Southern Rail STRIKE details

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

In short Claire Perry is another moronic politician promoted to a level far beyond one she is capable of.

Great thing is though, Perry has now positioned herself so far out on a naked union-bashing limb that there's no way back for her if the political wind changes away from supporting GTR, as its now starting to show signs of doing.

 

[The Albion Roar]

Circular from Caroline Lucas - which she is asking people to forward...

I’d like to invite you to a meeting I’ll host on 7th July, when representatives of GTR (parent company of Southern and Thameslink) will come to Brighton to hear directly from people who rely on their services.

You’re being sent this invitation either because you’ve told me of your experience as a rail user or you’ve expressed concern about what’s happening with the trains. It’s no exaggeration to say that hundreds of people have contacted me about the extent to which passengers are being let down, day in and day out. This is a huge issue for Brighton & Hove and I want my constituents to have the opportunity to speak directly with those who bear some responsibility.

Meeting details are as follows:

Thursday 7th July 7.30 – 9pm
Suite 1, Jury’s Inn hotel, Brighton BN1 4DJ

Attending from GTR will be:

• Alex Foulds, Passenger Services Director
• David Coates, Head of Stations at Southern
• Piero McCarthy, Head of Conductors and On Board

I hope you can make it and would be grateful if you’d let me know so I can have an idea of numbers.

Apologies for any cross posting.

Best wishes, Caroline

 

[Ernest]

Circular from Caroline Lucas - which she is asking people to forward...

I’d like to invite you to a meeting I’ll host on 7th July, when representatives of GTR (parent company of Southern and Thameslink) will come to Brighton to hear directly from people who rely on their services.

You’re being sent this invitation either because you’ve told me of your experience as a rail user or you’ve expressed concern about what’s happening with the trains. It’s no exaggeration to say that hundreds of people have contacted me about the extent to which passengers are being let down, day in and day out. This is a huge issue for Brighton & Hove and I want my constituents to have the opportunity to speak directly with those who bear some responsibility.

Meeting details are as follows:

Thursday 7th July 7.30 – 9pm
Suite 1, Jury’s Inn hotel, Brighton BN1 4DJ

Attending from GTR will be:

• Alex Foulds, Passenger Services Director
• David Coates, Head of Stations at Southern
• Piero McCarthy, Head of Conductors and On Board

I hope you can make it and would be grateful if you’d let me know so I can have an idea of numbers.

Apologies for any cross posting.

Best wishes, Caroline

Shame there won't be an RMT rep invited too

 

[The Albion Roar]

Shame there won't be an RMT rep invited too

Not sure they have much to answer for.

 

[Tom Hark Preston Park]

Shame there won't be an RMT rep invited too

Nothing to stop RMT reps turning up in the audience and pulling GTR up on their inevitable anti-union BS.

 

[Ernest]

Not sure they have much to answer for.

They would be able to counter the GTR propaganda routine 'strikes, sickness' etc

 

[Deadly Danson]

Circular from Caroline Lucas - which she is asking people to forward...

I’d like to invite you to a meeting I’ll host on 7th July, when representatives of GTR (parent company of Southern and Thameslink) will come to Brighton to hear directly from people who rely on their services.

You’re being sent this invitation either because you’ve told me of your experience as a rail user or you’ve expressed concern about what’s happening with the trains. It’s no exaggeration to say that hundreds of people have contacted me about the extent to which passengers are being let down, day in and day out. This is a huge issue for Brighton & Hove and I want my constituents to have the opportunity to speak directly with those who bear some responsibility.

Meeting details are as follows:

Thursday 7th July 7.30 – 9pm
Suite 1, Jury’s Inn hotel, Brighton BN1 4DJ

Attending from GTR will be:

• Alex Foulds, Passenger Services Director
• David Coates, Head of Stations at Southern
• Piero McCarthy, Head of Conductors and On Board

I hope you can make it and would be grateful if you’d let me know so I can have an idea of numbers.

Apologies for any cross posting.

Best wishes, Caroline

I sent an email yesterday to Caroline from a drivers perspective in the hope that she will be able to counter the GTR bullshit at the meeting - it's all about pressing a button, no one will lose their jobs, no trains have been cancelled unnecessarily etc etc - that they will surely peddle. Doubt it will do any good but hopefully can't hurt.

 

[Arthur]

Caroline Lucas: It's no good having more rolling stock if they're not actually moving. And it's not good enough for her to simply blame the unions on this issue. Her department has got to get a grip. My constituents are furious. They are paying through the nose for an appalling service, which threatens their jobs, it robs them of time with their families, while the CEO of Go Ahead is on a pay deal which rose to over £2m last year. So will she get a grip? Stop the defending the failing private sector, remove the franchise, put the service in transparent and accountable public hands now

Hmmmm how can she slate the private sector in one comment and then moan about how much someone from said private sector is paid?

In the private sector no one in the world is over or under paid. They are paid exactly as much as their employers deem them to be worth. Whether she or anyone else on the planet agrees with how much someone is paid is neither here nor there it's up to the people who pay said persons wages.

 

[CHAPPERS]

Hmmmm how can she slate the private sector in one comment and then moan about how much someone from said private sector is paid?

