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Tube workers decided to be a pain in the backside for X mas

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 9:25 pm
by nightbeaver911
Tube go-slow to coincide with rugby parade
BY PA NEWS



London Underground workers are to stage a 48-hour go-slow next month, beginning on the same day as the England Rugby team’s World Cup victory parade through the capital.

The industrial action, protesting over track safety, threatens travel chaos for millions of commuters and Christmas shoppers.



Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union announced that they would stage their demonstration on December 8 and 9, with the threat of further disruption in the week running up to Christmas Eve unless the row was settled.
Okay so that I agree with, but this I dont:
Tube faces strike over five drink sackings
By Stephen Brook



LONDONERS face a Christmas Tube strike after five workers were sacked over the discovery of alcohol in their staffroom.



The National Union Of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said it would recommend that its members strike unless the workers were reinstated within seven days. Any strike would be held about the time of Boxing Day.

Metronet, the Tube maintenance contractor responsible for two thirds of the system, said that the workers were dismissed after a cleaning contractor found 111 cans of lager, beer and cider and an empty bottle of brandy in a messroom in the bowels of Farringdon station in October. Cans were found in the fridge, a cooker and hidden in a cavity in the ceiling.


that I dont, if your found with alcohol when you shouldnt have it you should be sacked! Inconsiderate people why dont they make everyones christmas sh!t. Sorry but it gets under my skin.

BTW thats all copied n pasted from the Times website, http://www.thetimes.co.uk just so I dont get in trouble.

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 10:16 pm
by thedarkness
Alcohol in the staff room?
I suppose they would really have to be caught in the act, or fail a test to be booted out.
For every train driver, theres normally at least 5 people who waiting for a vaccancy

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 11:11 pm
by lateagain
Were you a fan of, and I really sincerely don’t mean to patronise you here, and are you old enough to have watched Spitting Image?

If so you may well have been bemused by the portrayal of journalists as pigs!

I went to school in an era when journalism was considered a worthy and respectable profession. The Times was “recommended readingâ€

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 3:24 pm
by nightbeaver911
lateagain wrote:Were you a fan of, and I really sincerely don’t mean to patronise you here, and are you old enough to have watched Spitting Image?

Oh, by the way, I work in education. I’m just interested in trains like you. Don’t even commute on them anymore because the current investment programme or the huffing and puffing of Livingstone is not in making that possible for me. It’s not in the interest of the investors to make rail-commuting work for me. The current investment is just about making a buck for the operators and investors. Rail is a business now. Not a service. If they were selling cars…… we’d all be riding bikes by now!
Too young i would think, ohh to be young :D and here here in that order.

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 4:11 pm
by Fodda
I heard on the radio 4 news yesterday that 11 workers had been suspended from work facing dismissal because management couldn't decide who was the guilty party. That was why the union was looking at industrial action. If the guilty are dismissed fine... But how would you like to be summarily sacked from your job just because some idiot broke the rules and didn't own up?

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 4:23 pm
by petermakosch
ah ha, but if you had seen them drinking, you should have said something instead of keeping shnook

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 4:31 pm
by martinhodgson
Yeah, but the fact that it was hidden implied only a couple of them knew. But which ones were the culprits?

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 5:04 pm
by petermakosch
but the other option was to not sack anyone, therefore the culprits would have gotten away with it

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 9:49 pm
by seaeagle
For every train driver, theres normally at least 5 people who waiting for a vaccancy

Where did you get this rubbish from. I am a tube driver and at my depot (Seven Sisters, Victoria line), we have trains cancelled every day due to lack of drivers and the management are preventing drivers from transfering to other depots because they can't refil the posts.

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 10:04 pm
by seaeagle
The 5 workers that face the sack should not be sacked for the simple reason that Metronet has not followed it's own rules. All 5 should have been drink & drug tested asap, if there was traces of drink then Metronet would of had the culprits, you can't blame everyone who uses a mess room, after all I bet they aren't sacking any cleaners, station managers, or anyone else who had access to the room.

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 11:38 pm
by FuNky2k
LONDONERS face a Christmas Tube strike after five workers were sacked over the discovery of alcohol in their staffroom.



The National Union Of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers said it would recommend that its members strike unless the workers were reinstated within seven days. Any strike would be held about the time of Boxing Day.

Metronet, the Tube maintenance contractor responsible for two thirds of the system, said that the workers were dismissed after a cleaning contractor found 111 cans of lager, beer and cider and an empty bottle of brandy in a messroom in the bowels of Farringdon station in October. Cans were found in the fridge, a cooker and hidden in a cavity in the ceiling.



These workers are perm way staff and not traincrew.

Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2003 11:55 pm
by Kevo00
Just as Metronet are wrong to have sacked these employees without a fair hearing, aren't RMT wrong to take "industrial action" before the employees are given the fair hearing they demand? If this was to go to a tribunal and the workers were found guilty then RMT could be left to look very silly. I'm all for unions and think they should rightly have a lot of power, but they should realise that the jobs of their members at the end of the day rely upon the sucess of the businesses for which they work, and striking at a high peak time isn't likely to do much for the tube or RMT members.

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 12:08 pm
by nightbeaver911
FuNky2k wrote: These workers are perm way staff and not traincrew.
So why are Londoners facing a tube strike or is it the media trying to make headlines?

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 3:10 pm
by FuNky2k
So why are Londoners facing a tube strike or is it the media trying to make headlines?

Farringdon is a perm way messroom, only ontrack staff work there.

Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2003 4:59 pm
by southcoasttrains
seaeagle wrote: I am a tube driver and at my depot (Seven Sisters, Victoria line)
You must have a boring job sitting there opening and closing doors all day ;)

Steve is right, since the train drivers salary was publicised in the press, everyone suddenly wants to be a driver. I'm guessing this is different on the tube. From what I hear no-one wants to be a driver on the Victoria Line but they do on the District. Thats from what I know.