Eurostar strikes
- 10 August 2016 08:16316561
- Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
10 August 2016 13:15316568more for foot passengers howard,cars go on euro shuttle.at least they have a choise fly or drive.paris and brussels are an easy drive from calias.howard mcsweeney1 likes this - Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,397
10 August 2016 14:40316571Interestingly this seems to be being called by the same Union who are so worried about their member's rights on Southern Rail.
One might have thought that the present conditions of service (£62,569.00 with 2% increase from 1 May 2015. Medically Restricted Drivers / Ins scheme Discretionary. Sick pay - 100%- 6mnths, 50%-6mnths. Travel Facilities: Protected staff plus limited free and discounted Eurostar travel. All staff LUL @75%. ATOC priv rates and FIP card) might go some way towards compensating for any problems with the dreadful work/life balance which seems to beset so many lucky enough to be in full time employment but what do I know?
Personally it looks like the RMT are keen to be the NUM de nos jours and we all know where that ended up!
Guest 1224, Judith Roberts and Jan Higgins like this"The world is still a weird place, despite my efforts to make clear and perfect sense of it".
Dr. Hunter S Thompson - Reginald Barrington
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 17 Dec 2014
- Posts: 3,261
10 August 2016 15:50316574Good on them I say, they have given the company 8 yrs to fulfill promises to the staff, now make it hurt and force them to.Arte et Marte - Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,397
10 August 2016 16:42316576I must say that 'The union said the dispute centres around Eurostar's failure to honour an agreement from 2008 which ensured a good work/life balance for train managers, specifically regarding unsocial hours and duty rosters' makes it all sound a bit nebulous.
I can quite understand that it must have come as a bit of a shock to the drivers who signed up for the £60,000+ a year job that there might be members of the public who wished to avail themselves of Eurostar transport outside normal office working hours Monday to Friday!
Perhaps the lazy buggers with their much sought after transferable skills of errrr 'being able to drive a train' might seek employment elsewhere in an occupation which fits better around their social life? Perhaps the Scenic Railway at Margate calls ............."The world is still a weird place, despite my efforts to make clear and perfect sense of it".
Dr. Hunter S Thompson - 10 August 2016 17:53316579A couple of points in Mr Haddock's post, firstly it is the managers not the drivers going on strike which must mean the trains will still run. Secondly the mantra of work/life balance was meant for self employed people who decide to cut hours to spend more time with their family and friends. Anyone employed on Eurostar would have work when there were more passengers wanting to travel. Not having seen the 2008 agreement the wording would be interesting.
- Captain Haddock
- Location: Marlinspike Hall
- Registered: 8 Oct 2012
- Posts: 8,397
11 August 2016 00:23316597Whilst Howard is correct in pointing out that it is the 'managers' threatening a strike at Eurostar I would not be at all surprised if there was an outbreak of the 'sickness' among other employees which has affected the running of Southern Rail franchise.
There would appear to be a concerted effort to take on the Government by the RMT which goes back to the philosophy of such as Jack Jones the Union Leader in the 70s who wanted “a government prepared to tackle the problem of prices in the shops, rent and housing costs” where "the rich should be expected to bear a bigger burden when governments were asking for sacrifices from other members of the community”.
Now where have I heard talk like that recently? Step in Jezza, Momentum (or Militant 2.0) and tens of thousands of members of the snowflake generation who invested their £3's in the hope that someone else would pay off their student loan built up while they were all getting a poor 2.2 in Forensic Science at the University of Shepton Mallet (with more than more than 8,500 forensics students in the UK and the Forensic Science sector recruiting about 200 graduates a year is it any surprise that you are working in McDonalds? Losers!)
The present view of the way forward for rail operations is still enshrined in the McNulty report of 2011
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/4203/realising-the-potential-of-gb-rail-summary.pdf
even down to the position of the guards role :-
6.9.1 On-train staff
Driver Only Operation (DOO) is a safe method of operation and improves performance, with fewer
human interactions involved in the door opening, door closing and dispatch procedure.
The Study recommends that the default position for all services on the GB rail network should
be DOO, with a second member of traincrew only being provided where there is a commercial,
technical or other imperative.
Looking at overall efficiency (and remember the average English 'worker' is 30% less productive as a worker in the USA! i.e. if we worked with the same efficiency as Americans we could all take Friday off each week, have higher pay and STILL produce even more stuff) the report looks at European Rail operations:-
2.3.5
Conclusions on costs and revenues
All of the Study’s analysis indicates that GB rail has very substantial scope for efficiency
improvement:
•
historical figures indicate that unit costs of the GB passenger railway have not improved since
the mid 1990s;
•
the Study’s initial “top-down” analysis suggested that GB rail should cost 20–30% less than it
actually did in 2008/09; and
•
benchmarking against four European railway systems indicates an efficiency gap of some 40%.
The report finishes:- The final and important conclusion on cost and
revenues is that the excessively high costs of GB rail inevitably result in passenger fares
being too high and taxpayers paying too much. [U]They are both entitled to a better deal. [/U]
The rather aptly named leader of the RMT Mick Cash (salary £128,000) has put it rail companies are "parasites" and "the only answer to this continuing rail chaos is public ownership".
N.B. 'Public Ownership' NOT 'a negotiated settlement'.
That's what the game is about!Ian Handley and howard mcsweeney1 like this"The world is still a weird place, despite my efforts to make clear and perfect sense of it".
Dr. Hunter S Thompson - 11 August 2016 12:14316612This Cash chap certainly keeps himself busy making sure that the trains don't run.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37035966 - 12 August 2016 15:07316648Eurostar not expecting any problems but Dover is expecting delays - doesn't add up.
http://www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/traffic-delays-expected-at-dover-100292/ - Brian Dixon
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 23 Sep 2008
- Posts: 23,940
12 August 2016 17:08316652one or two hold ups due to pinch point road works and a heavy freight run.