Rail Union / Southern trains

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Originally Posted by Eric Cartman

How about post office counter staff who are striking this week and the BA cabin crew mentioned a few posts earlier?

And yes I agree, prison guards should be striking. Their lives are in danger because of mismanagement and calls to ban them from striking are perverse.

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This has got my support a bit more recently. I supported the cardiff bus strike last year. But I cant for the life of me support a train drivers strike, earns 2-3 times the average wage and demands more.

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Originally Posted by Barry Dragon

This has got my support a bit more recently. I supported the cardiff bus strike last year. But I cant for the life of me support a train drivers strike, earns 2-3 times the average wage and demands more.

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But this strike is not about pay at all. They aren't asking for more pay and won't get more pay. They just don't want to open and close the doors on a 12 carriage 1000+ passenger rush hour train. If you have travelled out of London in any direction between 5 and 8 on a weekday you should understand.

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Originally Posted by Barry Dragon

Unions dont protect the working class any more. They protect the middle class.

If they did genuinely support the working class then people might support them a bit more. But its not, its middle earners that strike. couldnt give a shit about them.

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The reason I didn't join the union when I first started my job was that I felt they spent a lot of their time protecting lazy people in disputes with the employer and not enough time working for everyone else. This was just after the union accepted some pretty horrendous terms from the employer, basically they didn't do their job and weren't worth the fee.

I am having second thoughts now.

Let's all go on strike and demand everything and see where that takes us in 10 years time.

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Originally Posted by life on mars

Let's all go on strike and demand everything and see where that takes us in 10 years time.

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In my opinion we would be in a better place than if we did the opposite. 'Strike' has become a dirty word over the last few decades and predictably the average wage has stalled meanwhile the income of top earners has soared.

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Originally Posted by Eric Cartman

In my opinion we would be in a better place than if we did the opposite. 'Strike' has become a dirty word over the last few decades and predictably the average wage has stalled meanwhile the income of top earners has soared.

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I used to think the days of needing a union were over. But as globalisation has flexed itself, big corps are doing everything and anything to keep cost bases down and taxes down, I now think they are needed again. Big corps have got bigger than any country. Something needs to whip them back into shape.

The Unions image has been damaged by their own greed over the years. Its not the guy earning £10 an hour that strikes. Its the guys who earn 60k. If you earn £60k you are in the top 1% of earners. You wont get much support for the wealthiest people demanding more. The unions need to get rid of their old boys and TARGET low/middle earners. They are the ones that need the help.