[Albion] No trains for Brentford

[Oh_aye]

Although tickets can be listed I don’t think the exchange is selling tickets?

I managed to get a friend and his son tickets earlier and the child’s ticket went through at concession prices where as exchange tickets are all sold at full price.

Sorry, for the thick of thinking why isn't it selling?

 

[London Irish]

I am sure that you speak for many folk, who are similarly sick of the whole thing. Whilst industrial relations are never straight-forward, in the case of the drivers, the fact they are using their clout -and they are, again - to further increase their above-average salaries, is really annoying. As stated previously, it is a responsible job and I for one do not deny them a good wage, but the perpetual strikes/overtime bans, smack of real greed.

Well you don’t speak for me, no way in a rich country like ours should any worker have to accept below inflation pay rises. Good on the drivers for not accepting this shit while the likes of bankers and CEO bonuses are going through the roof once again. Are we really all in it together? The lesson is join and build a strong union so you don’t get rolled over. Yes I’ll get inconvenienced fior a few hours tomorrow too but People’s livelihoods all year round are more important

 

[Bozza]

Sorry, for the thick of thinking why isn't it selling?

I checked earlier and there was still a chunk of club-owned tickets to sell - about 150 or so in the South Stand.

Unless those sell quickly, and that seems a bit of a push now, the club won't open the sell-side of the exchange.

 

[Oh_aye]

I checked earlier and there was still a chunk of club-owned tickets to sell - about 150 or so in the South Stand.

Unless those sell quickly, and that seems a bit of a push now, the club won't open the sell-side of the exchange.

Ah I see. I thought it was weird that loads were on the exchange in the same area. Had a bit of a thick day.

 

[Wilka]

If the exchange was open I think there would be thousands of tickets popping up based on how many people don’t seem to be going

 

[Binney on acid]

The sacrifices that football fans and the general public are making will all be worth it, when ASLEF members no longer have to rely on food banks.
It infuriates me when you hear of dialysis patents being unable to attend hospital appointments, due to comrade Whelan orchestrating their pursuit of greed.
Who is taking the piss ? !!

 

[el punal]

Well you don’t speak for me, no way in a rich country like ours should any worker have to accept below inflation pay rises. Good on the drivers for not accepting this shit while the likes of bankers and CEO bonuses are going through the roof once again. Are we really all in it together? The lesson is join and build a strong union so you don’t get rolled over. Yes I’ll get inconvenienced fior a few hours tomorrow too but People’s livelihoods all year round are more important

I accept your views to a point. That point being that the people being affected by this industrial action are the likes of you and me, and the rest of the Great British public. The government don’t seem to give a toss, the train companies are constricted (maybe/maybe not) by the government’s lack of anything constructive which leaves the whole situation in one massive impasse - with no end in sight.

Your comment that “you’ll get inconvenienced for a few hours” just does not wash. In this day and age many commuters will choose to work from home on strike days, other people who have to use a train to get to their place of work have to suck it up - again. This then leaves the rest of us. We, that have to travel by train for social reasons, going to a football match being one.

My beef, as one example, with the whole charade of no trains running is this : I had planned to take my grandson to the Brentford game tonight as a special treat. Everything had been sorted with me going up to London, picking him up and travelling down and back up to stay at my daughter’s. Well that plan’s totally screwed, as is the non-use of my match tickets which has walloped my wallet. No doubt this scenario will be repeated a thousand times over with others. This ‘inconvenience’ though is not just for a few hours it seems to be perpetual, the ‘inconvenience’ is nothing can be planned or arranged as there is a distinct possibility that those arrangements will be scuppered by another bout of industrial action.

As I pointed out in another post the solution is childishly simple. Lock up all those involved in this dispute in a windowless, darkened room and don’t let them out until there’s a meaningful resolution. That way the rest of us can get on with our lives without further disruption (ha!ha!) on travelling by train.

 

[mile oak]

Whilst not all working for the railways will be striking a brush will no doubt be tarnishing them all and they will have taken over from the hated parking ticket attendant or whatever they are called these days the hatred for every rail worker will run deep for many many tears after all these strikes and in the long run the workers will lose out as fewer pl trust trains making alternative arrangements. It started with lockdown and work from home and the strikes have compounded less use of the railways they have become so unreliable I can only see the utter chaos of the 'service' improving if renationalised. You walk into a 'southern' or !north-western' booking office and talk about a train from 'Just up from eastern England' service but the conversation talks when you change trains to 'double cross-country express as they aint our trains mate you need to talk to these geezers - dont even get me started on the ridiculous fare system and breaking your journey and fare down its all madness. I blame the greed of the strikers and as others have rightly pointed out ppl ARE suffering REAL suffering like unable to attend dialysis appointments etc because if the strikers. Blaming the government s a total deflection.

 

[Milano]

If the pay rise is given then they’ll simple come back for more down the line. The problem with an overpaid role in an industry which is completely reliant on that role is that when pay rises are measured against inflation then the situation gets worse (similar to tax % on fuel, or elite footballers….). The only way to stop this is investment. Investment in new drivers. Resource it up so overtime is no longer needed to run the full service and there is cover.
Of course the existing drivers and unions won’t want this either and would find some reason to oppose it.

It’s a closed shop, if I wanted to become a commercial pilot and had a spare £150k I could do it off my own back. This option does not exist to become a train driver. In this instance the union and its members are a cartel.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Well you don’t speak for me, no way in a rich country like ours should any worker have to accept below inflation pay rises. Good on the drivers for not accepting this shit while the likes of bankers and CEO bonuses are going through the roof once again. Are we really all in it together? The lesson is join and build a strong union so you don’t get rolled over. Yes I’ll get inconvenienced fior a few hours tomorrow too but People’s livelihoods all year round are more important

If we were 'all in it together' then maybe they should be considering the hospitality sector, most of whom earn nowhere near what an experienced train driver gets.

