Does anyone know what the latest strike us about? Is it another political
one, or do they have a legitimate case? If it's about the closed ticket
offices, surely it's a bit late for that?

It seems to be less well supported than expected, as LU is running many
more services than predicted.

"Recliner" wrote in message
...
Does anyone know what the latest strike us about? Is it another political
one, or do they have a legitimate case? If it's about the closed ticket
offices, surely it's a bit late for that?

It seems to be less well supported than expected, as LU is running many
more services than predicted.

Oh

on TV this morning they showed locked up stations

As a disinterested party I investigated no further

tim

In message
-septe
mber.org, at 08:29:03 on Mon, 9 Jan 2017, Recliner
remarked:
Does anyone know what the latest strike us about? Is it another political
one, or do they have a legitimate case? If it's about the closed ticket
offices, surely it's a bit late for that?

In a measured statement one of the Union bosses said earlier:

"This action has been forced on us by savage cuts to jobs that have
reduced London Underground to an under-staffed death trap at a time of
heightened security and safety alert."
--
Roland Perry

tim... wrote:


"Recliner" wrote in message
...
Does anyone know what the latest strike us about? Is it another political
one, or do they have a legitimate case? If it's about the closed ticket
offices, surely it's a bit late for that?

It seems to be less well supported than expected, as LU is running many
more services than predicted.

Oh

on TV this morning they showed locked up stations

As a disinterested party I investigated no further

Yes, many stations are closed, but not nearly as many as predicted.
Services are therefore running on more of the network than expected. For
example, the whole Met, District and Jubilee lines are running, though I
suppose some inner London stations are being non-stopped. I think only the
Circle, Victoria and W&C are completely closed.

See
https://tfl.gov.uk/tube-dlr-overgrou...tations-status

As I've now retired, I'm not adversely affected by
this strike. I haven't a clue what it's about but I'll go
to Walthamstow Central later today. TfL were saying
yesterday that there would be no service at all on the
Victoria Line.

One curious feature of TfL's emails about alternative
ways to travel is their failure to mention London
Overground while suggesting passengers try National
Rail services.

It's going to be interesting to see how our modest Mayor
handles this strike. As he has been campaigning for some
Southern services to be transferred to TfL with the boast
that he and TfL would have handled the dispute over DOO
far better, I do hope he will deploy his magical negotiating
skills on home ground.

On 2017-01-09 09:32:57 +0000, Roland Perry said:

"This action has been forced on us by savage cuts to jobs that have
reduced London Underground to an under-staffed death trap at a time of
heightened security and safety alert."

Perhaps they should take a ride on a German U-Bahn and see (or not see)
the staffing levels there. They would have kittens.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On Monday, 9 January 2017 08:30:37 UTC, Recliner wrote:
Does anyone know what the latest strike us about? Is it another political
one, or do they have a legitimate case? If it's about the closed ticket
offices, surely it's a bit late for that?

It seems to be less well supported than expected, as LU is running many
more services than predicted.

Just because a station may be open does not mean lots of staff have broken the strike. May be other HQ staff and managers drafted in temporarily.

The strike has metamorphosed somewhat. The dispute goes back to Boris's decision to close all ticket offices. That policy was implemented without agreement with the RMT and TSSA. £135m was spent on closing offices. I am sure that Boris knew he was leaving a potential mess for whoever succeeded him but he didn't care. Whether you agree with this strike or not it's a bit ridiculous to just plough on without agreement of staff members. It's always going to rebound.

The rebound has now happened because it's evident that LU got the numbers wrong and assumed vast amounts of overtime would be worked. The unions implemented an overtime ban and hey presto - station closures have multiplied. My local station has been closed umpteen times and people are (rightly) livid at being mucked around. It would be even worse if the GOBLIN service was actually running. The Mayor then implemented a "review" which didn't recommend reopening offices (it was never going to) but did point out a load of flaws and issues. We are now in a situation where LU accept they have to recruit more staff while the unions are pointing out that there is natural turnover of 300 a year plus 100 current vacancies. LU propose 200 new posts - the unions are clearly arguing for far more to cover the turnover and vacancies and then raise the staffing complement. There are other issues such as loads of stations staffed with just one person plus a new grade with lower wages. I suspect they are all part of the debate but the main one is numbers. You have to ask why 800+ people were allowed to leave and now there is an acceptance that 200 more people are needed. Someone got their numbers and assumptions badly wrong somewhere.

I suspect there is a tiny bit of politics here too. The Mayor said "no strikes" which is just an encouragement to the unions to force a broken promise.. Regrettably there will always be some sort of industrial action on LU or buses or DLR sometime in a 4 year period. It's therefore stupid for Mayors / candidates to set themselves up for a fall as Mayor Khan has done. Worse he's created the impression there is something better within reach "if only people sit round a table". They did that again over the weekend and got nowhere but the Mayor is still saying the same thing today. All this does is raise false hopes and run the risk of more strikes to push more concessions given the Mayor's opponents will now be slagging him off at every opportunity. Therefore the Mayor will want a settlement but will he settle at any cost? Hopefully not as the budget will be screwed even more in consequence if loads more staff are recruited again. This also sets a very poor precedent for future pay negotiations. The TUs are great at spotting weakness - as you would expect them to be.

