as the one about them trying to conceal the number of job cuts.

Glenn

I work in a SWT ticket office where there is to be a lot of redundancies and to be honest Glenn what good would a strike do.They would just encourage passengers to use the TVMs and let people buy tickets on the train and this helps SWT to prove a point.The only way it may work is for a national strike with train crew also coming out on strike but this would be unlikely.

[ralph0chadkirk]

I'm surprised that SWT voted against it after all the allegations coming out about them. Such as the one about them trying to conceal the number of job cuts.

Glenn

There's just been so many job cuts theres nobody to go on strike!

[jbilton]

Hi
Always interesting to read both sides of a story, and read peoples differing perspectives.
Obviously as a Trade Unionist, I will always support collective bargaining.
The problem occurs when an agreement or compromise cannot be reached.
Hopefully reason will rule the day.
Although its increasingly difficult in a privatised world .... where profit pays for more and more managers to kick the staff, and drive workers conditions of service down.
I wouldn't pay much attention to the 'public' support .... its a myth..... Nurses have it for 5 Min's ... until they have the audacity to ask for a living wage.
'Old Joe public' died a number of years ago ..... when profit became king.
I watched a programme the other night..... where the premise was that only private business paid to run the country... they were the only real producers of wealth.
I can't believe how quickly the greed grows back.....I fear for the future of this country.
Its certainly not going to be a place for honest working people.
Cheers
Jon

[GlennMitchell]

They would just encourage passengers to use the TVMs and let people buy tickets on the train

If the guard comes down like once when I went to Farnborough from Brookwood when the ticket machine wasn't working, and the ticket office was closed and the guard never came (on a 4 carriage train.) I got a bit of a telling off at Farnborough for not having a ticket, even though it wasn't really my fault.

Glenn

[danielw2599]

Can't say for sure on all stations, but if the ticket office is closed and there is no ticket machine, there should at least be a Permit To Travel machine somewhere on the station to use. If not, then staff have no buisness complaining! theres only so much you can do.

[ralph0chadkirk]

They would just encourage passengers to use the TVMs and let people buy tickets on the train

If the guard comes down like once when I went to Farnborough from Brookwood when the ticket machine wasn't working, and the ticket office was closed and the guard never came (on a 4 carriage train.) I got a bit of a telling off at Farnborough for not having a ticket, even though it wasn't really my fault.

Glenn

You have to find the guard to make that valid. Whatever happens you still can be Pf'ed...

[205028]

They would just encourage passengers to use the TVMs and let people buy tickets on the train

If the guard comes down like once when I went to Farnborough from Brookwood when the ticket machine wasn't working, and the ticket office was closed and the guard never came (on a 4 carriage train.) I got a bit of a telling off at Farnborough for not having a ticket, even though it wasn't really my fault.

Glenn

Unfortunatly it is your responsability to find the guard not the other way round and although i see your point the tocs don't.