Last year's strikes hit an industry already completely ravaged by Covid for a further set of losses estimated at over £1 billion by that well known Tory rag The Guardian.

Rail strikes ‘cost UK hospitality sector £1.5bn in December alone’

Industry bodies say figure worse than predicted and expect ‘huge’ losses of businesses and jobs in 2023

www.theguardian.com

On a micro level one well known Brighton supporting landlord with new twins to feed will have a reduced set of takings tonight. I certainly won't be able to make my usual pre-match visit into town and many others won't too.

This is greed, pure and simple, and they've deliberately left Southern until the day Palace and Brighton are both at home in the Premier League.

Southern drivers had their chance to keep a guard on the train before the pandemic. That action finally went away when they got a pay rise

 

[Hastings gull]

Well you don’t speak for me, no way in a rich country like ours should any worker have to accept below inflation pay rises. Good on the drivers for not accepting this shit while the likes of bankers and CEO bonuses are going through the roof once again. Are we really all in it together? The lesson is join and build a strong union so you don’t get rolled over. Yes I’ll get inconvenienced fior a few hours tomorrow too but People’s livelihoods all year round are more important

How very strange. You complain when CEOs and bankers etc get greedy but train drivers apparently are not! You then selfishly compound the simplistic and hypocritical argument by saying that you can cope with a few hour's inconvenience today, ignoring that for hundreds of thousands of others, their life is being disrupted by sheer greed of a union, that has got used to getting whatever it wants by demonstrating clout and total disregard for others.

 

[HeaviestTed]

If we were 'all in it together' then maybe they should be considering the hospitality sector, most of whom earn nowhere near what an experienced train driver gets.

Maybe if the hospitality sector is underpaid they should join together, form a union and strike for better pay and conditions?

Everyone having more and the richest having every so slightly less is the correct response I believe.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

If we were 'all in it together' then maybe they should be considering the hospitality sector, most of whom earn nowhere near what an experienced train driver gets.

Last year's strikes hit an industry already completely ravaged by Covid for a further set of losses estimated at over £1 billion by that well known Tory rag The Guardian.

Rail strikes ‘cost UK hospitality sector £1.5bn in December alone’

Industry bodies say figure worse than predicted and expect ‘huge’ losses of businesses and jobs in 2023

www.theguardian.com

On a micro level one well known Brighton supporting landlord with new twins to feed will have a reduced set of takings tonight. I certainly won't be able to make my usual pre-match visit into town and many others won't too.

This is greed, pure and simple, and they've deliberately left Southern until the day Palace and Brighton are both at home in the Premier League.

Southern drivers had their chance to keep a guard on the train before the pandemic. That action finally went away when they got a pay rise

Talking of greed, you'd think our erstwhile leaders would set an example! Some chance.
MPs’ salaries have increased by 31.7% since 2010.

 

[kevo]

How very strange. You complain when CEOs and bankers etc get greedy but train drivers apparently are not! You then selfishly compound the simplistic and hypocritical argument by saying that you can cope with a few hour's inconvenience today, ignoring that for hundreds of thousands of others, their life is being disrupted by sheer greed of a union, that has got used to getting whatever it wants by demonstrating clout and total disregard for others.

Bloody unions! What have they ever done for us?

 

[LamieRobertson]

Thanks and I do not claim to have any real knowledge, other than what I see in front of me, which I imagine applies to most folk. One thing I do not understand about the rail industry is this -why does it rely on overtime working at weekends; I have to drive home on Saturday after the match as due to the overtime ban the last train leaves Lewes at 16.30, which gives an idea into the scale of overtime working. My son in law is with the Police and when he has overtime it is on time and a half/quarter etc. Why not simply? employ more drivers and then weekend working would be part of the normal working deal as it with so many other service providers, where salaries presumably remain the same. He would only get extra for a weekend if it happened to be on a public holiday, for example. Surely that would be cheaper? But the cynic in me thinks that perhaps Aslef are only too happy for this to continue, as their salaries are thus higher (ok, fair enough) and they can put undue pressure on the employer by refusing to do it in support of pay demands.

Interesting point …

 

[Hastings gull]

Bloody unions! What have they ever done for us?

View attachment 170847

I find your post totally unnecessary. I worked for over 40 years, was a member of a union, who achieved much but was largely responsible in its actions. At no time did I criticise the idea of being in a union, and you are right in that the existence of unions has done much for the working population. However, the fact remains that certain unions which can wield huge power, such as ASLEF, have realised that they can hold the country to ransom in pursuit of their demands, and they do it all the time -this is hardly the first time, is it? And it certainly won't be the last. Train driving carries much responsibility and as such they deserve a decent wage, but I cannot help feeling that sheer greed is now the motivation.

 

[LamieRobertson]

apparently there’s no trains tonight … … I’m sure I read that it was an Albion thread and not Politics

 

[Guinness Boy]

Talking of greed, you'd think our erstwhile leaders would set an example! Some chance.
MPs’ salaries have increased by 31.7% since 2010.

If they're our former leaders, how can they set an example?

Definition of ERSTWHILE

in the past : formerly… See the full definition

www.merriam-webster.com

 

[Guinness Boy]

Maybe if the hospitality sector is underpaid they should join together, form a union and strike for better pay and conditions?

Everyone having more and the richest having every so slightly less is the correct response I believe.

Most are members of Unite.

Not sure that helps the outright or tenanted owners of pubs or people who've started a restaurant or cafe business.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

apparently there’s no trains tonight … … I’m sure I read that it was an Albion thread and not Politics

Mistakes happen. It's a Politics thread