On Apr 21, 9:42*pm, Barry Salter wrote:

Zen83237 wrote:
Nothing about the strike. What are the RMT whinging about now?

Brother Crow wants Correct Side Door Enable kit installed on the
Victoria Line, after an alleged 18 incidents of Train Operators opening
the doors on the non-platform side in the past four years.

It is left as an exercise for the reader as to whether:

a) Brother Crow's members should take responsibility for their actions,
rather than relying on (yet more) mods to the fleet and infrastructure
and blaming LU management for their mistakes.

Which is inevitably what the public at large are going to think - it's
certainly what I thought on first hearing about this, and indeed what
I still think (though I realise that there is of course more to it
than meets the eye, as always). This strike is hardly going to win
anyone over - quite the opposite, it'll just make people more hostile
to the RMT.


b) Brother Crow and his members realise that they're getting a brand new
fleet of trains in the near future, presumably with CSDE fitted.


Of course the RMT are well aware of point (b). They're just using this
issue to kick up a fuss. As this BBC News online story makes clear,
fitting CSDE to the old trains at this stage would be totally absurd:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8011617.stm

---/quote---
"A statement from TfL said: "London Underground has responded to each
of the RMT's issues, which should be resolved through the procedures
agreed with unions and without disruption to passengers.

"Correct side door enabling equipment is in place on the new Victoria
line trains which will come into service in the next year.

"To retrofit the equipment in the existing trains would be hugely
expensive and would take longer than the introduction of the new
trains."
---/quote---


However if you read the whole story you'll see that "General secretary
Bob Crow also accused the management of 'a culture of bullying and
harassment' of union members on the Victoria Line". This in and of
itself doesn't provide much insight - however, I found the thread
concerning the strike on the District Dave forum (frequented by a
number of LU operating staff amongst others) quite instructive - see:
http://districtdave.proboards.com/in...thread=107 13

There is some suggestion on that thread that the real issue here is
that LU now take a far harder line on train operators who mess up than
they used to - so whilst opening the doors on the wrong side in the
past may have previously been viewed as a lesser transgression, these
days it is treated far more seriously with harsher disciplinaries
(even with the threat of the sack lurking in the background).

So as one poster there says it is not the risk that has changed, more
how LU deals with such incidents. I dare say this may be at the root
of the matter, but then again not having any insider take on
proceedings who am I to know!