Question Courts stopping strikes?

[rynnor]

I'm no fan of unions in general but I must admit the spectacle of employers going to courts to stop strikes on technicalities fills me with unease.

The RMT strike that got stopped was due to effectively some old data appearing on their membership database.

The numbers involved were insignificant and would not have affected the result but the courts decided it was enough to overthrow the decision of thousands of union members.

I use the rail network every day and the proposed strike would have inconvenienced me but I feel some sympathy for a strike about jobs rather than working conditions like the BA one or the Tube strikes.

Anyone else think the courts were wrong to interfere?

 

[Chilly]

thank fuck for the courts.

If a union is going to hold the country to ransom, at least do it properly.

 

[ECA]

There are laws governing strikes, follow the law or GTFO.

Or tits.

 

[gunner440]

Retards going on strike should face the electric chair.

 

[Sparx]

Im all for strikes if its for the right reasons. I was in TGWU for 7 years. What i cant stand is unions like The tubes striking guaranteed twice a year over the silliest little thing

 

[Zenith.UK]

It seems I'm in a minority.
My brother-in-law is one of those very signal maintenance workers who is being threatened with redundancy. He works for Babcock Rail and is based out of a depot at Haydock. That depot is being closed down as part of restructuring. He has been told that his job is disappearing and he has to apply for the exact same job/position/salary at Preston depot. The problem is that there are only enough jobs at Preston for half the Haydock workers.

This isn't the first restructuring. He used to be based closer to home but that depot got shut in a restructuring a couple of years ago and he had to apply for his own job at Haydock. Now Babcock Rail are going through it all again.

Each time this happens, there is no continuity in contract/salary/experience. He is having to go through the interview process as if he was a brand new candidate off the street. Each time the company restructures, it gives notice in January for closures at the end of March. Their financial year starts on April 1st so it is blatantly obvious it is being done for purely financial reasons.

This is why the unions are up in arms about it. If the maintenance companies like Babcock Rail are downsizing and restructuring all over the place, it stands to reason that there will come a point when they can't do their work effectively because they're understaffed or under-resourced. RMT believe that point is approaching and the time has come to make a stand. Network Rail and the Govt are trying to use this to score political points by appearing firm against unions. The reality is that strike action is a final resort because the people on strike aren't being paid! He has a mortgage, my sister and 2 small kids to support... much like many other ordinary people. He can't afford to strike but he voted in favour of strike action because he believes it's the only course of action left to him.

If this sort of court action happens more than once or twice, people will start taking action in direct contravention of the injunction. I'm just waiting for the next National Strike. I'm not a union member but if Labour somehow win the election, I can quite easily see the unions ganging up and calling National Strikes in an attempt to overthrow the Govt. The courts bedamned.

 

[xane]

The union leaders are morons, a similar legal action stopped the BA strike last Xmas, they should have been wiser to companies exploiting irregularities in the ballot.

Having been "downsized" myself in recent years, I have sympathy for anyone in the same situation, but that sympathy quickly dissipates when they deliberately try and f*ck up millions of people's holiday plans.

 

[Ch3tan]

I have no sympathy for any one going on strike. Fuck them, it's a bad way of making their point and costs the companies paying them money, which in the long term helps no one.

 

[Krazeh]

I have no sympathy for any one going on strike. Fuck them, it's a bad way of making their point and costs the companies paying them money, which in the long term helps no one.

Can you suggest another way? Tbh it's not like strike action is called on a whim or just for the sake of it, there's an long road to go down before unions decide to call for strike action or members (who end up losing money for going on strike) decide to go ahead with it. Yes it's shit for bystanders who get caught up in the chaos of strike action but sometimes the only way to get employers to stand up and pay attention is to hit them where it hurts, i.e. their income and public image.

 

[Chilly]

I have no power to go on strike because I dont work for a crucial company in the british infrastructure. If I went on strike, I would lose my job. I don't think it's ethically sound to abuse your position like the unions do. You dont get the bread making unions because we could all just live without bread for a week no worries (or make our own). Unions only exist where they have an unreasonable control over some industry. In this case, it's a particularly critical industry that a vast number of people rely on.

I sympathise for their positions as people individually, but when they start taking their problems out on ME, yes ME particularly, I rapidly lose any ability to empathise. Imagine if hospital staff struck, or the police? Thank fuck that cant happen.

 

[Chilly]

Can you suggest another way? Tbh it's not like strike action is called on a whim or just for the sake of it, there's an long road to go down before unions decide to call for strike action or members (who end up losing money for going on strike) decide to go ahead with it. Yes it's shit for bystanders who get caught up in the chaos of strike action but sometimes the only way to get employers to stand up and pay attention is to hit them where it hurts, i.e. their income and public image.

I'm not a bystander, I'm an innocent member of the public who relies on critical infrastructure provided by these unions. I take it personally. They dont mean it personally, but frankly I don't care, if I ever meet a member of this union I will tell him exactly what I've told you lot here and call him a ****.

 

[dysfunction]

If Bob Crow wasn't such an arse then perhaps there would be more dialogue, discussion and agreement with union members, staff and companies and no real need for strikes.

