Members of the train drivers union on the central line are set to strike for 24 hours from this Friday mourning.
ASLEF- The train drivers union claims the dispute centres around management’s ‘refusal to treat drivers with the respect and dignity they deserve at work’.
The union claims that incidents include vulnerable people leaving sickness review meetings in tears and drivers with years of good service being threatened with disciplinary action for short delays that sometimes aren't even their fault i.e. signal failure.
Once again we receive the news that tube drivers want to once again take strike action. Earlier this year in April strike action occurred not over pay but over job loses among staff especially over the ones in the ticket offices.
London Underground claimed its plans were an essential part of modernising the tube.
It wanted to remove staff from ticket offices, which it says are becoming redundant, and place them in foyers where automated ticket machines are located.
With that strike I must sympathise, my neighbour is a male in his mid 50′s and works in a ticket office. Should he have lost his job it could have spelled disaster if he couldn't find employment, I mean how would he put food on the table? Pay his expensive gas and electricity bills?
It was been well documented that they are among a very well paid bracket amongst the public sector, it was even documented by Nick Collins a transport correspondent that they received “a generous pay package of £48,000 a year”.
Tube drivers with years of good service have been threatened with disciplinary action for short delays.Although this may not fully justify industrial action, nowadays it seems that increasingly raised awareness comes about via strikes that catch the attention of the media and the thousands disrupted. However, to be fair to the drivers ASLEF have said that health and safety investigations have been refused. This got be thinking, what I first thought was a strike with little motive, could turn out to be a serious issue here. If drivers don't feel safe at work then this becomes a much larger issue and I just wonder if something bigger than a strike is needed to raise awareness of this issue and when the strike finishes this problem can't be ignored as we will get nowhere.
If Boris Johnson condemned the last strike to be pointless, which to be fair had some substance due to jobs being lost, I can’t wait to hear what he’ll have to say about this one because I think to an extent tube drivers are being void of dignity, in most professional employment health and safety is the biggest priority so why is health and safety being ignored here?! Some drivers have went as far to say management have bullied staff as agreements are being broken and it quite frankly can not continue.
Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read my views.
Do you support the strikes, are they justifiable and for what reason? Let me know your thoughts, please comment/share.
Twitter: @jackqsilva
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