Who are the mafia?We’ve been promised that those that don’t want to do the shifts won’t have to but I think it will quickly end up that if you can’t get rid then you have to do them and a lot of the responsibility is being put onto the mafias shoulders who weren’t consulted or involved in any of this and have raised numerous issues already.
Just to clarify, the strike is not actually a four day strike from 3rd - 6th August.
It is four 24 hour strikes starting at-
- 12 noon on Tuesday 3rd August until 11:59am on Wednesday 4th August
- 12 noon on Thursday 5th August until 11:59am on Friday 6th August
- 12 noon on Tuedsay 24th August until 11:59am on Wednesday 25th August
- 12 noon on Thursday 26th August until 11:59am on Friday 27th August
But that would require The Standard to check its facts before writing a misleading headline, and we can't have that, can we?
I will be in London when the third and fourth strikes are on, but have already worked out my alternative routes for what I want to do.
Years of living in London taught me how to cope with tube strikes, and not let them affect your life too much.
Who are the mafia?
well, the word on the street is that night tube was never financially profitable so it does beg the question why bring it back when you’re looking to save money.…. my opinion is that if the government push for its return then they should subsidies it but instead they want the workers to pay for it.
ASLEF have agreed to the changes, it was balloted by the RMT and strike action was vote for by the members (im sure the numbers are out there somewhere). I would like to think some type of voluntary approach could be a sensible outcome to resolve this.
Who are the mafia?
It's a strike over 4 days, so it could be construed either way. As a headline, its a bit harder to explain I suppose!
The headline in The Standard refers to one four day strike, whereas it should have mentioned four one say strikes.
I wouldn't mind betting that the strikes at the end of August don't go ahead, even if the two next week do.
This is my experience of tube strikes in London, where a strike, or the threat of one, is used by the unions as a negotiating tool.
**ACAS UPDATE**
Dear General Secretary
Update to RMT members
Today myself and the negotiation team have been at acas from 0900 to 1640.
All of the issues of dispute have been hammered out .
Specifically
Night Tube duties are voluntary
Work life balance cannot be made worse
200 jobs cuts have to be accounted for and resisted.
The company have agreed to meet us again at 0900 on Monday 2nd Aug at acas
Also a reps meeting is being organised at 1430 on Monday. LUL have agreed to release at short notice
All notified strike action remains on
Thanks
John Leach RMT
And the strike action achieved this as a new role was brought in instead (PT night tube drivers).
RMT and ASLEF went on strike in 2016 for the night tube to be set up completely from new drivers -
It is four 24 hour strikes starting at-
- 12 noon on Tuesday 3rd August until 11:59am on Wednesday 4th August
- 12 noon on Thursday 5th August until 11:59am on Friday 6th August
- 12 noon on Tuedsay 24th August until 11:59am on Wednesday 25th August
- 12 noon on Thursday 26th August until 11:59am on Friday 27th August
What was agreed in 2016, by LUL, ASLEF, and RMT, was a dedicated night tube service - the so called oil and water agreement - this meant that full time drivers could not operate trains on night tube duties (and night tube drivers were not allowed to operate 'day' duties - those up to 0130).So.... What I understand from this is that the Unions wanted a system where Drivers work permanent nights ? Yet one of the RMT's justifications for this new dispute is the effect on staff work/life balance !!!
Seems the RMT are still living in that parallel universe where Covid never existed and think the funding pot is bottomless.
Indeed. For a day trip to London it affects me every day Tuesday to Friday. Next week's walking trip can be done by South Eastern rather than tube but I suspect that will be busy with the lack of tube trains. Hopefully they will see sense on Monday and call it off.Yes, four 24 hour strikes deliberately and cynically designed to wreck the service and passengers' travel plans over eight days. The first strike affects me but I can make other plans, the second seriously inconveniences a 91-year old relative..... thanks RMT.
The issue for shift workers is the rotating shift pattern - earlies, middles, lates, and nights. The night tube didn't have rotating shifts - it was 16 hrs over a Friday and Saturday night.
To infuriate you even more, the dates were specifically chosen to fall across 2 pay periods, so staff don't lose too much in a single 4 week pay period.
So, yes, night tube (passenger service trains) is only Friday and Saturday nights. This is different to the night duties which are in all(?) depots - in my own depot, this week of nights comes around perhaps 6 times per year I think. These duties are primarily to relieve drivers by 0130 and stable the trains. They may do some rusty rail moves, or sleet trains during the night, and then bring trains out of the depot around 0430 for the day shift. The mafia manages to get rid of all my night duties to those that want them (the so-called night men, even the women seem to called night men)! The proposal will mean another 4 weeks of night shifts - and this doesn't include the 8 weeks of 'cover weeks' where any duties can be allocated (nobody I have spoken to is interested in working Friday and Saturday nights, so I expect these duties to be dumped onto the cover weeks when they can't cover them). So, worst case scenario is 18 weeks of nights.Interesting, thanks for the detail. For most of my railway career I worked a three shift roster with, for much of it, one-third of the shifts being nights, and I agree that going onto and coming off nights is difficult, but then it was always part of the job I applied for. To clarify further, does Night Tube only ever operate on Friday and Saturday nights ? Because in that case, given the far greater number of trains, and routes, which operate during the day, surely night turns, if shared between all Drivers, would only constitute a very small fraction of their working lives ?
Not infuriated, more disappointed that the RMT believes, at a time when the entire transport industry is facing its greatest crisis ever, that (further) disrupting passengers lives is the right thing to do.
The proposal is therefore that drivers would work their normal day shifts and then accommodate 2 night shifts at the weekend. In reality this could mean I work Wednesday morning, Thursday morning, Friday night, Saturday night, rest Sunday (after finishing at 8am!) and back into a day shift on Monday.
Correct, only LU RMT driversAm I correct in thinking that London Overground services are not affected by the proposed strike action ?
RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said:
Following extensive and wide ranging discussions through the ACAS machinery we have hammered out enough ground to allow those talks to continue. As a result this week's strike action is suspended although the rest of the planned action remains on.
I want to thank our members and our reps whose unity and determination has allowed us to reach this stage today and we look forward to pursuing the important issues at the heart of this dispute in the next phase of talks
Strikes off!
That's good news for all concerned, thanks.
That's a result and a half!
Funnily enough, Aslef have been saying that it’s all been called off and the local rumour mill is that the RMT are just trying to find a way to back down gracefully whilst saving face. Truth will no doubt be somewhere in the middle.
My money is on a full, normal service (well normal-ish ) come the ‘strike’ days.
BREAKING: Next week’s tube strike suspended.