Great Western Coffee Shop

RMT involved as usual, quoted text from the BBC:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34725379 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34725379)

The RMT seem to be in dispute with a lot of rail companies at the moment for one reason or another.

They don't normally bother with a reason......if it moves, they'll have a dispute with it.

It's a union's primary role, isn't it, to look after the interests of its members? And whist there's a huge commonality between the interests of members, of the company running the trains, of the government (central and local), or the rolling stock providers, of the infratructure folks, and of the passengers ... there's also going to be areas where those interests aren't in total alignment.

How those areas are handled, and how a position (compromise?) is reached depends on all parties - and on the union side (which is what we're discussing here) there are some who feel that the approach at (almost) all costs is to keep talking and sell the solution, where there are others who take what I would describe as a more robust approach, and feel that it's not quite "at all costs" and indeed will display a bit more muscle.

Sadly, rail travellers (who are vital for an ongoing passenger rail service) aren't at the table when these things are being worked out, even though they're effected in far greater numbers that others when services aren't running.

And, sadly, the RMT are the most belligerent union I know. I can think of no other union that has called so many strikes in the past few years.

Are public transport operators really terrible employers? I doubt it.

It seems that the RMT's default response is, ballot first, ask questions later.

Some unions feel that the best way to serve their members' interest is to try to engineer wider social and political change. Anyone remember Arthur Scargill?

Does Arriva trains have many RMT drivers? I thought drivers were mostly ASLEF.

Part of a Trade Union's role is positively managing the image of itself, its industry and its members............I'm not sure this is a strong point where the main rail unions are concerned!

And of its officers behaving decently in public at all times:

http://order-order.com/2015/11/05/video-boozy-rmt-big-shots-first-class-rant/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+guidofawkes+%28Guy+Fawkes%27+blog+of+parliamentary+plots%2C+rumours+and+conspiracy%29 (http://order-order.com/2015/11/05/video-boozy-rmt-big-shots-first-class-rant/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+guidofawkes+%28Guy+Fawkes%27+blog+of+parliamentary+plots%2C+rumours+and+conspiracy%29)

Respect due to the perfectly polite ticket examiner  :o

Back on topic, strike is still on, walk out from 00:01 Thursday to 23:59 Friday. All ATW services cancelled with no road bustitution:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34780903 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34780903)

I guess anyone expecting to travel on FGW or Cross Country along the S.Wales mainline should expect services to be very very busy!

I forget, did FirstGW bustitute during their recent strikes?

I don't recall, but they were able to run a significant number of services whereas ATW are cancelling everything. I guess by stating 'no buses' they are trying to reduce the likelihood of people turning up at stations in blind hope of getting somewhere, somehow! Bustitution is common along SWML during engineering outages (as you probably well know) so it's good that ATW are being clear about what's available and what's not in this instance.

If memory serves, FGW didn't bustitute.

Yep, good that ATW are being clear about what's going on, I just was wondering just how much more disruptive this strike action is than the action on FirstGW was.

Thanks, sounds like the difference in level of disruption isn't as great as I first thought then.

Except that ATW will be running no services at all. Nothing in Wales/Borders at all apart from the usual GWR & Virgin services from Paddington & Euston and the XC services as far as Cardiff. Will cause a great deal of inconvenience/overcrowding for the travelling public.

In contrast, FGW/GWR appeared to run around half (please correct me if anyone has any real figures) of their normal services, certainly those from PAD to CDF/SWA.

In the ATW Dispute, it is the drivers from both ASLEF and RMT Unions on strike in which case you can't have Managers or any other grades being trained up to cover a driver at short notice.  How would you source enough buses to cover a mass bustitution.   Passengers could turn up in masses for substitute buses with not enough to go round.

Strike suspended according to the BBC.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34792400 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-34792400)

Strike on today ... and (it seems) effecting at least one GWR service too:


Do GWR use Arriva drivers west of Llanelli?

Problem is Carmarthen station is full of ATW sets and there was no room for the HST.