Strike!
- Thread starter smokedout
- Start date
Louis MacNeice
Autumn Journalist
Royal Mail is also looking for a fight. They made a significantly below inflation pay offer, with strings attached. They then followed this up with a raft of proposals including a move to seasonal hours contracts (where working hours can be altered with two weeks notice), removal of sick pay after the first absence in a 12 month period (entitlement to ssp only) and the introduction of compulsory 7 day working; all employees to be moved onto these new t&cs. It’s almost as if they were looking to provoke the CWU.
Cheers - Louis MacNeice
Cheers - Louis MacNeice
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ACG article on strikes and 'the public'
www.anarchistcommunism.org
Who are ‘the public’ ? - Anarchist Communist Group
The current rail strike is the first major national industrial dispute for a decade, since the Public Sector anti-austerity strikes of 2011 which accounted for nearly 400,000 lost working days. Then, as now, the apparent victim was this illusionary concept of ‘the public’. Inconvenience it seems...
www.anarchistcommunism.org
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
I think one of the big points they've been trying to get across is that it's not just about pay, the dispute covers pay, job security, and working conditions. So, for instance, their latest statement:
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Hitmouse is correct. At the heart of the dispute is a set of negotiations about pay, redundancy and rationalisation. The employers representatives, and the government, are seeking to make £4 billion of saving through 2,500 job cuts and through ‘modernisation’ (read closed ticket offices and further redundancies) and new working practices, mainly new technology which will also cut jobs.
They have said if the union sign up to their plan some of the money will be diverted into worker pay albeit at a rate well below inflation.
A cursory reading of the detail of the offer makes
me believe that far from the RMT itching for a scrap that the government has deliberately provoked the dispute. I mean, what else would any half serious union do when presented with an ‘offer’ like that?
Interestingly, the Times today reports ‘concerns’ in the Treasury about the prospect of rising pay. Not actual rising pay, but the prospect of it. There seem to be no similar concerns about actual existing and rampant corporate profit which is actually driving inflation and rising prices (even more so, in fact, than raw materials, source energy costs etc).
The ‘unions’ and the working class will - as always - be scapegoated for the crisis, and in the absence of actual rising pay it seems striking workers are to be the chosen target.
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Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Indeed. The Royal Mail made £750 million profit last year. It’s hard not to conclude that the Tories want to provoke the better organised sections of the organised working class into dispute a) to divert attention from the real reasons for inflation and rising prices and blame workers for it and b) to isolate and beat the most militant groups like the post and rail workers to prevent more generalised action in the public sector and elsewhere where there is less leverage
Royal Mail’s Bumper Profits Show its Workers Deserve a Raise
While Royal Mail bosses plead poverty, the company turned a £758 million profit last year. That’s money made by postal workers – they deserve a pay rise.
tribunemag.co.uk
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hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Preaching to the choir on this one, but it also lays bare the hypocrisy of anyone in government whining about how the poor commuters will be affected by rail strikes, since cutting £4bn from the railways will also clearly have a negative impact on commuters, and one that will last for considerably more than just a few days.
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
In the hypocrisy stakes it’s not a patch on millionaire Tories, who’ve never done a proper days work in their puff, attacking the salary of workers who have had the temerity to organise and collectivity achieve a living wage for most of the workforce.
ska invita
back on the other side
talking of hypocrisy
www.itv.com
MPs set for £2,200 pay rise just when costs soar for millions | ITV News
The pay rise will take effect in April - when energy bills and taxes will increase for millions. | ITV National News
www.itv.com
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
A prescient comment….I’m sure those ‘members of the public’ attacking the strikes for causing them minor inconvenience will also be the first to moan when they can’t buy a ticket any more, when there is nobody about to offer information and when their station has no staff in it:
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hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
A thread here with locations of picket lines, so far we have London region:
Manchester and Northwest:
Northeast:
And Nottingham:
Manchester and Northwest:
Northeast:
And Nottingham:
Lord Camomile
Yipchaa!
Somewhat ironically, I couldn't get to any of those without getting a train 
No picket lines for Kent then?
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
Wessex Region:
Also, happening in Liverpool on Saturday (on checking, I see Liverpool doesn't seem to be included in the Northwest list posted above):
Oh, and there's now an updated version of the Northwest-minus-Merseyside listing from above:
There'll be a rally happening in Manchester on Saturday as well, presumably some other places too:
Also, unrelated, some more IWGB members have voted to strike in London:
Strike fund is here:
Also, happening in Liverpool on Saturday (on checking, I see Liverpool doesn't seem to be included in the Northwest list posted above):
Oh, and there's now an updated version of the Northwest-minus-Merseyside listing from above:
There'll be a rally happening in Manchester on Saturday as well, presumably some other places too:
Also, unrelated, some more IWGB members have voted to strike in London:
Strike fund is here:
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
I'm sure there will be, it's just that no-one's bothered compiling them into a handy list. Local press has a list of stations that'll be affected here:
Full list of Kent stations that will have no trains during strike next week
A total of 95 Kent stations will have no services at all from Southeastern, Southern, Gatwick Express or Thameslink
I'd say look at your local trades council, or you could try emailing whichever branch sounds closest to you?
South East Branch Directory
www.rmt.org.uk
Medway & District RMT have a facebook page, if that's any help?
www.facebook.com
Yes, it seems fairly transparent. Apparently Lynton Crosby has been sitting in on Cabinet meetings and that kind of strategy is right up his alley.
Cheers. I might e mail my local branch. Hadn't thought of that.I'm sure there will be, it's just that no-one's bothered compiling them into a handy list. Local press has a list of stations that'll be affected here:
Full list of Kent stations that will have no trains during strike next week
A total of 95 Kent stations will have no services at all from Southeastern, Southern, Gatwick Express or Thameslinkwww.kentlive.news
I'd say look at your local trades council, or you could try emailing whichever branch sounds closest to you?
South East Branch Directory
www.rmt.org.uk
Medway & District RMT have a facebook page, if that's any help?
Smokeandsteam
Working Class First
Some handy figures about profits across the rail industry. I haven’t seen any media stories to date demanding bosses reduce profits or executive pay.
Pickman's model
Starry Wisdom
they won't bring down the government unless they sit down and talk
MickiQ
In My Defence I was left Unsupervised
Alas no, the Govt has a massive majority and 2 years to the next election plus it is led by a PM who can only be removed from office by driving a stake through his heart
hitmouse
so defeated, thinks it's funny
OK, with the disclaimer that I am terrible at geography, I think this list covers Kent, if any of those are anywhere near you?
Also, Edinburgh and district:
Colchester & Clacton:
Yorkshire & Lincolnshire:
Wales TUC say there'll be pickets at Cardiff and Swansea:
I would think there must be some other stations in Wales worth picketing, but then I'm not a Welsh railway worker?
Donations to the national dispute fund can be made here:
National Dispute Fund
www.rmt.org.uk
To be fair to the Labour leadership, I sort of think they have decided which side they're on.
My brother works as a train manager and is on holiday right now but is intending to join a picket line tomorrow anyway.
Quite aside from the fact that it is not actually unreasonable to expect a pay rise in line with inflation, jobs are at risk.
He is lucky in having a fighting union.
Quite aside from the fact that it is not actually unreasonable to expect a pay rise in line with inflation, jobs are at risk.
He is lucky in having a fighting union.
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