Southern Christmas strikes?!?

Reverend

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-37862738 ;
The unions are opting to strike for 3 days running up to Christmas and then 3 days after New Year. Might be tough to keep public support. 

scrumhalf

Keep?

Reverend

scrumhalf said:

Keep?

There must be at least 7 people that support them at the moment.

Steffo

Reagan, '81, air traffic controllers. 'enough said.

Fretwired

Southern Christmas strikes?!?

What! Santa's not coming south .. can't blame him. Those 2017 Gibson's look lame ....

Myranda

So... the people with any stake in the matter have signed the contracts... so who in the RMT is calling for strikes and on what grounds?

Handsome_Chris

Myranda said:

So... the people with any stake in the matter have signed the contracts... so who in the RMT is calling for strikes and on what grounds?

No one in the RMT is calling for strikes. The union represents the will of its members.

Fretwired

Handsome_Chris said:

Myranda said:

So... the people with any stake in the matter have signed the contracts... so who in the RMT is calling for strikes and on what grounds?

No one in the RMT is calling for strikes. The union represents the will of its members.

The RMT did ballot for strike action. The strikes concern a long-running dispute with operator Govia Thameslink's decision to change conductors' jobs so they're no longer in charge of opening and closing doors. The union says that task is vital for safety.

William Williamson

- Union states it's vital for safety but is ultimately concerned with keeping jobs of its members
- Company states it's to reallocate people but is ultimately concerned with making them redundant and improving the bottom line - all is smoke and mirrors - nobody gives a wet fart about the commuters safety or satisfaction.

Handsome_Chris

Fretwired said:

Handsome_Chris said:

Myranda said:

So... the people with any stake in the matter have signed the contracts... so who in the RMT is calling for strikes and on what grounds?

No one in the RMT is calling for strikes. The union represents the will of its members.

The RMT did ballot for strike action.

@Fretwired , that is very correct. Everything of this nature that unions represent their members with have to be balloted.  If the train operating company make an offer the union has to balloted for its members to accept or reject the offer. The union can not act unilaterally in matters of this nature.

Fretwired

Handsome_Chris said:

Fretwired said:

Handsome_Chris said:

Myranda said:

So... the people with any stake in the matter have signed the contracts... so who in the RMT is calling for strikes and on what grounds?

No one in the RMT is calling for strikes. The union represents the will of its members.

The RMT did ballot for strike action.

@Fretwired , that is very correct. Everything of this nature that unions represent their members with have to be balloted.  If the train operating company make an offer the union has to balloted for its members to accept or reject the offer. The union can not act unilaterally in matters of this nature.

That was my point - Thatcher changed the rules. Workers have to be balloted but the RMT thought it was worth strike action and so balloted its members.

Handsome_Chris

Fretwired said:

Handsome_Chris said:

Fretwired said:

Handsome_Chris said:

Myranda said:

So... the people with any stake in the matter have signed the contracts... so who in the RMT is calling for strikes and on what grounds?

No one in the RMT is calling for strikes. The union represents the will of its members.

The RMT did ballot for strike action.

@Fretwired , that is very correct. Everything of this nature that unions represent their members with have to be balloted.  If the train operating company make an offer the union has to balloted for its members to accept or reject the offer. The union can not act unilaterally in matters of this nature.

That was my point - Thatcher changed the rules. Workers have to be balloted but the RMT thought it was worth strike action and so balloted its members.

A common misconception about strike action is that it is the first response of the employees. It is the last resort after months of negotiating has been attempted. I do not know if this is what has happened in this case; however I believe that in the past an employer has refused to negotiate for months before strike action was balloted for.

scrumhalf

Just because you've spent months negotiating doesn't mean that calling a strike is a reasonable course of action if what you are seeking to gain by negotiation is itself unreasonable.

equalsql

I hate the hypocrisy of people blaming the unions when all they are doing is trying to protect themselves from predatory management. If more people joined unions and fought their corners then we would see a lot less of this zero hours shyte that is being imposed on people. Government and underhanded companies are too quick to try and shaft workers in the knowledge that any actions the worker take to defend themselves will impact other workers. It's a nasty cynical ploy by a cruel elite who don't give a feck about anyone but their own bottom line,

Handsome_Chris

scrumhalf said:

Just because you've spent months negotiating doesn't mean that calling a strike is a reasonable course of action if what you are seeking to gain by negotiation is itself unreasonable.

I agree, but I would say that to at least turn up to one negotiation shows a willingness to reach a mutually beneficial accord which would hopefully benefit the customer too.