--
Paul C
via Google

Paul Corfield wrote:
On Monday, 9 January 2017 08:30:37 UTC, Recliner wrote:
Does anyone know what the latest strike us about? Is it another political
one, or do they have a legitimate case? If it's about the closed ticket
offices, surely it's a bit late for that?

It seems to be less well supported than expected, as LU is running many
more services than predicted.

Just because a station may be open does not mean lots of staff have
broken the strike. May be other HQ staff and managers drafted in temporarily.

The strike has metamorphosed somewhat. The dispute goes back to Boris's
decision to close all ticket offices. That policy was implemented without
agreement with the RMT and TSSA. £135m was spent on closing offices. I am
sure that Boris knew he was leaving a potential mess for whoever
succeeded him but he didn't care. Whether you agree with this strike or
not it's a bit ridiculous to just plough on without agreement of staff
members. It's always going to rebound.

The rebound has now happened because it's evident that LU got the numbers
wrong and assumed vast amounts of overtime would be worked. The unions
implemented an overtime ban and hey presto - station closures have
multiplied. My local station has been closed umpteen times and people are
(rightly) livid at being mucked around. It would be even worse if the
GOBLIN service was actually running. The Mayor then implemented a
"review" which didn't recommend reopening offices (it was never going to)
but did point out a load of flaws and issues. We are now in a situation
where LU accept they have to recruit more staff while the unions are
pointing out that there is natural turnover of 300 a year plus 100
current vacancies. LU propose 200 new posts - the unions are clearly
arguing for far more to cover the turnover and vacancies and then raise
the staffing complement. There are other issues such as loads of stations
staffed with just one person plus a new grade with lower wages. I
suspect they are all part of the debate but the main one is numbers. You
have to ask why 800+ people were allowed to leave and now there is an
acceptance that 200 more people are needed. Someone got their numbers and
assumptions badly wrong somewhere.

I suspect there is a tiny bit of politics here too. The Mayor said "no
strikes" which is just an encouragement to the unions to force a broken
promise. Regrettably there will always be some sort of industrial action
on LU or buses or DLR sometime in a 4 year period. It's therefore stupid
for Mayors / candidates to set themselves up for a fall as Mayor Khan has
done. Worse he's created the impression there is something better within
reach "if only people sit round a table". They did that again over the
weekend and got nowhere but the Mayor is still saying the same thing
today. All this does is raise false hopes and run the risk of more
strikes to push more concessions given the Mayor's opponents will now be
slagging him off at every opportunity. Therefore the Mayor will want a
settlement but will he settle at any cost? Hopefully not as the budget
will be screwed even more in consequence if loads more staff are
recruited again. This also sets a very poor precedent for future pay
negotiations. The TUs are great at spotting weakness - as you would expect them to be.

Yup, and he's also being slagged off thus week for his 'broken' frozen
fares promise. Technically, he didn't break his promise, but you needed to
have read the legal fine print to know that he was only able to freeze the
TfL component of any fares basket, such as Travelcards. So, despite the
technically honest promise, lots of Londoners are seeing the fare rise they
thought he'd promised wouldn't happen.

Robin9 wrote:

As I've now retired, I'm not adversely affected by
this strike. I haven't a clue what it's about but I'll go
to Walthamstow Central later today. TfL were saying
yesterday that there would be no service at all on the
Victoria Line.

I think that line is the only one that's stayed closed all day. I wonder
how soon it'll reopen after the strike ends at 18:00.


One curious feature of TfL's emails about alternative
ways to travel is their failure to mention London
Overground while suggesting passengers try National
Rail services.

It's going to be interesting to see how our modest Mayor
handles this strike. As he has been campaigning for some
Southern services to be transferred to TfL with the boast
that he and TfL would have handled the dispute over DOO
far better, I do hope he will deploy his magical negotiating
skills on home ground.

Yup, he's been left on the sideline, pleading for the unions to keep
talking. Given that he's already committed to hiring more station staff,
I'm not sure what else the unions want. Or maybe they just regard a Labour
mayor as a softer target than an ideological Tory transport secretary.

We now have the curious situation of a Labour mayor condemning the strike,
while the Corbynistas are no doubt cheering the strikers on (Corbyn is
part-funded by the rail unions).

"Paul Corfield" wrote in message
...
On Monday, 9 January 2017 08:30:37 UTC, Recliner wrote:
Does anyone know what the latest strike us about? Is it another
political
one, or do they have a legitimate case? If it's about the closed ticket
offices, surely it's a bit late for that?

It seems to be less well supported than expected, as LU is running many
more services than predicted.

Just because a station may be open does not mean lots of staff have broken
the strike. May be other HQ staff and managers drafted in temporarily.

The strike has metamorphosed somewhat. The dispute goes back to Boris's
decision to close all ticket offices. That policy was implemented without
agreement with the RMT and TSSA. £135m was spent on closing offices. I am
sure that Boris knew he was leaving a potential mess for whoever succeeded
him but he didn't care. Whether you agree with this strike or not it's a
bit ridiculous to just plough on without agreement of staff members. It's
always going to rebound.

http://metro.co.uk/2017/01/09/why-is...words-6371228/