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Old July 12th 15, 01:26 AM posted to uk.transport.london
Recliner[_3_] Recliner[_3_] is offline
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Default How well off are London's tube drivers and why are they striking?

Mark wrote:
On Saturday, 11 July 2015 20:31:36 UTC+1, Recliner wrote:
Paul Cummins wrote:
In article ,
(Paul Corfield) wrote:

If the day ever comes when the job genuinely is deskilled to
"pressing
a button" as so many dull people seem to believe it consists of
then a
genuine argument about paying peanuts to employ monkeys might be
warranted.

all I'm going to say is that I still can't master driving a train or tube,
after much more emulator practise than I needed to learn to fly a plane.

And that really can be reduced to "press a button"


I see it takes about six months of training; not trivial, but a lot less
than a professional pilot.

From
https://www.how2become.com/careers/l...-train-driver/


[snip Internet hearsay]

I don't really understand your point, or the relevance of pilots, or why
you copy+pasted all of that
from some random site (a link would have been enough!)


Lots of people, it seems, don't read posted links, and it's in any case
polite to quote relevant extracts. Not everyone is online when reading
usenet. It also wasn't a random link.

The relevance of pilots would be evident if you had read the post I was
replying to.


You're ranting on about drivers even after it's been pointed out that
it's been an age since ASLEF
have gone on strike.


Perhaps you aren't aware that almost 40% of Tube drivers are RMT members,
and they're the ones who frequently go on strike, sometimes to defend the
indefensible.

Perhaps you'd be so kind as to quote any rants of mine? I suspect you're
confusing me with other posters.

That's why this strike resulted in a shutdown rather than the minuscule service
that's happened a few times over the last few years. You can run some
service when you have reduced
staff of different types, but when they all have a grievance they agree on...

I don't work on the Underground, but if you're so jealous of people who
do (that's surely what it comes
down to?) there's surely an easy way to get on the button-pushing gravy
train yourself? Apply!


Why should I be jealous? Have I ever suggested I was? I just don't think
that relatively well-paid people should subject millions of people to such
disruption every time they have any sort of grievance.

I spent a *lot* more than six months in higher education, never joined a
union in my career, almost all of which was in organisations with no
unions, and never even contemplated going on strike in my entire working
life. Being well qualified, I was also well paid. Neither the work, nor the
pay, of driving a tube train or a plane was ever attractive to me.


It's really odd how if you work in a bank in the City you're creating
wealth for the nation, but not if
you're someone transporting thousands of them to their office.


How many times have City workers ever gone on strike? And they aren't all
as well paid as tube drivers. A very small proportion of investment bankers
and top managers do earn huge sums, but most City workers don't.

And, before you start accusing me of being a banker, no I wasn't, and nor
did I ever work in the City.