Tube Strike: solidarity etc
Posted Under: Employment,London,Public Sector,Trade Unions,Transport
Here’s the final paragraph from an online Telegraph article on the tube strike:
Having trouble getting to work? Please share your tales of travel woe below. For readers who live outside London, this is your chance to gloat about your trouble-free commute.
Who said conservatives don’t have a sense of humour? Yes, vent your anti-union anger if you have a job to go to (as 800 Tube employees won’t, if the cuts go through), or, if you live outside the city, you can ‘gloat’ about your ability to get from one inferior location to another.
The reaction to the strike has been typical and quite boring. I think these headlines point out something quite disappointing in our political culture:
Tube strike: millions hit by travel chaos with 9 lines affected – The Telegraph
Tube strike forces Londoners on to buses and bikes – The Guardian
Autumn of discontent begins as Tube walkout brings misery for millions of commuters and tourists – Daily Mail
I don’t think it would be too degenerate to point out that public transport strikes can be annoying, but there’s very little outrage to be found over the planned 800 layoffs, which is surely the story here. The Guardian even has a blog post entitled ‘London tube strike – tell us your stories’. Here’s my story from this traumatic incident: Yesterday I decided to postpone a drink with a friend, and my mother had to get up earlier than usual; when she got home she was quite tired, and she shouted at me for not informing her that my wardrobe is a bit broken at the moment. Guess what – she still has a job. No surprises in guessing that most people have stories about as boring; they either took the bus, hopped on a bike, or worked from home (which some regard as a luxury, btw).
I find the sympathy for the poor tourists in the Mail headline quite amusing. How patriotic of them to suggest Londoners forgo their industrial disputes for the sake of Johnny Foreigner’s holiday. This has the added benefit of applying practically every day of the year in London.
Striking public sector workers are always deemed ‘selfish’ by popular grumbling; I think it’s clear who’s being selfish here.
Reader Comments
Not quite sure why the general public are the target of your ire, this piece, and yesterdays one which rants on at people who cycle to work calling them ‘scabs’ is ludicrous. Honestly, next you’ll be slapping grannies with Socialist Worker placards for boarding a bus to get the messages.
Is it because the reasons for the strike are so outrageous? If Crowe and his gang of thugs at RMT got their way computers and the Oyster system would be ripped out and tube upgrades and crossrail would be cancelled to pay for their greedy selfish soviet style working practices. I have no desire to watch this country go down the tube (ho ho) to satisfy a bunch of ever hungry unscruplious shakedown merchants.
Instead of failing the RMT membership like this, why doesn’t Crowe negotiate T&C’s on things that are valid? …or he could reduce their union dues a wee bit by reducing his fat greedy £133K salary. Plenty spare there especially as he has the cheek to hoard a council house too.
@Oberon: my point was that a few days of inconvenience getting to work is not as traumatic as the papers always make out; that this doesn’t at all outweigh the suffering of the 800 people losing their jobs; and that such inconvenience is a small price to pay to uphold the right to legal industrial action.
I didn’t mention Crowe, and I think my point stands regardless of his salary or living arrangements. Also, I can’t see what is ‘soviet style’ about members of a voluntary trade union voting for collective action.
“Also, I can’t see what is ’soviet style’ about members of a voluntary trade union voting for collective action.”
Quoted for truth. Oberon should stop looking at the USSR through rose tinted spectacles
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It is hugely inconvenient for millions of people, many of whom are struggling to keep their jobs right now working at businesses barely afloat. This strike hits people hard whilst RMB members are manning a picket line without a days pay too. Upholding the’right’ to industrial action is not in question, the cost of this strike is simply too hight to warrant the action – for everyone involved.
There will be no redundancy’s as a result of the changes to ticket offices, staff will be redeployed.
Crowe is an irresponsible militant who gets off on strikes. The reference to ‘soviet style’ is the antiquated protectionist working practicies the RMT would prefer. This I am greeted to every time I travel to Russia or the Ukraine, which is every month, and its dreadful.
You may not think this from my political leanings these days, but when I worked on the tools at an oil rig construction yeard in the late ’80s, I was a member of AEEU (Unite), and there I found shop stewards fantastic at individual problems with members and management, but dreadful at decisions to strike. Three times I was hauled out on a strike many voted against over petty disputes by bullying, egotistical maniacs at the union. we lost a major order over it and I was on the dole for 9 months as a result. I look at Crowe and see the same thing happening today. Members ALWAYS pay the price for bad calls like this.
Ruben, I had to spend 1/2 hr explaining to a drilling manager the other day that *we* pay for the rig. He didn’t understand, all rigs come from Moscow and are free surely?
Certin he’s just being polite when he says he knows time is money. I see in that vacant stare that time is just time.
@Oberon: You can’t just cite Crowe’s glint in the eye, as you see it, to prove he’s a ‘militant’. There’s widespread support for this strike from RMT members, and legitimate concerns over reductions in safety standards.
Also, the tube service being as important as it is, its inevitable that people will be affected by this. If the strike was planned for several months I’d call it drastic, as it would economically harm many other workers in different industries. That isn’t going to happen. PEOPLE HAVE BEEN GETTING TO WORK, BY OTHER MEANS. So is there any length of time you will permit tube workers to strike? Or are they not to enjoy that right due to their line of work?
You and Bob are pretty much on your own on this… Even Simon Jenkins thinks Bob is a prat…
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23875164-here-we-go-again-in-the-crazy-world-of-dinosaur-bob-crow.do
You and Bob are pretty much on your own on this… Even Simon Jenkins thinks Bob is a prat…
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23875164-here-we-go-again-in-the-crazy-world-of-dinosaur-bob-crow.do
As in the Simon Jenkins who’s the former editor of the Times and the Standard? Yep, proper trade unionist him. What are you trying to prove, exactly? I’m confused.
I agree with the direction of your post, without knowing all the details. It’s no surprise the strikers are portrayed in the negative.
Regards
Everybody has to suffer as an effect of the crisis, why can’t the tube accept that they have to carry their share too and who are they to punish the whole general public for this…any sympathy to their case is lost from my side
The nurses, teachers, ambulance drivers and firefighters should ALL go on strike NOW until WHENEVER this EVIL CONDOM government relents and stops its MERCILESS programme of CUTS
Also, £40,000 a year basic salary for sitting in a tube and pulling some levers? Are you f*****g kidding me? Surely someone interested in the working class should be storming into the these tube stations and robbing the tube drivers to give to actual poor people.
Working class my arse
I am working class and am proud that I can earn a salary of £40,000 a year. I work unsociable hours and am highly trained to fix the train if it breaksdown. I have the safety of 1500 people in my care at anyone time in rush hour. Tube drivers were the fist people on hand during the July 7th attacks before emergency services arrived. I thank my Union who over the years have fought so, I as a working class woman is on £40,000. If other unions did the same maybe nurses, teachers and firefighters etc would be on a wage they deserve.