On Jun 9, 11:34*am, "Basil Jet"
wrote:

Adrian wrote:

"Basil Jet" gurgled happily,
sounding much like they were saying:

Staff who are supposed to start their shift after 1859 will remain at
home, preparing themselves to watch Wednesday's England Andorra match
on TV.

I'm sure that's a total coincidence...

The police have ordered that no tickets be sold on the door at the Wembley
event, to reduce the number of people driving to the area during the strike.
So when the RMT are sitting at home watching the match on TV, those empty
seats in the stadium will be their fault.

The FA suspended selling tickets in advance last week - see:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8082106.stm

However it's not quite right to say that the police have ordered that
no tickets be sold on the door. Brent council have to issue a stadium
safety certificate, which it appears they have not yet done - talks
are going on between the FA, the police and Brent council to work out
what to do. A remote possibility is that it'll be played out behind
closed doors - see this Guardian report:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2...ndorra-wembley

Incidentally, may I kindly and politely suggest that those who are
saying the strike was timed to coincide with the football match are
perhaps not really au-fait with the relative unimportance of this
match - it's against Andorra, who ain't any good, and is hardly one of
the mighty contests in the footballing world. Yes, it's still
important in terms of qualifying for the 2010 world cup, but England
currently look on course to do that.

If RMT bods really had wanted to time the strike to coincide with an
England football match, then it would have been an away football match
- i.e. overseas, not at Wembley. Instead, I'd actually say the timing
seems particularly counter-productive as it will manage to raise the
ire of many more people apart from London commuters, as those watching
the match at home ('tis on ITV) will be well aware that it's the RMT's
actions that will have led to the stadium being half-empty - something
that never looks good on TV and will undoubtedly be referred to by
commentators and newspapers so football fans will know where the blame
lies.

Of course the flip-side is that the RMT may well have chosen the dates
specifically to coincide with the match, so as to maximise the threat
of a strike. Well, their bluff has been called. Just as well the
football season is over, as otherwise I can imagine LU staff getting
harranged by football fans going from and to domestic fixtures.