Whilst 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!