London Bus Strike

anonymousblackfg
anonymousblackfg Posts: 2,029
edited June 2012 in Commuting chat
It's looming, I'm also after extra pay for working when I could be watching sport but sadly I live in the real world without the lunacy of Bob Crow's sweaty freeloading.
If I know you, and I like you, you can borrow my bike box for £30 a week. PM for details.
«1

Comments

  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    Didn't know Bob Crow did buses too.
    _
  • Green Brompton
    Green Brompton Posts: 972
    Argh. I have to get PT on Friday (I'm already in state of shock from the thought of that alone).
    Why? Because I'm guaranteed a seat all the way in.

    Brompton SL2
    Ridley Icarus SLS
  • rubertoe
    rubertoe Posts: 3,994
    It will be alright if everyone will be on bikes, but I fear that wont be the case and cars it will be.
    "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got."

    PX Kaffenback 2 = Work Horse
    B-Twin Alur 700 = Sundays and Hills
  • daviesee
    daviesee Posts: 6,386
    Sounds like an excuse for a long weekend.

    What's the weather forecast? :P
    None of the above should be taken seriously, and certainly not personally.
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    daviesee wrote:
    Sounds like an excuse for a long weekend.

    What's the weather forecast? :P

    Shiiite.
    _
  • Koncordski
    Koncordski Posts: 1,009
    Extra pay, justified (only to themselves) because it will be busy. Disgusted with the lot of them.
    #1 Brompton S2L Raw Lacquer, Leather Mudflaps
    #2 Boeris Italia race steel
    #3 Scott CR1 SL
    #4 Trek 1.1 commuter
    #5 Peugeot Grand Tourer (Tandem)
  • pitchshifter
    pitchshifter Posts: 1,476
    Koncordski wrote:
    Extra pay, justified (only to themselves) because it will be busy. Disgusted with the lot of them.

    I genuinely do not understand why anyone (train, tube or bus drivers) should get any more over the Olympics. They claim it will increase their work load. As far as I'm aware, they open the doors and then they shut the doors.
  • gtvlusso
    gtvlusso Posts: 5,112
    As left wing as I am - these guys are f*cking chancers!

    They are prepared to severely impact an event that the whole country and especially the kids should enjoy and get some encouragement from - it will be no extra work for them at all. If there is extra work, I have no issue with paid overtime, as with any job.

    F*ck them and F*ck their buses.....
  • jds_1981
    jds_1981 Posts: 1,858
    Read the guardian article a while back and got figures for total cost & expected extra passengers. Worked out at being around £17 a passenger extra. Would be cheaper to get them taxis ;)
    FCN 9 || FCN 5
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    jds_1981 wrote:
    Read the guardian article a while back and got figures for total cost & expected extra passengers. Worked out at being around £17 a passenger extra. Would be cheaper to get them taxis ;)

    Per day?
    _
  • jds_1981
    jds_1981 Posts: 1,858
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    jds_1981 wrote:
    Read the guardian article a while back and got figures for total cost & expected extra passengers. Worked out at being around £17 a passenger extra. Would be cheaper to get them taxis ;)

    Per day?

    The article said an extra 800,000 passengers, which I presumed to be total journeys, not per day?
    FCN 9 || FCN 5
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    jds_1981 wrote:
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    jds_1981 wrote:
    Read the guardian article a while back and got figures for total cost & expected extra passengers. Worked out at being around £17 a passenger extra. Would be cheaper to get them taxis ;)

    Per day?

    The article said an extra 800,000 passengers, which I presumed to be total journeys, not per day?

    Seems a weird stat.

    Can't believe it'd be £17 extra per journey - unless you're counting the heavy infrastructure investment that the system needs anyway.

    Even then, £17 per extra journey seems a lot.
    _
  • jds_1981
    jds_1981 Posts: 1,858
    I'm probably not being clear.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/0 ... -transport
    The union is seeking the bonus, which will cost £14m, for the 20,000 bus workers it represents, claiming that all other transport workers are being paid a premium for working during the event. At least 800,000 extra passengers are predicted on buses during the Olympics.

    14m/800,000 = £17.50 per passenger.
    FCN 9 || FCN 5
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    Ah, I see.

    Does seem odd that they'd ask for that.
    _
  • tgotb
    tgotb Posts: 4,714
    jds_1981 wrote:
    I'm probably not being clear.

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/jun/0 ... -transport
    The union is seeking the bonus, which will cost £14m, for the 20,000 bus workers it represents, claiming that all other transport workers are being paid a premium for working during the event. At least 800,000 extra passengers are predicted on buses during the Olympics.

    14m/800,000 = £17.50 per passenger.
    Or to put it another way, 40 additional passengers per bus worker.

    Assuming that 50% of the bus workers are actually drivers, that's still just an additional 80 passengers each (presumably per day). That's about one busload, spread over a whole shift...

    Maybe I have a strange work ethic, but my view is that while I'm at work, my employer can ask me to do anything they want (within reason). I'd be surprised if they asked me to clean the loos or man the reception desk, but if that's what they want I'll do it. These transport workers already get paid for any overtime they work; I really don't understand their complaint.
    Pannier, 120rpm.
  • notsoblue
    notsoblue Posts: 5,756
    To be fair, bus drivers don't really get paid very much for they job they do.
    FCN 4 PX SL Pro SRAM Red
    FCN 8 Scott Sportster '05
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 29,342
    notsoblue wrote:
    To be fair, bus drivers don't really get paid very much for they job they do.

    A fair few of them don't do it very well either.
    1985 Mercian King of Mercia - work in progress (Hah! Who am I kidding?)
    Pinnacle Monzonite

    Part of the anti-growth coalition
  • optimisticbiker
    optimisticbiker Posts: 1,657
    notsoblue wrote:
    To be fair, bus drivers don't really get paid very much for they job they do.