In the private sector no one in the world is over or under paid. They are paid exactly as much as their employers deem them to be worth. Whether she or anyone else on the planet agrees with how much someone is paid is neither here nor there it's up to the people who pay said persons wages.

Agree. She should have left the actual figure out of that.

 

[Arthur]

Agree. She should have left the actual figure out of that.

Exactly, she is trying to turn it into a class/wealth war which shouldn't be the fight she is trying to pick.

The company he is in charge of is a shower of shit from top to bottom but from top to bottom what people are paid is only of any concern to the employer, employee and the shareholders.

I like Caroline Lucas she genuinely does appear to be one of the good guys because she normally strikes me as someone who shys away from all the bullshite and political point scoring but she has let herself down a little there.

 

[The Albion Roar]

Exactly, she is trying to turn it into a class/wealth war which shouldn't be the fight she is trying to pick.

The company he is in charge of is a shower of shit from top to bottom but from top to bottom what people are paid is only of any concern to the employer, employee and the shareholders.

I like Caroline Lucas she genuinely does appear to be one of the good guys because she normally strikes me as someone who shys away from all the bullshite and political point scoring but she has let herself down a little there.

I can understand her point. While it's still a private company, Go Ahead operate three rail franchises, so some of that company's revenue comes from the public purse.

However, it wasn't central to the primary issue, so didn't need to be mentioned.

It left her open to a counter-swipe from Claire Perry who took full advantage and, incidentally, refused to answer her question.

 

[Yoda]

A prime example of why Drivers/Conductors don't want DOO:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-36681656

 

[studio150]

I came across the following interview with Dyan Crowther.

The following question and answer did make me chuckle:

What's the biggest challenge you've faced? And how did you solve it?

Delivering change for the people that we employ is an integral part of my role, so I regularly negotiate and partner with Trade Unions to achieve outcomes that benefit both parties. Working through these scenarios can be complicated and you must be completely honest and transparent about how you do things.

The full interview can be found at: http://www.keolis.co.uk/news/2016/team-spotlight-dyan-crowther

 

[biddles911]

Exactly, she is trying to turn it into a class/wealth war which shouldn't be the fight she is trying to pick.

The company he is in charge of is a shower of shit from top to bottom but from top to bottom what people are paid is only of any concern to the employer, employee and the shareholders.

I like Caroline Lucas she genuinely does appear to be one of the good guys because she normally strikes me as someone who shys away from all the bullshite and political point scoring but she has let herself down a little there.

Just heard her interview on Radio 4 Today programme. Fairly robust lambasting of Southern Rail management though she skirted clear of taking sides on the DOO issue.

Would have liked her to have challenged GTR's ongoing claim of high levels of sickness which is the principal rationale for all the cancellations since the strikes are only an occasional problem and can hardly be blamed for the ongoing daily chaos.

Are the sickness statistics in the public domain and, if not, why not? Seems to me that this would be a promising line of attack with local MPs and Ministers!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[smeg]

So, are we going to get over 350 service alterations on the 5th July? Hopefully Ernest knows the score on this.

 

[Guinness Boy]

Just heard her interview on Radio 4 Today programme. Fairly robust lambasting of Southern Rail management though she skirted clear of taking sides on the DOO issue.

Would have liked her to have challenged GTR's ongoing claim of high levels of sickness which is the principal rationale for all the cancellations since the strikes are only an occasional problem and can hardly be blamed for the ongoing daily chaos.

Are the sickness statistics in the public domain and, if not, why not? Seems to me that this would be a promising line of attack with local MPs and Ministers!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Notable also that Lucas is prepared to go on the Today programme (and sound very convincing) and Claire Perry isn't, Clearly defending the indefensible is problematic.

 

[Garry Nelson's teacher]

Notable also that Lucas is prepared to go on the Today programme (and sound very convincing) and Claire Perry isn't, Clearly defending the indefensible is problematic.

Also saw Tim Loughton (East Worthing MP) on TV yesterday clearly totally pished-off with Southern - as a fellow Tory he should be on the case with Perry surely?

 

[The Merry Prankster]

Also saw Tim Loughton (East Worthing MP) on TV yesterday clearly totally pished-off with Southern - as a fellow Tory he should be on the case with Perry surely?

That's his public face. It's Tory policy to break the Unions on this.

 

[ManOfSussex]

So, are we going to get over 350 service alterations on the 5th July? Hopefully Ernest knows the score on this.

New timetable published tomorrow apparently - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-36701300

 

[The Albion Roar]

Are the sickness statistics in the public domain and, if not, why not? Seems to me that this would be a promising line of attack with local MPs and Ministers!

Even though the company is partly publicly funded, it's a private company. This sort of information is generally confidential, so I'd be surprised if it was released officially.

Some information has come out, but it's not been official, and you can bet your bollocks that the person / people responsible for gathering this kind of data would be disciplined, seeing as they would be the sole source.

But you're right. The information would be interesting.

My guess is that if the data were to back up the government's / SASTA's claim, it would be in the public domain by now. If it's hearts and minds that they want to win over, they're not doing a very good job.