Transport in London is shit

Revenue strike would presumably put everyone in breach of contract and therefore much more sackable, right?

matt i didn't understand how it works either - if you're paid to work that day don't know how it works with not performing certain duties are there union laws that cover it?

someone on londonist commented that even striking is a breach of contract and it's the union immunity that covers it, and it presumably also covers this? i know next to nothing about it

there's also lol this - don't know how robust is the source
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/feb/06/tube-strike-boris-johnson-union-eu-law

I *think* the revenue strike would be official but unprotected action, so the employer either has to sack all or none of the participants. Proper strike is protected action so sacking a striker would be unlawful even tho it is legally a breach of contract.

(this might be bollocks tho so don't go relying on it)

is that how TFL are going to manage the change without voluntary redundancy?

without involuntary redundancy obvs

Every time I've been on strike the union ballot paper makes it clear that going on strike will breach your contract and could lead to dismissal.

Blimey, Bob Crow has died

blimey indeed

52, no age

Ken Livingstone on Bob Crow: "The only working-class people who still have well-paid jobs in London are his members.”

I stand by my post during the last strike. After spending most of that week having to go back and forth to the hospital and seeing what a strike does to people in a similar situation - fuck 'em
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
In response to plans to modernise and improve your Tube service, and despite us offering significant changes, the RMT union has called a further five days of strike action.

If the strikes go ahead, Tube services will be affected from:
• Around 21:00 on Monday 28 April until the morning of Thursday 1 May
• Around 21:00 on Monday 5 May until the morning of Friday 9 May

We will do everything we can to run as many trains as possible, but there will be significant disruption. Our Travel Ambassadors will be on hand to offer help. The DLR, London Overground, and other rail services will operate normally and we will enhance bus services on key routes. Please also consider cycling or walking if possible.

u madd?

Why is the live coverage so deliberately provocative and stupid:

07:18: Andy Dangerfield BBC News Online Josh Paul emailed: "Oh dear! Another strike... Not affecting me! Got up nice and early, got Overground plus seat, got bus plus seat!!!! Bonus! Close ticket offices. I have not used one since 2006! They are always closed now anyway! Move with the times unions! The rest off us are."
Do you agree? Email your comments...

tbf that is exactly how a lot of people feel and journalism works by expressing that sentiment in its strongest (trolliest?) terms in order to provoke the other side to make its case.

big thumbs up to all the drivers using and blocking the bus lanes this morning out of a sense of entitlement, stopping cyclists, motorcyclists and of course buses full of people getting anywhere.

I've gone past two accidents this morning on my bus into work :(

Got up a bit earlier this morning to catch a bus and it worked although the bus was full of the morons I try to avoid by normally taking a later bus. Particularly the idiot who keeps trying to climb the stairs to get a seat without letting the people who were upstairs come down the stairs and get off first.

i am still on the 55 from leyton

didn't leave early just risking being late had considered alternative to usual route in form of bus or dlr but in the end both district and central worked for me as normal I was only as late as I ever am

I always read an unwritten "porquoi?" at then end of this thread title.

are you allowed to use the bus lanes during tube strikes then?

nope.

lol @ blitz spirit of wankers driving in bus lanes

After about a half-hour wait, no bus came for the first part of my journey, so I walked about 45 mins (luckily it's a lovely day, and I'm fat as shit so it's good for me), but for the second part of my journey I rode a replacement bus of some impressive vintage - it literally smelled like moth balls! The outside was a much lighter red, and the inside had hard orange benches and lime green piping along the interior roof. It was kind of cool. Got there, anyway, and the driver wasn't charging anyone (do they usually not charge during strikes?)

Charing Cross Hospital is a mess again, but pro-strike people see that as acceptable collateral damage (or a necessary evil) it seems

replacement bus services are free

Take it up with Boris Johnson (xp)

what's happened to charing cross hospital?

re: bus lanes would that not mean they all get snapped by the on bus bus stop cameras and they all get busted?

bus stop/bus lane cameras?

(xx-post) We have to travel back and forth to the hospital several times a week, which is thrown into chaos during tube strikes. For example, home visits for cancer carers are canceled; daily radiotherapy and chemotherapy schedules fall to pieces because people can't make it there - the effects there can be felt for months afterwards. Charing Cross is the oncology hub for Imperial College for several disciplines so people have to travel from very far away and count on the tubes (for many of them, buses aren't an option and they can't afford car services/cabs).

