On 5 Sep, 14:01, Jonathan Morris wrote:
This is what I always seem to see with some unions and their members;
jealousy. "He gets paid more than me.. I want the same". Sorry mate,
but if I want more money I ask for a pay review - or leave and get
another job. You can't demand double pay to 'catch up due to years of
pitiful pay rises' or demand less hours, more leave and so on. Well,
you can ask, but not strike until you get it. Vote with your feet and
things might change.

This isn't entirely fair. For most white-collar workers, there are
several private sector employers in their industry to choose from, and/
or their skills are readily transferrable to a different industry.

In something like Tube maintenance, the skills acquired are highly
specific and not readily transferrable, so you're much less valuable
in a new job than you are in your current one - and there's either one
(TfL) or two (Metronet and Tube Lines) employers.

So the threat of striking is not an outrageous one - effectively the
fact that TfL can't easily recruit anyone to replace strikers cancels
out the fact that you can't just leave and get another job.

The problem is that - rather than using striking as a threat of last
resort, as happens in the private sector - Crow uses it as a regular
event over petty non-issues. Aslef, TSSA and Unite are all examples of
unions that strike the balance more effectively.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org