Tube Strike

London's latest Tube strike is going ahead today and although the dispute is ostensibly about introducing a round-the-clock 24 hour service, the real 'sticking points' are increasingly unclear.   

Up until now I assumed that all three trade unions involved - RMT, Aslef and TSSA (all affiliated to the Labour party by the way) - were looking for more money for their members, or some other improvement to people's working conditions.

But now I'm not so sure because just the other day an RMT spokesperson attacked the London Mayor, Boris Johnson, and his plans for a 24 hour service, saying:  

"They are a re-hash of previous plans and would continue along the course of smashing up long-standing agreements and destroying work/life balance in the interests of delivering the mayor's ill-conceived night Tube vanity project." 

"Travellers will be paying in terms of safety, reliability and quality in order to get a few thousand revellers home from central London in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday morning."

Now I don't agree with this argument at all, not least because I was in London recently and the prospect of a even a limited 24-hour Tube service on some of the major routes would have been a very welcome alternative to travelling by taxis late at night, taxis being much more expensive of course.

So if you ask me a 24-hour Tube service and must be a good thing for London's many visitors and tourists, as well as the 11 million or so people who live and work in one of the world's great capital cities.

Like any 24-hour service, the Tube needs a proper 'roster' in order to work effectively otherwise the whole thing descends into chaos.

When I worked in the NHS, many years ago, there were always arguments about the 'fairness' of the shifts people worked over a 24/7 roster, so after I while I produced one of my own, as the local NUPE rep, which required all of the staff (myself included) to work through the same pattern of shifts over an 8 week period.

During that time we could swap with each other so long as all the shifts were covered and any changes were notified in advance to the management.

So what's the big deal with working out a fair shift pattern on the London Underground?

The RMT union says the dispute is not about money, but about the 'work/life balance' of its members although nowhere that I've seen has the union explained what this really means.

So if there and any practical concerns from the trade unions, let's hear them because empty slogans about 'work/life balance' don't really mean anything if you ask me.

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