LONDON TUBE DRIVERS GO ON 24 HOUR STRIKE

The Government should do like the Brazilians, whose Airline Cabin and Ground staff threatened to go on strike over the festive season. Any employee
striking between 24th Dec and 2nd Jan would be fined $60,000 per day of absence.

Here we have the London Tube workers striking on Boxing day when thousands are expected to shop for Sale bargains, plus of course the Shops were
expected to make up for the pre-christmas snow causing havoc for shoppers.

The Underground Staff are demanding triple time for working today, plus a day in lieu. The Unions will once again drag us back to the 70"s when it was
a continuous one out all out mantra resulting in a loss in manufacturing because other Countries who might have invested saw Britain as a liability.

Any Union should not be allowed to hold passengers to ransom , in this case it is ASLEF.

Panda wrote:

The Government should do like the Brazilians, whose Airline Cabin and Ground staff threatened to go on strike over the festive season. Any employee
striking between 24th Dec and 2nd Jan would be fined $60,000 per day of absence.

Here we have the London Tube workers striking on Boxing day when thousands are expected to shop for Sale bargains, plus of course the Shops were
expected to make up for the pre-christmas snow causing havoc for shoppers.

The Underground Staff are demanding triple time for working today, plus a day in lieu. The Unions will once again drag us back to the 70"s when it was
a continuous one out all out mantra resulting in a loss in manufacturing because other Countries who might have invested saw Britain as a liability.

Any Union should not be allowed to hold passengers to ransom , in this case it is ASLEF.

I agree Panda the unions had and still have, to some degree far too much an influence on the efficient running of our services, but also the CEOs of these companies which,for the most part were once public utilities should not be on such offensive salaries. Many in the past have been paid fortunes to close down an industry and sell off the remains to foreign buyers.

These CEOs were I believe appointed to their post by ministers, they know absolutely nothing about the systems which they oversee other than the financial aspect.

To them, in order to justify their post; if it wasn't working they scrapped it and if it was working they changed it often times for the worst.

This is, in my opinion one of the reasons the industrial capacity and social structure of this country has collapsed, the accountants were given the run of our public utilities by Thatcher with the view of running the place like the US, after she came back from her honeymoon with Reagan.

Malena, it was the biggest mistake ever to privatise the Utilities and Trains. Admittedly they needed modernising but in those days Trains ran on time
and Fares reasonable. As Harold Macmillan famously said "we are selling the family silver."

Panda wrote:

Malena, it was the biggest mistake ever to privatise the Utilities and Trains. Admittedly they needed modernising but in those days Trains ran on time
and Fares reasonable. As Harold Macmillan famously said "we are selling the family silver."

We needed more politicians like Macmillan, he put the country back on its feet after the Suez chaos.

Panda wrote:

Malena, it was the biggest mistake ever to privatise the Utilities and Trains. Admittedly they needed modernising but in those days Trains ran on time
and Fares reasonable. As Harold Macmillan famously said "we are selling the family silver."

I worked for British Rail a long time before privatization. In those days the unions were strong and BR was a 'closed shop.' Now, I know that some people will not agree that this was a good thing, but I think it was. Because the unions were strong and had quite a lot of leverage, health and safety agreements meant, imo, greater safety for workers and passengers. For instance, the rail unions were able to get an agreement that there would always be 2 men in the cab of every train and that every train would have a guard. With 2 men in the cab, there was less likelihood of signals being missed and one to take over if the man driving felt ill. Many of those health and safety agreements went when BR was privatized, hence more accidents.

AnnaEsse wrote:

Panda wrote:

Malena, it was the biggest mistake ever to privatise the Utilities and Trains. Admittedly they needed modernising but in those days Trains ran on time
and Fares reasonable. As Harold Macmillan famously said "we are selling the family silver."

I worked for British Rail a long time before privatization. In those days the unions were strong and BR was a 'closed shop.' Now, I know that some people will not agree that this was a good thing, but I think it was. Because the unions were strong and had quite a lot of leverage, health and safety agreements meant, imo, greater safety for workers and passengers. For instance, the rail unions were able to get an agreement that there would always be 2 men in the cab of every train and that every train would have a guard. With 2 men in the cab, there was less likelihood of signals being missed and one to take over if the man driving felt ill. Many of those health and safety agreements went when BR was privatized, hence more accidents.

My very first job was with a Bus Company which was owned by British Rail and we had to join the Union. My Friend and I collected the subs at the bus Station and received 1 Guinea each a year (that ages meLOl) Anyway we had to attend Union Meetings and for young girls like us they were the most boring thing ever, Brother this, and Brother that. It was crazy to Nationalise the Railways, too complex as well with different Companies being responsible for the Tracks, Trains and Routes, Stations etc. I later lived in London for six years and commuting was horrendous, but you don"t notice it so much when you are young. Today, there are so many different Unions being represented ASLEF responsible for this 24 hr stoppage. One angry
Commuter said he pays £35,000.00 for an Annual ticket and the service is diabolical.

Economics is a good thing to study if you are also interested in politics. We used to have a very nice mixed economy until Mrs T began to change that mix. Now some things should simply never be privatised - the good of the country as a whole depends on them. They are there to help the country function, not for somebody to make a profit, that is the fundamental difference. A true state-owned concern should be run on a break-even basis, giving the public the opportunity to use it and benefit from it, not the shareholders. If I were in charge I would just re-privatise all the trains, planes and buses, utilities such as gas and leccy, dentists and opticians - with minimal compensation. You would see a lot more people in work and less strain on the benefits system, for a start.

