Rail drivers can now earn £80,000 pa in the UK. This thanks to their latest blackmail antics aka as disruptive striking. They have won simply by making millions of lives miserable for over a year ... with a weak government unable or unwilling to sort them out for good.
The fact that this latest largesse is paid for by a hostage population of commuters is not lost on them. Most of those commuters can't dream to earn those sorts of wages, nor to have a final salary pension scheme based on that level of income.
There was a time when train drivers got the average wage for what is only a semi skilled job (three controls and remembering where the stop lights are on the route doesn't constitute a difficult job ... despite union claims). Now their earnings match or exceed that of airline pilots ... laughable. I, and I'll bet most of you, would agree that flying an airplane and monitoring a plethora of controls is a damn sight harder, and requires far more training (as well as educational qualifications), than the train drivers require.
Ah well such is the power that the train unions wield, to be able to demand these wages for low grade jobs, that no government or employer can now take them on, so we are forced to allow them to carry on demanding ever more outrageous pay rises (and not just for the drivers).
The irony of all this is that when the railways were privatised the respective rail unions fought to try and stop it and or retain collective bargaining ... little did they or the Conservative government ministers, realise that it would be privatisation that would allow the rail workers to hold the country to ransom forever. Its like a re-run on the late 1970's and 1980's .... remember the print workers and their Spanish work practises?
Rail privatisation was a mistake at the time for many reasons, but you can add the survival of the last of the trade union dinosaurs to that list.
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| The User Of One Of These Control Cabins Earns £80k pa ..... The Other Not So Much. |
The fact that this latest largesse is paid for by a hostage population of commuters is not lost on them. Most of those commuters can't dream to earn those sorts of wages, nor to have a final salary pension scheme based on that level of income.
There was a time when train drivers got the average wage for what is only a semi skilled job (three controls and remembering where the stop lights are on the route doesn't constitute a difficult job ... despite union claims). Now their earnings match or exceed that of airline pilots ... laughable. I, and I'll bet most of you, would agree that flying an airplane and monitoring a plethora of controls is a damn sight harder, and requires far more training (as well as educational qualifications), than the train drivers require.
Ah well such is the power that the train unions wield, to be able to demand these wages for low grade jobs, that no government or employer can now take them on, so we are forced to allow them to carry on demanding ever more outrageous pay rises (and not just for the drivers).
The irony of all this is that when the railways were privatised the respective rail unions fought to try and stop it and or retain collective bargaining ... little did they or the Conservative government ministers, realise that it would be privatisation that would allow the rail workers to hold the country to ransom forever. Its like a re-run on the late 1970's and 1980's .... remember the print workers and their Spanish work practises?
Rail privatisation was a mistake at the time for many reasons, but you can add the survival of the last of the trade union dinosaurs to that list.
The minister for rail is Paul Maynard. He is an arch defender of rail privatisation and its unwanted or unintended consequences.
ReplyDeleteContact him at
paul.maynard.mp@parliament.uk
He's happy to defend the chaos.
OK I checked and he is the minister for rail. Please ask before posting links elsewhere in future. Cheers NoPCViews.
DeleteThe greedy c*nts are doing it to Virgin Rail now
ReplyDeleteCan't add anything to that. Thanks for the comment.
DeleteOddly they are holding us all too ransom again in the UK. We have 3 or 4 of these socialist trades unions that have a monopoly, and blackmail the country every 3 or 4 years or so. We seem not to be able to tackle these last few remnants from the 1960's and 70's.
ReplyDeleteThe drivers are overpaid and privileged, but still greedy, and with an exaggerated sense of entitlement. Thanks for the comment.
Delete