Mind The Pay Gap? Tube Drivers 'To Get £55k'

Originally Posted by richard1960

In the article it stated even constables who had just joined could get these payments.

Even a newly trained constable earning around £25,000 would pocket £64 for a similar call.

But the point i was trying to make was this certain groups of workers tube being the obvious example seem to get very good deals due to their power,rightly or wrongly the police seem to do very well.

Wheras the soldiers that fight for the freedom of our country die for very little reward.

All over the public sector be it tube drivers or any other employee needs to have a proper structure which appears to be delivered by the power wielded and nothing else.

could I point the Fail's article didn't state it had happened, but that it could.. ( which usually means it hasn't, otherwise they would have printed that).

They appear to be taking a hypothetical example to an extreme...

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I am in full support of any increase tube drivers get, do you know how much stress that they are under in the tunnels.

At any time someone can jump in front of you cab, a friend of mine works for British Rail or South West as they are called, he had two jumpers in the same week.

I would not do that job for £100.000 a week,.

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

I am in full support of any increase tube drivers get, do you know how much stress that they are under in the tunnels.

At any time someone can jump in front of you cab, a friend of mine works for British Rail or South West as they are called, he had two jumpers in the same week.

I would not do that job for £100.000 a week,.

that's why they do it for £55,000

seriously though Arthur ,as has been pointed out that logic can be applied to any kind of driving job .There are limits as to what a job is worth and imo a tube driver is not worth £55,000 p/a plus extras

[Derek]

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

At any time someone can jump in front of you cab, a friend of mine works for British Rail or South West as they are called, he had two jumpers in the same week.

Do you drive a car? Are you aware that someone can jump in front of your car at any point?

I've scraped someone off the tracks when they decided to go for a sit down in front of a train and end it all. It wasn't pretty but I got on with it because it was part of my job and I sure as hell didn't moan about it and demand my pay got doubled.

To be perfectly honest i don't think the argument that the drivers suffer if someone jumps onto the tracks will have crossed anyones minds during the negotiations .The members are just taking advantage of a union leader who is out to make a name for himself by blackmailing the city of london and he knows he can get away with it because should the tubes go on strike for any meaningful amount of time the city would grind to a halt under the sheer numbers that switch to cars or buses

[Tim Deegan]

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

I would not do that job for £100.000 a week,.

How much would they need to pay you to recover body parts, or people mangled under trains then, like the emergency services do??

---------- Post added at 21:35 ---------- Previous post was at 21:33 ----------

Originally Posted by martyh

To be perfectly honest i don't think the argument that the drivers suffer if someone jumps onto the tracks will have crossed anyones minds during the negotiations .The members are just taking advantage of a union leader who is out to make a name for himself by blackmailing the city of london and he knows he can get away with it because should the tubes go on strike for any meaningful amount of time the city would grind to a halt under the sheer numbers that switch to cars or buses

It is probably more to do with the fact that the transport minister is terrified that the transport system could grind to a halt during the olympics. Shame they aren't also paying those that will have to deal with any incidents the same sort of money. They are just being told to do their job.

[Pierre]

Good luck to them I say.

This is the free market at work. Although I dislike Bob Crow he's got them quite a deal.

LU are happy to pay it.

At the end of the day, you're worth whatever someones willing to pay you for your services.

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Pierre

Good luck to them I say.

This is the free market at work. Although I dislike Bob Crow he's got them quite a deal.

LU are happy to pay it.

At the end of the day, you're worth whatever someones willing to pay you for your services.

Sorry Pierre but that's ridiculous, it's not even close to being the free market at work. In a free market these guys would've been fired and replaced by cheaper staff, of which there's no shortage who'd do the job for less.

As it is it's a pretty much closed shop, they've their nice benefits packages, cannot be made compulsorily redundant, in short all the most market distorting aspects of public sector employment.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

Sorry Pierre but that's ridiculous, it's not even close to being the free market at work. In a free market these guys would've been fired and replaced by cheaper staff, of which there's no shortage who'd do the job for less.

And where would they have got all these replacement drivers from, and how quickly would they have recruited them, trained them and have them in place - all whilst still maintaining a service.

So the train drivers are leveraging their position to get the best possible deal for themselves....and anyone on this forum would do any different for themselves????

It's collective bargining, there is absolutely nothing wrong with it.

As it is it's a pretty much closed shop, they've their nice benefits packages, cannot be made compulsorily redundant, in short all the most market distorting aspects of public sector employment.

Sounds like the police force.

[Ignitionnet]

The police force can't strike Pierre.

Thank you for taking back what you said though - as you noted the train drivers are 'leveraging their position', absolutely nothing to do with the free market at all an entirely closed market no different from a monopoly supplier of goods ramping the price of them up the arse because they can.