The Famous Grouse wrote:Economics is a good thing to study if you are also interested in politics. We used to have a very nice mixed economy until Mrs T began to change that mix. Now some things should simply never be privatised - the good of the country as a whole depends on them. They are there to help the country function, not for somebody to make a profit, that is the fundamental difference. A true state-owned concern should be run on a break-even basis, giving the public the opportunity to use it and benefit from it, not the shareholders. If I were in charge I would just re-privatise all the trains, planes and buses, utilities such as gas and leccy, dentists and opticians - with minimal compensation. You would see a lot more people in work and less strain on the benefits system, for a start.

At my son's place of work, the cleaning is outsourced, which means that a private company that is set up to make a profit is responsible for hygiene in a microbiology suite of labs. Not good, imo. My son told me that various complaints have been made about the state of the toilets in particular, but nothing has been done. Some of the toilets are unisex and apparently the bins for sanitary items are not emptied very often and the contents spill out over the floor, which both male and female emloyees find unacceptable, but complaints have gone nowhere.

The Famous Grouse wrote:Economics is a good thing to study if you are also interested in politics. We used to have a very nice mixed economy until Mrs T began to change that mix. Now some things should simply never be privatised - the good of the country as a whole depends on them. They are there to help the country function, not for somebody to make a profit, that is the fundamental difference. A true state-owned concern should be run on a break-even basis, giving the public the opportunity to use it and benefit from it, not the shareholders. If I were in charge I would just re-privatise all the trains, planes and buses, utilities such as gas and leccy, dentists and opticians - with minimal compensation. You would see a lot more people in work and less strain on the benefits system, for a start.

I totally agree, all the Utilities should never have been sold, even Water was sold and look how much we are charged for that and Gas and Electricity.!!!

I even think there might have been a way of producing Coal which would have been less "dirty", there was apparently 300 years supply of Coal and
the result of banning coal destroyed so many Mining Communities and made us subject to the high prices of these Utilities.

Even before the Post Office has officially announced as being sold, Ed Davey the minister responsible is reported as checking to make sure that the Queen's Head will remain on the Nation's stamps. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12030091

Next to go will undoubtedly be the NHS, front line staff numbers have been trimmed to virtually unsafe levels for several years in many units to make the service more amenable to an accountants cold eye. Chinese or Russian buyers will swoop as did BMW on Rolls Royce, EDF on our Electricity Utilities, India on British Steel and Thatcher's destruction of our coal industry making us reliant on Russia and Poland.....the list of National assets, skills and technology destroyed or given away at cut price to their shareholder friends by consecutive administrations of corrupt government is never ending.

What's next for the sale of the century?
The Armed Services?
The Royal Family perhaps?

malena stool wrote:Even before the Post Office has officially announced as being sold, Ed Davey the minister responsible is reported as checking to make sure that the Queen's Head will remain on the Nation's stamps. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12030091

Next to go will undoubtedly be the NHS, front line staff numbers have been trimmed to virtually unsafe levels for several years in many units to make the service more amenable to an accountants cold eye. Chinese or Russian buyers will swoop as did BMW on Rolls Royce, EDF on our Electricity Utilities, India on British Steel and Thatcher's destruction of our coal industry making us reliant on Russia and Poland.....the list of National assets, skills and technology destroyed or given away at cut price to their shareholder friends by consecutive administrations of corrupt government is never ending.

What's next for the sale of the century?
The Armed Services?
The Royal Family perhaps?

There"s not much to sell Malena Britain is bankrupt both morally and materiallyy, there is not one Investment House owned by a Briton, the banks will be
the next thing. There was talk of having more smaller Banks instead of the big four, so what happens Santander steps in and has a strong foothold in
Britain

Panda wrote:

malena stool wrote:Even before the Post Office has officially announced as being sold, Ed Davey the minister responsible is reported as checking to make sure that the Queen's Head will remain on the Nation's stamps. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12030091

Next to go will undoubtedly be the NHS, front line staff numbers have been trimmed to virtually unsafe levels for several years in many units to make the service more amenable to an accountants cold eye. Chinese or Russian buyers will swoop as did BMW on Rolls Royce, EDF on our Electricity Utilities, India on British Steel and Thatcher's destruction of our coal industry making us reliant on Russia and Poland.....the list of National assets, skills and technology destroyed or given away at cut price to their shareholder friends by consecutive administrations of corrupt government is never ending.

What's next for the sale of the century?
The Armed Services?
The Royal Family perhaps?

There"s not much to sell Malena Britain is bankrupt both morally and materiallyy, there is not one Investment House owned by a Briton, the banks will be
the next thing. There was talk of having more smaller Banks instead of the big four, so what happens Santander steps in and has a strong foothold in
Britain

A few doors apart on our main shopping street are now two branches of Santander. First it was Abbey and now another building society has been taken over.

AnnaEsse,

What is it about all these rich Businessmen that they don"t want to invest in their own Country, the Tax System is pretty favourable to Businesses, the Transport and infrastructure excellent, a ready woorkforce. Perhaps the memory of strike happy Britain in the seventies and eighties put investors
off, even now the Unions can destroy a Business, take British Airways as a prime example.

Did you know the drivers get over £40,000 a year!!!!!!


I think I heard they could get £48,000........blimey.

Hi Kitti,

I lived in London for 6 years many moons ago and can testify that Tube travel is horrendous, packed like sardines , a complex system for finding your way about, exhorbitant charges etc. so, if true Drivers are getting £40,000 a year, that"s a lot of money.
Apparently they were being offered 3 times their daily rate plus a day off in lieu.......how greedy can you get?