I just feel that supporters of the tube strikes who say or imply that people who are against them are simply complaining about being inconvenienced don't actually understand the extent to which these things affect people who struggle on a good day and really depend on the service.

Isn't much of the point of the strike to show that their jobs aren't dispensable and people do depend of them, and that Boris Johnson's plans also affect people who struggle and depend on them?

lol, u madd

Isn't much of the point of the strike to show that their jobs aren't dispensable and people do depend of them, and that Boris Johnson's plans also affect people who struggle and depend on them?

this.

Like, I don't want to appear glib about this - I can't imagine much that's more stressful than having to undergo serious medical procedures, and having that experience made worse but travel chaos and so on. But can you not understand that the people on strike are doing so because they fear for the loss of their livelihood and the worsening of their working conditions? Can you seriously argue against their logic when you realise that it is only through the tactics of the late Bob Crow that, as Ken Livingstone put it, tube drivers are the only working class people in London with decent wages right now.

I guess what I mean to say is, your saying I just feel that supporters of the tube strikes who say or imply that people who are against them are simply complaining about being inconvenienced don't actually understand the extent to which these things affect people who struggle on a good day and really depend on the service. is actually simply evidence of a self-centredness and naivity on your part, to be honest. I'm guessing the majority of the people supporting the strikers do understand the extent to which the strike will seriously affect people; they just don't believe that the importance of the service the tube workers provide should mean they can't fight for their rights in the face of a right-wing government which is seeking to seriously impoverish them.

Why aren't you angry at Boris, etc, for their part in this situation, instead of just blaming the strikers? Because its impacting you in a personal way, and therefore you don't feel the need to see the bigger picture or feel empathy with the strikers or their cause?

the London Underground is one of the great public transport services in the world as far as I can tell and clearly a good part of that is the staff. those who deal with the public daily in ticket offices and in the stations are helpful, v professional and often good-humoured in my experience.

Anyone who regularly uses the tube will realise the importance of having generally available staff and staff who can help with ticketing issues and money (whether in the form of hard cash or other reimbursements or mischarges).

London is also one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world, most of whom will use the tube at some point.

Nothing about the ticket office proposals makes sense other than as an expression of wishing to cut the flow of money into the service and reduce the number of excellent staff, putting more pressure on those who remain.

Of course they should strike. It's the only serious weapon of any meaningful power against corporate management and concerted anti-public funding politicians, who will otherwise go ahead unopposed.

Bob Crow managed to ensure members of the RMT were the only public sector workers at that level whose wages kept broadly in line with inflation, an achievement managed in part through a militant use of the strike threat.

The discomfort felt by people affected by the strike, which emphasises the importance of the service and policies designed to detract from it, is thus caused by the policy not the strike - any other interpretation is short-sighted, and indicative of an inability to distinguish proximal from distal causes.

Seems like every time I have to go down to London there's a tube strike on. bugger. google says it takes about 40 minutes to walk from Kings cross to blackfriars - does that sound about right?

( btw that is not intended as criticism of the strikers, just my bad luck. more power to their bits)

Maybe 30 if it's a nice day, you walk fast and your route is Gray's Inn Road-->High Holborn-->Farringdon Road/Street-->Blackfriars.

Northern Line nice and empty-ish. Scuppered any notion of WFH.

refused to take the tube today despite service on the victoria line, am i crazy or are others doing this too

Thomas, you can get the 63 bus which is generally not too badly affected by tube strikes because the only bit of tube it replicates is Kings Cross - Farringdon.

xp I try never to cross picket lines but I've been lucky only having to walk round-trip from the office in EC1 where I've been working on some copywriting.

I believe that any action that keeps sick people from care is a fundamentally flawed action, and that the Tube is an essential service - and that probably comes from me growing up under Taylor Law. But I'll just leave it as me being called self-centered and naive for that. Sort of locks the whole thing down for me.

i'm boycotting during the strike too, wasn't really an inconvenience today but my trip from tooting to charing cross tomorrow seems like it'll be a bit of an adventure...

DUDE. train from maryland to lpool street, an empty 23 to oxford circus - i got this on lock, let's do this every day

Bus was 1 hour late getting into work yesterday, today it was like 10 minutes early!

Walter, wouldn't closing ticket offices also "keep sick people from care" - to a much lesser degree, but on a permanent, ongoing basis? wouldn't reducing tube staff numbers by almost 1000 diminish the essential service that these sick people need? the RMT is fighting to KEEP these things!!

Much easier to hate the little people in front of you than focus your ire on the big people who are actually to blame.