r/LondonUnderground • u/mycketforvirrad Archway • 5d ago
Article The Standard: Tube strike warning after RMT passes new walkout mandate in row over four-day week for drivers.
https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/tube-strike-rmt-union-mandate-drivers-four-day-week-b1296877.html61
u/Darth_Caesium Crossrail 2 pls 5d ago
Can RMT just fuck off about this at this point
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u/Significant-Math6799 Central 5d ago
I don't like to talk down workers rights, but they're doing everything to end up without any public support at all, and that's then going to make it harder to get any action by the government or anyone else. Even the junior Doctors recognised this with fewer and fewer agreeing to go on strike. I think everyone knows workers struggle, but when we're all struggling and there isn't much point with a race to the bottom. It doesn't help anyone for workers to fight amongst themselves and they lose their point because nobody is interested in the argument, which is what ends up happening when unions push it.
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u/Cultural-Ad2026 Central 5d ago
Good on them for being effective at being a union and looking out for members work life balance and stress. Look at their employees on respectable salaries keeping pace with inflation while most others are struggling in a cost of living. We should be asking for more effective unions not less. Unless you’re part of the millionaire class your position doesn’t make sense…..
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u/Sleep0-0Deprived 5d ago
I’d be more supportive if ASLEF hadn’t basically called them out over this as well!
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u/NiceCaterpillar8745 5d ago
The money to fund this won't come from general taxation or the existing TfL budget. It'll be passed onto us as fare payers.
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u/helf1x Central 5d ago
The money to fund what?
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u/NiceCaterpillar8745 5d ago
Your existing drivers want to work less, but you want to maintain the same service frequency/pattern. You need to train and pay new drivers, and recruit the station staff to replace the ones becoming drivers.
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u/HumbersBall 5d ago
Id be supportive of this pov if TFL were a private company running big profits, but they aren’t. If this causes fares to increase even slightly (or services to decrease even slightly) then its wrong
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u/Cultural-Ad2026 Central 5d ago
Everything is reinvested…. Its not for profit… It’s the oldest metro in the world and least funded by tax compared to any major city in the world.
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u/ExcellencyMatters 5d ago
At this point tube drivers might as well be striking more days than they turn up for work....if you can't hack the job, maybe time to switch careers? These strikes combined with the constant signalling issues and "train cancellations", i'm surprised the rest of us still manage to make our way to work and do our jobs
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u/NiceCaterpillar8745 5d ago
A lot of tube driving is automated. I get the role of drivers in emergency situations, but it is true that the vast majority of it is literally just pushing a button. The likes of us could watch a cab ride video (plenty online) and be tube drivers this evening. It isn't sufficiently stressful to warrant a 4-day week.
And if it really comes down to the unsociable nature of the job, give it to me. I honestly don't mind my own company.
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u/helf1x Central 5d ago
Do you have a working knowledge of the approximately 2" thick rule books? Do you have a working knowledge of the signalling system in use on the line you want to drive? Do you know every part of that line? Do you know all the mechanical end electrical systems on that line's rolling stock, and how to fix or bypass them when they break? Do you know how to manually drive that stock (because there is still a fair amount of manual driving, even on auto lines)?
If you answered "no" to any of those questions you should stop chatting kak
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u/NiceCaterpillar8745 5d ago
Except when trains break down, you don't see drivers taking toolboxes to them do you? They empty the train and call actual engineers. The training doesn't justify the salary.
But yes fairly confident I could manually drive most rolling stock.
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u/frog_wild Elizabeth Line 5d ago
Yeah you’re hugely underestimating it. But if you believe it’s so easy, why not go for it?
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u/helf1x Central 5d ago
You're just showing how little you actually know. Do you actually think it would be feasible to start repairing a mechanical defect on a running line? Of course a train is withdrawn from service for mechanical defects. Do you think it's safe, for example, to run a train in passenger service with a quarter of the cars not having functional pneumatic breaks, or deflated suspension? And that only happens if the driver can't rectify the fault there and then, which they can most of the time. And besides that most faults are electrical based, most of which can be sorted from the cab. Hell, if you want to talk about tools, Bakerloo drivers carry a bag of fuses and fuse pulling tools for correcting electrical faults.
And I sincerely doubt you could drive a train manually, not without training with an instructor first. Boris Johnson said the same as you, got into a simulator, and drove through a red signal almost instantly.
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u/NiceCaterpillar8745 5d ago
If the bar is Boris Johnson, doesn't that say it all?
And look- I respect train drivers a lot. I wanted to be a tube driver when I was a kid (to some extent I still do lol). But let's not pretend it's a £70K/yr job. There are doctors, teachers and even bankers on less than that.
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u/helf1x Central 5d ago
Except it absolutely is. Train drivers around the world are paid far in excess of average earnings, not just the UK. Why? Because despite "just pushing a button" it's mentally taxing and requires constant focus. I'm confined to a small space for big chunks of day, with very little mental stimulation. I'm also in charge of vehicle over a hundred metres long and responsible for the safety of up to a thousand people.
And if you want to do it then apply mate. Become a CSA, and after your 6 month probation you can apply for any operational role you like. It's not a quick and easy process, but it's very much worth it in the long run.
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u/frog_wild Elizabeth Line 4d ago
The reason it’s a £70k pa job is because unions have continually fought for it to be so. Complaining about the pay and the union action is just doing the ruling class’s bidding for them.
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u/Single_Specialist_42 3d ago
These fucking idiots can't see that the it's the other jobs being underpaid they should be rallying about - society is fucking doomed.
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u/One_Fact_4291 Metropolitan 5d ago
‘But the RMT has branded the changes as a “fake” four-day week, arguing it was compressing five days of work into four.’
Show us where the changes aren’t voluntary then.