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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Railway staff unions industrial and strike action - 2023
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on: January 12, 2023, 11:50:42
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I agree - its pretty clear the unions are in different places! And its also pretty clear that the unsolicited offer on Friday wasn't really something Mick W wanted to deal with right now. Will have to see how it plays out
In what sense was it unsolicited. His complaint was that it was delivered without warning just before the meeting so they had no time to consider it. That seems perfectly reasonable to me. Also it was leaked to the press at the same time. Which is I agree not very professional. Just in the sense that it wasn't requested by ASLEF» . And awkward in the sense that he could no longer say that ASLEF had not received an offer - which means you then have to engage in the detail of what a deal might look like (even if what's in the offer is unacceptable) "Without warning" is interesting given the evidence Steve Montgomery gave to MPs▸ yesterday about multiple discussions and attempts to arrange a meeting beforehand (which ASLEF hasn't denied). If the document doing the rounds is actually the offer sent to ASLEF, the first paragraphs might give some insight into why they could have decided to do it as they did, beyond just a rather cheap PR▸ move. "Due to the limited availability of Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers & Fireman (ASLEF) representatives over the last four months of 2022 we have not been able to make much progress in our discussions as we had envisaged on the key areas of workforce reforms. This has prevented us from being able to table a pay offer for 2022.
"In recognition of this situation, this Pay and Workforce Reform Principles Proposal document seeks to set out the employers’ position taking cognisance of the preliminary discussions at industry-wide level, in conjunction with a two-year pay offer. The intention is this will facilitate accelerating our discussions between our respective representatives of the passenger train operators (TOCs▸ ) listed in Appendix 1 and ASLEF and a resolution to the current disputes that exist between TOCs and ASLEF. " |
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Railway staff unions industrial and strike action - 2023
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on: January 11, 2023, 11:12:33
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I think this is quite interesting in the context of the evidence given by unions and industry to the Transport Select Committee. Rather than me comment on it, it may be worth a scan through for those interested. www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/6cf2329d-75b9-49e8-a7e9-666ead62b39cFrom an ASLEF» communication from the General Secretary to members:
Today, with Simon Weller, assistant general secretary, and Andy Hudd, EC vice-president, I met the Rail Minister, Huw Merriman, for an hour at Great Minster House. He told us he wanted to ‘facilitate’ a resolution to the pay dispute we have with 15 TOCs▸ . This meeting had been in everyone’s diaries for some time and pre-dated the RDG‡’s offer.
We told him that the ‘offer’ leaked to the press earlier last week was done in a way that was utterly reprehensible. After six and a half months waiting for a response to our reasonable request for an increase in pay for our members who have not had one since 2019, the RDG sent out an offer at the end of play on Friday and released elements to the press and media before we had even seen it.
They did not have the professional or personal courtesy to let us know it was coming, and ensured that we would not have time to properly consider it and respond.
We told the minister this morning – and Steve Montgomery and Andy Meadows, representing the RDG, who were also in the room – that if the government thinks it can negotiate with us via the pages of The Sun or the Daily Mail and make an offer that is really a sleight of hand then they are very much mistaken.
That offer will now be dealt with by the EC at its scheduled session on Monday 16 January.
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Railway staff unions industrial and strike action - 2023
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on: January 09, 2023, 12:52:50
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Train operators and the government do NOT want Sundays in the working week.
When the offer made to ASLEF» makes no specific mention of it, and appears to be talking about just making them ‘committed’ for everyone as they are for some now. Which is a problem for some of us who aren’t committed to working Sundays. No only is it enforced overtime but with leisure travel now the main focus is an agreement in place for the maximum number of Sundays you could be rostered? If there’s an uplift in services on a Sunday surely there’s a risk that you could end up being rostered considerably more Sundays than we are at present. Certainly for the RMT▸ side of things, the internal stuff I've seen makes clear that there is an opt-out for those who don't work Sundays. Assume the precise frequency would be negotiated locally? |
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Railway staff unions industrial and strike action - 2023
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on: January 09, 2023, 09:56:26
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Train operators and the government do NOT want Sundays in the working week.