    Really? £25-30k p.a. basic in London for a 38h week (clock on to clock off time, not actual driving time). Ok there's some shift work, but paid overtime also. Plus benefits (free travel, etc.). And while I accept there's a certain level of responsibility (though sometimes its hard to see it from the way some of them drive) a lot of what they used to have to do (like carry money, give change, etc.) has been removed with the use of prepay and oyster cards. So adding a few passengers hardly makes for a harder job. There are a lot of people in London that work longer hours, get fewer benefits and a lot less pay for lot more difficult jobs - ambulance drivers, for instance, would struggle to get close to the lower end of that pay scale.

    IMHO...

    For the record the partner of my wife's cousin is a tube driver who is highly critical of the RMT union's money grabbing over the olympics and is donating his extra income to charity
    Invacare Spectra Plus electric wheelchair, max speed 4mph :cry:
  • jamesco
    jamesco Posts: 687
    notsoblue wrote:
    To be fair, bus drivers don't really get paid very much for they job they do.
    +1

    Seems to me that it's a much more difficult job than the tube drivers have - less predictable and having to deal face-to-face with people who often get nasty. If it's going to get more stressful during the Olympics then a bonus is fair enough. Good luck to 'em.
  • roger_merriman
    roger_merriman Posts: 6,165
    Firstly how worthy a Job is or how hard it is, doesn't tend to be represented in pay.

    It does seem to be repusented as money grabbing but papers do tend to spin this stuff, to put it mildly.

    Out on the edge plenty don't use oysters and tourists don't tend to.
  • peat
    peat Posts: 1,242
    It seems a little unfair that other London transport folk get a bonus, but to strike over it???

    They get paid for the hours they work, if it is really busy they will be asked to do overtime = more money in their pockets. These union leader's are indeed 'chancer's', they have to threaten strikes every now and then just to validate their own existence.
  • daviesee
    daviesee Posts: 6,386
    Peat wrote:
    These union leader's are indeed 'chancer's', they have to threaten strikes every now and then just to validate their own existence.
    That, and they have a political agenda.
    None of the above should be taken seriously, and certainly not personally.
  • notsoblue
    notsoblue Posts: 5,756
    daviesee wrote:
    Peat wrote:
    These union leader's are indeed 'chancer's', they have to threaten strikes every now and then just to validate their own existence.
    That, and they have a political agenda.
    It doesn't really matter what their agenda is if in trying to execute it they fight for better pay & conditions for their members. If I were in a union, this is what I would want that union's leaders to be doing.
    FCN 4 PX SL Pro SRAM Red
    FCN 8 Scott Sportster '05
  • notsoblue
    notsoblue Posts: 5,756
    rjsterry wrote:
    notsoblue wrote:
    To be fair, bus drivers don't really get paid very much for they job they do.

    A fair few of them don't do it very well either.

    Meh, bus drivers don't rank very highly on my top 10 list of road users I've had bad experiences with.
    FCN 4 PX SL Pro SRAM Red
    FCN 8 Scott Sportster '05
  • daviesee
    daviesee Posts: 6,386
    notsoblue wrote:
    It doesn't really matter what their agenda is if in trying to execute it they fight for better pay & conditions for their members. If I were in a union, this is what I would want that union's leaders to be doing.
    If it were anybody other than Bob Crow I might agree with you.
    The principle is correct but I doubt his principles.
    None of the above should be taken seriously, and certainly not personally.
  • jds_1981
    jds_1981 Posts: 1,858
    notsoblue wrote:
    It doesn't really matter what their agenda is if in trying to execute it they fight for better pay & conditions for their members. If I were in a union, this is what I would want that union's leaders to be doing.

    Although they can go too far & expect too much..
    FCN 9 || FCN 5
  • rick_chasey
    rick_chasey Posts: 75,661
    daviesee wrote:
    notsoblue wrote:
    It doesn't really matter what their agenda is if in trying to execute it they fight for better pay & conditions for their members. If I were in a union, this is what I would want that union's leaders to be doing.
    If it were anybody other than Bob Crow I might agree with you.
    The principle is correct but I doubt his principles.

    It's not Bob Crow.

    He does stuff on rails.
    _
  • notsoblue
    notsoblue Posts: 5,756
    jds_1981 wrote:
    notsoblue wrote:
    It doesn't really matter what their agenda is if in trying to execute it they fight for better pay & conditions for their members. If I were in a union, this is what I would want that union's leaders to be doing.

    Although they can go too far & expect too much..
    Thats up to the members of his union to decide. He doesn't work for the general public.
    FCN 4 PX SL Pro SRAM Red
    FCN 8 Scott Sportster '05
  • notsoblue
    notsoblue Posts: 5,756
    daviesee wrote:
    notsoblue wrote:
    It doesn't really matter what their agenda is if in trying to execute it they fight for better pay & conditions for their members. If I were in a union, this is what I would want that union's leaders to be doing.
    If it were anybody other than Bob Crow I might agree with you.
    The principle is correct but I doubt his principles.

    Its not Bob though. And I disagree with this point of view. Union leaders don't have to answer to anyone other than their members. Ad hominem attacks on union leaders are pretty silly.
    FCN 4 PX SL Pro SRAM Red
    FCN 8 Scott Sportster '05
  • daviesee
    daviesee Posts: 6,386
    Rick Chasey wrote:
    It's not Bob Crow.

    He does stuff on rails.
    Okay. I will take that back. I got his name from the OP.

    I think Unite operate in pretty much the same manner though. :evil:
    None of the above should be taken seriously, and certainly not personally.

Categories