Scotrail

[invergowrie arab]

On 15/10/2021 at 17:09, HeartsOfficialMoaner said:

People on radio moaning about the damage to Scotland's reputation if the strike goes ahead. Zzzzz!

 

Please strike. Who cares about the money. Just strike.

Laughing stock of Europe IMO

[Caledonian1]

On 15/10/2021 at 17:12, Billy Jean King said:

Cracking offer for Scotrail Club 50 members. £10 flat open return fare between any two stations in Scotland until 21 November. Can be used any amount of time too.

Thanks for that .  I renewed my over 50's card the other day and was about to buy a train ticket for the Denmark game - got it for £10 return....brilliant deal.

Now all we need is for the RMT to accept what looks like a decent offer and I can get to Glasgow for a COP26 event next week.

[welshbairn]

2 hours ago, jamamafegan said:

Today is #deadlineday for Scotrail to avoid the strikes. We’ll find out at 1700 what happens. I don’t know enough about it, all I know is 2 of the 3 rail unions have already accepted Scotrails last offer. Are RMT the good guys for shunning the offer or are they just being a bunch of dicks?

Their leader sounded like a dick on the radio yesterday, claiming that the bosses talking about contingency plans if the strike went ahead meant they weren't negotiating in good faith. 

[Boghead ranter]

2 hours ago, welshbairn said:

Their leader sounded like a dick on the radio yesterday, claiming that the bosses talking about contingency plans if the strike went ahead meant they weren't negotiating in good faith. 

And every 3rd word, on average, was 'eh', which made it really difficult to understand what he was actually saying.

[Bairnardo]

And every 3rd word, on average, was 'eh', which made it really difficult to understand what he was actually saying.

Only every third? Hel have Gary Deans onto him for some public speaking tips

[Big Fifer]

Can't really blame the RMT for trying to use COP26 to get a better deal for their members. End of the day, that's their remit, they're a trade union. I don't really know the ins and outs of what drivers have received that the guards etc aren't getting, I think at one point train drivers were part of the RMT as well before ASLEF was created and the drivers across all operating companies became the railway royalty. Some solidarity eh lads?

I was part of the RMT for a few years when I worked on the railway pre-graduation, the largest issue for me seemed to be that the union and the company were just too far apart on everything to ever really see eye to eye. RMT and the branch leaders were all very old school, very much "nothing can ever change or modernise", and the opposite side of the negotiating table was the heads of the TOC looking to extract every last bean of profit they could. 

It always struck me as a bit of a nonsense that the train guards role was SO important for "safety" reasons when railways across the continent and a variety of underground systems operate just fine without one. Of course the safety aspect is a large part of why train guards are paid reasonably well. I'm not entirely sure what the answer is to all of this, because as much as I think the guards safety shtick is a nonsense, the company operating Scotrail (or indeed the government) just really want rid of them so the bottom line looks healthier. Much better for them to replace them with an 19k a year ticket inspector rather than a guard. 

If the contingencies are anything like they were when I worked at Waverley it'll be management all getting fast track training to be guards for the two weeks to try and run as many as possible. Admittedly it was a different company I worked for. 

[welshbairn]

1 minute ago, Big Fifer said:

If the contingencies are anything like they were when I worked at Waverley it'll be management all getting fast track training to be guards for the two weeks to try and run as many as possible. Admittedly it was a different company I worked for. 

At least one of the other unions have said they'll get zero cooperation from their members if they try that.

[Big Fifer]

2 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

At least one of the other unions have said they'll get zero cooperation from their members if they try that.

Yeah but, again admittedly it was > 3 years ago now, TSSA and Unite membership numbers are absolutely miniscule in comparison to the RMT. I'm not exaggerating when I'd suggest, in terms of membership, >95% of railway staff will be in the RMT. 

[welshbairn]

5 minutes ago, Big Fifer said:

Yeah but, again admittedly it was > 3 years ago now, TSSA and Unite membership numbers are absolutely miniscule in comparison to the RMT. I'm not exaggerating when I'd suggest, in terms of membership, >95% of railway staff will be in the RMT. 

Didn't know that. Wouldn't have thought many members would be happy about giving up 2 weeks wages leading up to Christmas with no guarantee of a better settlement. If the Government/Transport Scotland/Scotrail were going to fold it would be now, not after Cop26. 

[welshbairn]

Opposite reporting from RMT and BBC, who knows? Expect deal to be done giving each side a claim of victory.

 

[Have some faith in Magic]

 

 

 

 

[Left Back]

20 minutes ago, Have some faith in Magic said:

 

 

 

 

Simply means the same nonsense will start again next year.  Can has been kicked down the road.

[alta-pete]

56 minutes ago, Left Back said:

Simply means the same nonsense will start again next year.  Can has been kicked down the road.

Agreed. But without a big international conference to use as leverage. So expect it to continue being kicked down the road.

They really should tie up these deals on something like a 4/5 year cycle. If pay and conditions are then that out of kilter at each renewal at least one party can properly set out their case as to why. 

[ajwffc]

the deal looks almost  like the last one that was turned down apart form it being a 12 month instead of the 24 month offer of 1x 2.5% increase in stead of the 4.5% over 2 years  

[19QOS19]

the deal looks almost  like the last one that was turned down apart form it being a 12 month instead of the 24 month offer of 1x 2.5% increase in stead of the 4.5% over 2 years  

There was a condition in the last one that was an absolute stinker for Guards and I reckon that is the reason it wasn't accepted tbh. I haven't been paying much attention to the media over all this but I expect they never bothered to mention that part and instead just focussed on the money side of things.

[ajwffc]

I have seen mention of conditions but not what they are

[peasy23]

I have seen mention of conditions but not what they are

One off payment for Cop26.

3 hour book on allowance for working on rest days.

[Hammer Jag]

Great result for the RMT given the hurdles they have had to overcome with anti-trade union laws and management trying to bully them and play them off against other trade unions by offering an inferior deal.

Hopefully this episode demonstrates what can be achieved when workers  unite for the common good.

Also, it was disheartening to see that much of the anti-trade union rhetoric on social media was coming from self-proclaimed progressive, independence supporters. Tartan Tories showing their true colours.

Shame on the Scottish Government for allowing this dispute to rumble on for as long as it has. 

[RH33]

7 hours ago, 19QOS19 said:

There was a condition in the last one that was an absolute stinker for Guards and I reckon that is the reason it wasn't accepted tbh. I haven't been paying much attention to the media over all this but I expect they never bothered to mention that part and instead just focussed on the money side of things.

I was talking to the RMT member who comes into work. It was the conditions not amount that was issue.

[craigkillie]

Also, it was disheartening to see that much of the anti-trade union rhetoric on social media was coming from self-proclaimed progressive, independence supporters.  

There are a lot of almost cult-like independence supporters who don't have their own opinion on any policy issue but rather just guide their views on whether it is inconvenient for the Scottish government. You've seen it on the covid thread on here too. If this had been a dispute with the Tory government to do with UK train staff they'd be sharing memes about how much MPs are paid compared to train conductors or something like that.