Whilst I will of course defer to your wisdom in being privy to information which I am not, but with all respect you said that last week, the company still hasn't moved. I would hope by now we can both agree that you really need ASLEF to join you as withdrawal of their drivers is the only thing which appears likely to force a complete shutdown, and you need a complete shutdown to wield any significant clout. Your strikes are fundamentally weakened by the simple fact that the trains are still running. Regardless of the competence of the substitute staff, the majority of the passengers only really care that the trains run, and whilst the RMT will of course have a field day if there is a major incident during a strike, the odds are that there probably won't be.Alexia wrote:Can't say much in public, but the strikes ARE having an effect, trust me. Watch this space - another union/company meeting scheduled for this week.
Are you sure they're getting overtime for it? No one has a right to be paid for overtime, the company is perfectly entitled to compensate it instead with time off in lieu. Are you sure they're getting anything extra? As regards the cancellation fines, weekend strikes (particularly Sunday strikes) mean fewer cancelled services as the timetable is more sparse anyway, so this may make the strikes more affordable for the company?Alexia wrote: FGW will not want to continually lose £millions in cancellation fines and management overtime costs in perpetuity. If strikes are scheduled strategically - i.e. on weekends, it means workers will not lose that much in wages unless they planned on doing overtime.
On this, I did notice this morning that some regular faces were dispatching trains off of Newton Abbot and Exeter St Davids (alongside the 3 or 4 'station managers' which these stations apparently have according to their hi-vis). I've never bothered checking to see if they wear a union pin, but I'd always assumed these were RMT staff, based on how long they've been there if nothing else. I also haven't seen them around on the days of the previous strikes. Are all RMT members definitely out on this one?In meantime, from my part of world, can confirm that once again, union, non-union and other union staff have all, 100%, chucked in their Sunday.
). There was already a route 10, which becomes route 13, and there was already a route 13, which becomes route 3. That's going to cause some confusion - I can see a lot of people picking up the wrong timetables. The route numbers range from 1 to 16, but there's no route 15... a number that did exist on the old system. The only change I do like is service 28, which becomes 8. That route was previously number 8 back when the buses were run by the local council.