Railway staff unions industrial and strike action - 2023

[whole diary]

[TonyN]

Today's Times cartoon

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/peter-brookes-times-cartoon-june-1-2023-7dl0bcc9t

[ChrisB]

Behind their paywall

[plymothian]

Behind their paywall

You can get a brief glimpse before the paywall comes up.  It's a [presumed] commuter asking an AI bot how soon before it can drive a train.

[IndustryInsider]

A.I. already drives some trains of course, and in theory it could drive all of them with technology that already exists.  And the same can be said for pilots and planes.

Whether the public will ever accept there being no driver when hurtling through the countryside is a different matter.  I think it will become a generational thing as we get more used to A.I. and in a couple of generations it will have become normalised.

I see A.I. as a potential threat to humanity over the coming decades.  It’s adapting incredibly quickly…just look at ChatGPT and recent updates to Photoshop which threatens to make lots of forms of photography and videography obsolete.  You simply won’t be able to tell what’s real and what’s fake very soon…which could be very dangerous.

[TaplowGreen]

Another voice of the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) on the Ukraine situation - it's not just Dempsey and Lynch giving Putin a free pass, apparently it's war crimes and American vehicles "invading Russian territory" now.............one does wonder which planet these people inhabit..........and what RMT members think of their Leadership's rather bizarre take on events..........

https://twitter.com/habibi_uk/status/1664555018848989187?s=20

[broadgage]

Support for then communist russia, was taken for granted by the more left wing trades unions during the cold war.
The facts that we won the the cold war, and that russia is no longer communist have obviously not yet penetrated the minds of the bruvvers.

[Timmer]

Paul Clifton reporting that Train Drivers have voted overwhelmingly to continue industrial action:
https://twitter.com/PaulCliftonBBC/status/1668937816150093830

[ChrisB]

Includes ALL SWR^» (South Western Railway - about) drivers too this time, not just their depot drivers....

[ray951]

It was Albert Einstein, apparently, who said that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

The RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) TOC^▸ (Train Operating Company) strikes have been going on for a year now and don't seem to be any closer to resolution, so by voting for more strikes what are the union and their members expecting to change?

It appears that the Government don't care about the railways and are just ignoring the unions and passengers just shrug their shoulders and make alternative arrangements, which may include not travelling by train again.

So is there anything that the RMT and ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) could do to change this situation?

Maybe an all-out strike would work, although I have been doubts given the lack of interest from the Government who would probably just use it as an excuse to close the railways down (or at least some of it) , or should they just cut their losses and accept what they have been offered?

[IndustryInsider]

I think a change of tactic is likely.  Either an indefinite RDW/favours ban or an escalation of the number of days of action.  I think the RDW/favours ban is more likely, as that will cause huge disruption over summer weekends, but we will see.

[JayMac]

I think a change of tactic is likely.  Either an indefinite RDW/favours ban or an escalation of the number of days of action.  I think the RDW/favours ban is more likely, as that will cause huge disruption over summer weekends, but we will see.

Barbecues all round, bruvvers and sistahs!

[TaplowGreen]

I think a change of tactic is likely.  Either an indefinite RDW/favours ban or an escalation of the number of days of action.  I think the RDW/favours ban is more likely, as that will cause huge disruption over summer weekends, but we will see.

Given that there is generally huge disruption over summer weekends, I doubt customers expectations are high in any case?

I think that given the relatively low impact on business/the public, the Government are ready to tough this one out and the Unions should realise this - perhaps there will be some cosmetic face saving concession made to the Unions to facilitate this in order to allow some banner waving and fist pumping by the Micks before postponing the revolution for now and getting back to work.

[IndustryInsider]

As long as the mandate for action stays strong (the recent ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) results are virtually identical to previous ones at around a 90% support for strikes) then I think ‘postponing the revolution’ will remain some way off. 

Potential disruption over weekends would be much worse than any of the usual crew shortages.  Sunday, so far, has not been used as a tactic by any of the unions.  If ‘action short of a strike’ took place, and all HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) drivers were to make themselves unavailable and LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) drivers only worked their committed ones, there would be very few Sunday services operating, instead of the 90-95% that typically run on a ‘bad’ summer Sunday.  Saturday/Weekday timetables would also probably have to be altered.

Though eventually a concession is a likely final scenario of course.

[TaplowGreen]

As long as the mandate for action stays strong (the recent ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) results are virtually identical to previous ones at around a 90% support for strikes) then I think ‘postponing the revolution’ will remain some way off. 

Is the 90% figure reflecting the total membership, or is it 90% of those who voted? What was the turnout?

[grahame]

As long as the mandate for action stays strong (the recent ASLEF^» (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen - about) results are virtually identical to previous ones at around a 90% support for strikes) then I think ‘postponing the revolution’ will remain some way off. 

Is the 90% figure reflecting the total membership, or is it 90% of those who voted? What was the turnout?

https://aslef.org.uk/publications/aslef-overwhelming-support-continued-industrial-action

Great Western Railway

Are you prepared to take part in industrial action consisting of a strike?
YES 1044 (90.63%)
NO 108 (9.37%)

Are you prepared to take part in industrial action short of a strike?
YES 1105 (96.17%)
NO 44 (3.83%)

Turnout: 78.45%