Friday 25 June 2010

What If You Threw A Strike And Nobody Came..?

London Underground insisted there was no disruption to Tube services again today despite a strike by maintenance workers which union leaders said had caused problems.

It’s a strange way of phrasing it – does the ‘Indy’ have no workers they could have consulted over whether LUL were being disingenuous?

Could they have maybe sent a reporter out to check, rather than implying that LUL may be being economical with the truth?

Transport for London (TfL) said Tube services were operating as normal with no significant disruption, with the 48-hour walkout by Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members due to end tonight.
You just know that if there had been film or copy to be had of fed-up commuters, the MSM would have been all over it. Yet nothing.
The company yesterday refuted claims by the RMT that the industrial action had caused delays on the District, Piccadilly and Bakerloo lines because signal faults were left unrepaired and drivers were refusing to move trains due to safety reasons.

I can vouch for that – yes, there were signal failures, but no more so than any other day. Most lines seemed unaffected.

Of course, the union isn’t going to let a little thing like abject failure stop them…

Another 48-hour strike is planned next month unless the dispute is resolved.
I bet it has the same effect as this one…
RMT leader Bob Crow said: "Rather than wasting money on bogus legal challenges and an army of PR runners and strike-breakers it would make far more sense for the mayor and his managers to get back round the table with RMT and resolve this dispute."

Why should they?

‘Stop, or I’ll cut my own throat!’ isn’t much of a threat, when most of your employer’s customers would cheerfully hold your coat for you…

9 comments:

Bucko said...

I would imagine a similar result when all the public sector employees go on strike over the budget cuts.
Nobody will even notice them missing.
In fact, I bet the efficiency of the country will improve when they all walk out.

AntiCitizenOne said...

Bucko they won't be there clogging up the roads.

I really hope they do strike, the state then doesn't have to pay them and that means less extortion for those in real jobs.

nbc said...

You mean that putting a gun to your own head, like this only works in the movies?

Don't move or [Guy Gibson's dog] gets it...

Anonymous said...

Would anybody notice?

AntiCitizenOne said...

They might notice how much less congested the roads are...

After that I don't think anyone will notice the change in service from the extortion funded sector (because there wasn't any).

Mark Wadsworth said...

Bucko makes a good point. That is why the quangocrats and public sector fat cats have to 'mobilise' the real workers (street cleaners, nurses yadda yadda) when they are extorting.

But I'm glad London commuters got into work OK, that is the main thing.

Anonymous said...

Strikes only work in profitable industries ,which by nature are strike free as the employees are doing well out of it.
Stikes fail when cuts and redundancies ,especially closures occur.
Much easier to close a department down when they are all out on strike is it not ?
Besides the public sector workers are no where near as intimidating as the Miners or Dockers were,are they !

JohnRS said...

Just like a little child screaming "look what you made me do" after breaking their favourite toy to attract attention.

Meanwhile all the grownups just get on with things.

JuliaM said...

"I would imagine a similar result when all the public sector employees go on strike over the budget cuts.

Nobody will even notice them missing."


But as AC1 points out, we will notice that the roads and trains are considerably less crowded!

"I really hope they do strike, the state then doesn't have to pay them..."

Even better, if they stay out, that depletes union stockpiles (assuming the union chips in to support them).

"You mean that putting a gun to your own head, like this only works in the movies?"

Heh! Indeed.

"But I'm glad London commuters got into work OK, that is the main thing."

Nothing happens in the country, if it doesn't happen in London!

"Besides the public sector workers are no where near as intimidating as the Miners or Dockers were,are they !"

Fear the massed ranks of the disability outreach worker's communication team. Fear them!

"Meanwhile all the grownups just get on with things."

If I hadn't read about the strike in the news, I wouldn't even have known that there was one...