Indeed, and the unions aren’t against it (as long as it’s properly negotiated) as it means a lot more members for them. Not sure why we’re discussing Sundays in the working week, when the offer made to ASLEF» makes no specific mention of it, and appears to be talking about just making them ‘committed’ for everyone as they are for some now. But that wording seems to be the same ast the RMT▸ offer doesn't it? Both press releases seemed to talk about keeping as overtime, but putting measures in place to make sure people couldn't pull out beforehand and screw the service up I think. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Re-cycling FGW style.
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on: March 09, 2013, 00:45:39
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With more and more recycling (rightly) taking place, I've never been very impressed that there appears to be NO recycling take place from the rubbish removed from FGW▸ trains. Re-cycling doesn't occur during turn around train cleaning, WELL I'VE NEVER seen any!  Maybe re-cycling occurs at places like Laira, St Phillips Marsh, Old Oak and Long Rock, I think I've seen Newspaper recyle points at One depot, but what about Bottles & cans?  I'm aware that various Stations and Offices in FGW land do have Paper re-cycling points however I was a witness to something I found UNBELIVABLE, totally stupid and unnecessary.  Whilst in a Station I witnessed the Station (Contract) cleaner take the FULL Plastic bag of paper from the re-cycle bin and casually dump said bag it to the Biffa Bin (which goes off to LANDFILL at GREAT cost to FGW). To me that was 100% stupid, or at least MIGHTY stupid. Is there a DUMB ****** of the year award? Whats the point of staff taking the time to Re-cycle when the result of there effort is ZERO% recyled. IF FGW are in the least bit concerned about re-recycling issues I expect to see a Memo go to the contract cleaning firm. However I won't hold my breath, I'd be Brown Bread. All FGW Biffa waste is taken away and sorted by hand into landfill/recycled. Including on train bins. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: No Standard Class standees in First Class vestibules.
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on: April 20, 2010, 03:27:00
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First class should be abolished so that there can be more standard class carriages. More seats for fare paying passengers. A lot of the people who travel in first class are ex-br staff with free travel and/or their partners. Come on use your head. Do you not understand that the guys paying for First Class seats are effectively subsidising standard class customers? Prices are high enough as it is, thank you kindly... |
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Northern don't want 142s back
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on: April 20, 2010, 03:24:37
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That's why pax numbers are falling then!!
Read elswhere on the forum that on FGW▸ all the former West routes are doing well but that Thames and HST▸ were "flagging".Any truth in this? Some big increases in pax numbers on the West Branches - mainly because of the increased capacity that's been built in over the last couple of years - effectively subsidised by local councils. HST and Thames keeping their end up just about. |
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All across the Great Western territory / Across the West / Re: Entertainment class
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on: April 20, 2010, 03:19:55
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I don't know how much money FGW▸ have spent on this, but it probably would have been much better spent equipping their trains with wifi internet access (which they could then charge for). Agree 100% that would be really useful. I have sat in one of these carriages several times now (most recently last week) and have yet to see someone actually watching paid for content. FGW have not paid a penny as I understand it - I think Volo are the ones making the investment. All FGW have done is give them the maintenance time to install... |
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All across the Great Western territory / Smoke and Mirrors / Re: Chalk & Cheese
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on: April 20, 2010, 03:15:27
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This one always confuses the hell out of me...why oh why do people complain that somehow NOT holding a train - usually full of people killing themselves to get home on time - for a handful of people is bad customer service.
Just. Don't. Get. It.
And crikey - a train leaving at .00 - surely you dont mean on time?? What on earth is the world coming to!
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Journey by Journey / Bristol (WECA) Commuters / Re: SVB line passengers complain they cannot pay fares (29/01/2010)
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on: February 26, 2010, 01:37:05
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My suggestion is to have a Parking Meter type of machine (I imagine these are fairly cheap and vandal-proof), where the minimum for a ticket to be issued is 75p (i.e. the railcard price for a single). This ticket can then be exchanged for a real ticket or used as a permit to travel for longer journeys. At least FGW▸ will then take a minimum of 75p from every passenger who manages to get away without a ticket.
This is a very good idea. My understanding (open to correction) is that the fares on this line are charged by zones. So programming one of these in a similar way to the way you would pay to park your car by amount of time, surely cannot be too hard. Sort of like the self service bus ticket machines they have in london. Then these could be exchanged for a zero excess ticket on the train or at a staffed station. Exactly the solution FGW are looking at...solves everything |
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