Christmas strikes 2016: From Southern rail to British Airways, why’s everyone striking? December 19, 2016 A raft of Christmas strikes is set to unfold this week, with travel particularly affected. Around 3,000 staff at various Crown post offices are set to walk out today, Tuesday and Saturday, while members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union unleash their latest industrial action on Southern rail today and tomorrow, with an ongoing [...]
Union leaders are their own worst enemy December 19, 2016 As the country prepares to power down for Christmas, a number of trades unions are flexing their muscles and powering up their strike activity. As PWC’s Tom Kerr Williams notes, for unionised labour “a good time to react is at Christmas when most employers will be under pressure to keep customers happy”. One can't deny the [...]
Surge in days lost to strike action in 2016 December 19, 2016 Talks aimed at averting strikes by British Airways cabin crew over Christmas will be held at conciliation service Acas today as figures obtained by City A.M. show that the number of days lost to industrial action in the first ten months of 2016 has already dwarfed last year’s total. According to the Office of National [...]
The nightmare’s nearly over for the Piccadilly line social media team: It’s just running with “minor delays” now December 16, 2016 Piccadilly line passengers have not been impressed with Transport for London (TfL) taking out half the fleet of trains for wheel repairs. It has been causing severe delays along the line since last month – and some turmoil for the poor people manning the Piccadilly line's Twitter account. But today, the account had some – relatively – good [...]
Will it ever end? Southern rail services are axed for the third day this week as commuters vent fury at government December 16, 2016 All Southern rail services have been cancelled for the third day this week, after protests were held last night by fed-up commuters over the crisis. Members of the Aslef train drivers' union had met with the train company yesterday for a second day of talks at conciliation service Acas, but they ended without resolution. So today's [...]
Editor’s notes: Forget about Murdoch, media dominance is now an online battle December 16, 2016 For a while this week it felt as if we’d slipped back five years, as Ed Miliband and Vince Cable dusted down their criticisms of Rupert Murdoch. 21st Century Fox’s bid for Sky saw the former Labour leader take to Twitter like a student protester. “Do we want Rupert Murdoch controlling even more of [the] [...]
Don’t believe the unions’ bogus claims against Southern Rail December 16, 2016 Passengers on Southern Rail are this week enduring disruption to their services of a kind not seen anywhere on the railway for a generation. From broadcasters to bishops, everyone has been having their say on the industrial dispute about whether drivers rather than guards should be responsible for closing doors on trains that has been [...]
Southern rail chaos continues: Talks to solve dispute between rail firm and union end with no deal December 15, 2016 Talks aimed at resolving Southern rail strikes have ended without agreement. A 24-hour strike, following a 48-hour one held by Aslef union earlier in the week, will go ahead tomorrow. Nick Brown, chief operating officer of GTR, Southern's parent, said: "We're deeply disappointed, as our passengers will be, that Aslef has been unable to accept our [...]
Go-Ahead and buy some shares: Southern rail’s owner says revenues will miss targets December 15, 2016 The market was still keen to Go-Ahead and invest in the owner of Southern rail, as shares nosed up 0.5 per cent despite the firm warning forecasts would be missed by its rail division. The FTSE 250 firm, which owns a majority stake in Govia, said its rail division full-year results would miss expectations. Read more: Going [...]
Southern rail debacle: The strikes aren’t on tomorrow but that doesn’t mean the trains will be running December 14, 2016 Southern rail commuters hoping to get to work tomorrow may need to take another day off and have been warned the network will be rife with reductions and cancellations. The Govia-owned firm has admitted some striking staff may not be able to get to work tomorrow because industrial action doesn't actually finish until midnight tonight. This will have a [...]