Bob Crow just enjoys having a strike as he is a wanker

 

[Ch3tan]

Can you suggest another way? Tbh it's not like strike action is called on a whim or just for the sake of it, there's an long road to go down before unions decide to call for strike action or members (who end up losing money for going on strike) decide to go ahead with it. Yes it's shit for bystanders who get caught up in the chaos of strike action but sometimes the only way to get employers to stand up and pay attention is to hit them where it hurts, i.e. their income and public image.

What Chilly said.

 

[MYstIC G]

The reality is that strike action is a final resort because the people on strike aren't being paid! He has a mortgage, my sister and 2 small kids to support... much like many other ordinary people. He can't afford to strike but he voted in favour of strike action because he believes it's the only course of action left to him.

Then he is stupid. If he cannot afford to miss work then he should work. Whilst I don't envy his position (it clearly sucks) if he opts not to work then he should expect fuck all sympathy.

Strikes achieve nothing. Especially transport strikes. They simply grind the country to a halt and stop people earning money, that makes everyone worse off.

 

[xane]

Can you suggest another way?

How about leaving and finding a better job, like the other 99% of the working population has to do ?

Tbh it's not like strike action is called on a whim or just for the sake of it, there's an long road to go down before unions decide to call for strike action or members

Bollocks. It's a strategic policy aimed at maximum impact, most transport strikes are only really effective at peak times during holidays, the unions are working to a schedule and they'll make pre-emptive decisions if the company starts delaying tactics, in other words, on a whim.

 

[xane]

Imagine if hospital staff struck, or the police? Thank fuck that cant happen.

Two interesting cases, nurses will "work to rule" instead, meaning they refuse to do the paperwork, that way the patients aren't involved and the employer is hurt directly. Police exchange pay agreements for "no strike" deals, so it's all sorted out ahead with better negotiation.

They don't have little proto-communists running their unions.

 

[Raven]

Very few people aren't facing a pay freeze or potential job cuts. What makes these ***** think they are any better than the rest of us?

Fuck them, fire the lot of them, plenty of people who would be happy to just be in work.

Its not even as if half them are even skilled, semi skilled maybe. What 2-4 weeks training?

 

[Jeros]

I was under the impression the right to strike is a LEGAL right.

 

[Tom]

Very few people aren't facing a pay freeze or potential job cuts. What makes these ***** think they are any better than the rest of us?

Fuck them, fire the lot of them, plenty of people who would be happy to just be in work.

Its not even as if half them are even skilled, semi skilled maybe. What 2-4 weeks training?

Congratulations on revealing that you have absolutely no understanding of this proposed strike whatsoever.

It isn't merely about jobs - its about safety. When you're working on an active line, do you really want fewer people there to watch your back for the train approaching silently at 120mph?

This is a system that has caused deaths because of its woeful safety standards; do you believe that safety will be improved with fewer people employed in maintenance?

 

[Zenith.UK]

Very few people aren't facing a pay freeze or potential job cuts. What makes these ***** think they are any better than the rest of us?

Fuck them, fire the lot of them, plenty of people who would be happy to just be in work.

Its not even as if half them are even skilled, semi skilled maybe. What 2-4 weeks training?

Try a couple of years training. The signals are controlled by fibre-optic cables so it takes specialist training to identify the individual strand in a bundle, ensure the surfaces to be mated are clean and cut straight and finally bond the strands together. Then there's the actual diagnostic testing to ensure it all works.

And all this at the trackside with trains whizzing past at 100-120mph.

I didn't understand what my bro-in-law goes through until he explained it to me. Now I have a new appreciation for the difficulties of his position.

 

[Chilly]

Plenty of free education to be had to facilitate a career change. If someone is hard working and driven, then there's no real reason a collapsing indistry has to be the end of the world for them. Live off bennies or flipping burgers for a year, learn a new trade/skill, work in that new area and move on.

 

[rynnor]

Its a nasty job - I saw a dead maintenance guy being put into a body bag last year just outside Reading who had been struck by a train just before mine passed through

 

[Chilly]

No matter how good safety systems are, some accidents always happen.

 

[Raven]

Congratulations on revealing that you have absolutely no understanding of this proposed strike whatsoever.

It isn't merely about jobs - its about safety. When you're working on an active line, do you really want fewer people there to watch your back for the train approaching silently at 120mph?

This is a system that has caused deaths because of its woeful safety standards; do you believe that safety will be improved with fewer people employed in maintenance?

Bullshit. It is about job cuts and cuts to working hours. Safety is just a handy line for comrade Bob Crow to peddle to try and get some public support. They are doing it (if they can manage to hold a legal ballot) because they know they can get away with it. It will change little except give Crow a bit of air time.

Most of the jobs are unskilled, my uncle works on the railways and he is an absolute fuckwit. Also it is not just the engineers that are striking.

 

[rynnor]

No matter how good safety systems are, some accidents always happen.

I asked around people who lived in the area (not seeing dead guys every day) and they said its a pretty regular occurence there - its a busy junction.

 

[Chilly]

ok that sounds like inadequate safety to me then. A regular occurence should be sortable.