I guess given you're fine with the tube drivers doing this you'd be fine with having monopoly suppliers of things other than labour leveraging their position to get the best possible deal for themselves?

Didn't think so.

Perhaps if you were on the receiving end of their constant petulant strops, had the pleasure of trying to get to and from work when they are extorting London for more money or among the millions seeing their own salaries go up below inflation if at all, including workers far more skilled and in peril than tube drivers yet paid far less, while looking to 7-8% fare increases on LU you'd have a different opinion.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

The police force can't strike Pierre.

Thank you for taking back what you said though - as you noted the train drivers are 'leveraging their position', absolutely nothing to do with the free market at all an entirely closed market no different from a monopoly supplier of goods ramping the price of them up the arse because they can.

I'm not taking anything back, LU are free to decline the pay demands.

Leveraging your position in a free market economy is fundamental to potential success or potential failure.

I guess given you're fine with the tube drivers doing this you'd be fine with having monopoly suppliers of things other than labour leveraging their position to get the best possible deal for themselves?

I don't have to worry about that, as there is a monopolies commission.

Perhaps if you were on the receiving end of their constant petulant strops, had the pleasure of trying to get to and from work when they are extorting London for more money

Get the bus

or among the millions seeing their own salaries go up below inflation if at all, including workers far more skilled and in peril than tube drivers yet paid far less, while looking to 7-8% fare increases on LU you'd have a different opinion.

If your jealous of their career, then apply to be tube driver.

That last paragraph could be applied to a dozen other professions I don't see the need to single out tube drivers

[Ignitionnet]

Originally Posted by Pierre

I'm not taking anything back, LU are free to decline the pay demands.

Leveraging your position in a free market economy is fundamental to potential success or potential failure.

As previously noted it's a monopoly, not a free market position.

Originally Posted by Pierre

I don't have to worry about that, as there is a monopolies commission.

Why would we want one? 'Leveraging your position in a free market economy is fundamental to potential success or potential failure' after all. Companies with monopolies overcharging is purely leveraging their position surely?

Originally Posted by Pierre

Get the bus

Spoken like someone with no idea what they're talking about. Come down to London during a tube strike.

Originally Posted by Pierre

If your jealous of their career, then apply to be tube driver.

I'm not, I wouldn't take the pay cut. I didn't realise you'd go to the childish 'If you're jealous' arguments so quickly though I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Originally Posted by Pierre

That last paragraph could be applied to a dozen other professions I don't see the need to single out tube drivers

They are already hugely overpaid and work in a public sector that's seeing cuts, pension changes and pay freezes. That's the simple reason to single them out, they're getting special treatment which is entirely undeserved.

[Pierre]

Originally Posted by Ignitionnet

As previously noted it's a monopoly, not a free market position.

As I said the LU are free to refute their pay demands at any time.

Why would we want one? 'Leveraging your position in a free market economy is fundamental to potential success or potential failure' after all. Companies with monopolies overcharging is purely leveraging their position surely?

Companies leverage their position all the time, how do you think Tesco got to be so successful, they leverage their position as the largest supermarket to screw their suppliers, and potential suppliers, into the ground.

Anyway we're talking about manpower and workforce.

Spoken like someone with no idea what they're talking about. Come down to London during a tube strike.

I'm in London once a week, never during a tube strike though

doesn't that prove how vital they are though? They may not be highly skilled operatives but they keep the capital city moving.

I'm not, I wouldn't take the pay cut. I didn't realise you'd go to the childish 'If you're jealous' arguments so quickly though I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

I'm not being childish, just wondering why you object to this so much.

They are already hugely overpaid

According to who?

and work in a public sector that's seeing cuts, pension changes and pay freezes. That's the simple reason to single them out, they're getting special treatment which is entirely undeserved.

Unlike most other public sector positions they have a direct impact on the economy of the capital and to some extent the whole country - you could probably justify their money just on the maths of that.

If you're not happy with the current system you could always privatise the tube?

[Tezcatlipoca]

Tube drivers to strike on Boxing Day...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-16174789

Tube drivers will hold strikes on four days, including Boxing Day, in a row over pay, a drivers' union has said.

Aslef balloted its 2,200 members over demands for triple pay and a day off lieu for working on the bank holiday.

Staff will walk out for 24 hours on Boxing Day, 16 January, 3 and 13 February. Aslef said 92% voted to take industrial action.

London Underground (LU) said it had asked the union to abandon its strike threat over "an outrageous pay claim".

Services were severely disrupted last year when drivers walked out on Boxing Day after talks collapsed.

[Taf]

Greedy sods.

Time for an complete extension of the driverless automatic Dockland Light Railway, and that shower on the dole.