Tube strike, London

Go check out their available jobs on the tfl website and come back to point out which ones really are of use

Which ones do you think aren't of use?

Unions transformed the lives of working people and in so doing, our very society. Without unions, Health and Safety would not exist. Workers would be exploited wage slaves. Without unions, social mobility would not have been what it was and many of us "middle class" wankers would not be. Too few people belong to unions today. This could have a detrimental effect on working conditions, particularly during a recession. If you perceive that unions are overly political, join and express your voice of moderation.

Good, then let them take the job of those that strike.

Take the jobs of those that fought to maintain decent pay in their industry?

They do a job for the satisfaction it gives them
you mean like dustmen or hospital porters? you sound pretty far removed from the lot of the blue-collar worker

I'm hoping the Bike Banshee made a few killings today.

Go check out their available jobs on the tfl website and come back to point out which ones really are of use

I am assuming you don't work for TFL. Neither do I. Therefore neither of us can accurately comment on what job is useful or not. I would however, if i must, say the vast majority. It's a massive machine and needs a lot of people to run it, at all sorts of unsociable hours.

Spot on.

It's that sort of argument that I really can't stand. "My job is shit, I have shit conditions and can be fucked over at any moment, so everyone else should be too." If other industries and unions hadn't capitulated so easily, maybe more of us would be in a strong position - would you say no to being? Working somewhere where I've been threatened with redundancy 3 times in the past year I think I'd really like a unionised workplace - workers inevitably have no power individually, only collectively.

As for the obsession with how much someone else is paid - where does this come from? Jealousy? If you are jealous, apply to join them. I wouldn't, because I wouldn't want to do their job. It irks me that it seems many people aren't honest about their motive for slagging other workers off.

Well done, Mark. Did you even read what I wrote before wading in? I didn't say my job is shit - I quite like my job, actually - and I work in a unionised workplace; I also said on the whole I support unions. My point about pay, which you would have got if you'd read my post propery, is that they already get pretty well renumerated for what they do. Personally I don't think driving a tube train is as hard as being, for example, a nurse on A&E and they get paid a damned sight better than them, so to be asking for - and then striking over - a 5% increase (and the rights of their workers, who were in the wrong) annoys me. Perhaps I was wrong to use myself and my girlfriend as examples but you get my point. I did also state that it's no doubt a shit job that I would not like to do.

Time for bed, Mark.

I'm hoping the Bike Banshee made a few killings today.

a few?

Well done, Mark. Did you even read what I wrote before wading in? I didn't say my job is shit - I quite like my job, actually - and I work in a unionised workplace; I also said on the whole I support unions. My point about pay, which you would have got if you'd read my post propery, is that they already get pretty well renumerated for what they do. Personally I don't think driving a tube train is as hard as being, for example, a nurse on A&E and they get paid a damned sight better than them, so to be asking for - and then striking over - a 5% increase (and the rights of their workers, who were in the wrong) annoys me. Perhaps I was wrong to use myself and my girlfriend as examples but you get my point. I did also state that it's no doubt a shit job that I would not like to do.

Time for bed, Mark.

+1

Thats so idealistic it hurts Winston! of course we would all want that but a man picking random numbers of a PC monitor losing milllions at a bank gets paid millions and a social worker changing lives scrapes by.. do you now think those that choose the job had their earnings in mind?
They do a job for the satisfaction it gives them, not for the piles of money they have to spend on the little time they have to them selves.

Almost everybody just does a job to get money to survive, and I'd hazard a guess that most people don't particularly choose the jobs they've got. If people were working just for satisfaction not many lottery tickets would be sold, you'd have thought.

this thread is full of uninformed opinion

[quote=PQR;745359 Is this strike going to help anyone.......erm....no.[/quote]

Well I didn't wite the Guiardian article, but as I understand it thee reason the job is so popular is entirely down to the strikes, industrial action has maintained a reasonable salary for those currently employed as well as all future train drivers.....had there been no action, they would be on pitiful wages and we would be desperately short of staff and a decent tube service may not be posssible.....then people would be just as pissed off as they are today.

this thread is full of uninformed opinion

Isn't that the point of the internet & forums, opinions, informed or otherwise?

this thread is full of uninformed opinion

To be fair, in a democracy, governments are elected by people who generally have uninformed or partially informed opinions.

Well I didn't wite the Guiardian article, but as I understand it thee reason the job is so popular is entirely down to the strikes, industrial action has maintained a reasonable salary for those currently employed as well as all future train drivers.....had there been no action, they would be on pitiful wages and we would be desperately short of staff and a decent tube service may not be posssible.....then people would be just as pissed off as they are today.

Try using the Northern Line at 8am on a monday and looked for someone who isn't pissed off

ME! I'm never pissed off on the Northern line!

I was a bit when they replaced the wooden trains, I really liked the wooden trains.

Isn't that the point of the internet & forums, opinions, informed or otherwise?

no

no

So it is true, the internet is just for porn

this thread is full of uniformed onions

Indeed, Maybe we should just let them all (RMT & LU) get on with it and when they've finally settled their differences we won't give toss 'cos it doesn't really affect us cyclists.

Well I didn't wite the Guiardian article, but as I understand it thee reason the job is so popular is entirely down to the strikes, industrial action has maintained a reasonable salary for those currently employed as well as all future train drivers.....had there been no action, they would be on pitiful wages and we would be desperately short of staff and a decent tube service may not be posssible.....then people would be just as pissed off as they are today.

If there are that many people queueing up for a job as a train driver then the laws of supply and demand dictate that the pay is too high and the conditions too generous.

I wonder just how much better the tube would be, and how much cheaper tickets would be if every penny of tube investment went on the infrastructure instead of inflation-busting pay rises?

Going on strike is a legitimate response if you are being exploited. Doing it because you want a day off to watch the football is cuntishness.

Was there not a spike in applications to be a tube driver after the last time they did this?

Putting their decent salary and good holiday/pensions/sick pay on the front page of the newspapers made a lot of people think "I'd quite like some of that".

I was a bit when they replaced the wooden trains, I really liked the wooden trains.

ha ha!!

.

Well done, Mark. Did you even read what I wrote before wading in? I didn't say my job is shit - I quite like my job, actually - and I work in a unionised workplace; I also said on the whole I support unions. My point about pay, which you would have got if you'd read my post propery, is that they already get pretty well renumerated for what they do. Personally I don't think driving a tube train is as hard as being, for example, a nurse on A&E and they get paid a damned sight better than them, so to be asking for - and then striking over - a 5% increase (and the rights of their workers, who were in the wrong) annoys me. Perhaps I was wrong to use myself and my girlfriend as examples but you get my point. I did also state that it's no doubt a shit job that I would not like to do.

Time for bed, Mark.

That's the main point, right there - arguing from an individual point of of view and comparing one job's conditions to another because you think they're better off, that's what I've been complaining about. Noone's yet explain all this indignation about pay despite multiple people asking, so I really do assume it's jealousy, or pissed-offness, whatever. Just someone please admit that finally though, please?

And all this stuff about which job's harder. Why does it matter? That's not how pay gets decided in the capitalist economy, is it? I've no idea how hard it is and I don't really understand why anyone should care if they're a capitalist.

Mark, it isn't the pay that grates, it is the asking for a rise (amongst other things) in the middle of a recession and then throwing the toys out of the pram and striking when they don't get it.