Rail Strikes announced

[Earth_pig]

17 hours ago, efcfanwirral said:

With potentially delayed trains I hope they're still running the castle cary shuttle buses from 6am like it says on the site, or at least tell us they aren't beforehand. We're staying there to get in early. 

Same 

[a6l6e6x]

3 minutes ago, maelzoid said:

Yes. In solidarity with people on minimum wage. 

Unfortunately this isn't really how the general public see it

[rhyscork]

Offer was made by the train companies yesterday of a wage rise with the condition of compulsory redundancies, among other things. It was rejected out of hand. So unless there is some 11th hour negotiations, the strike is going ahead. 

[rhyscork]

1 minute ago, a6l6e6x said:

Unfortunately this isn't really how the general public see it

I've been working in a train station all week, expecting the public to be angry. I haven't had a single person speak negatively to me about the strikes. I have had a LOT of people talk to me about them in a positive manner. There is overwhelming support. Don't believe what the media tell you.

[efcfanwirral]

4 minutes ago, Earth_pig said:

Same 

How many others do this do you think? Staying in Castle Cary to make use of the coaches vs staying there to drive in. For non drivers like us its always been the backup for when we aren't going with friends in cars and this is the first year I've had to use it, but I'd imagine a lot would be in the same position?

It actually feels like the best option for non drivers - 6am shuttle bus on dedicated roads. 

[MoonBuggy]

29 minutes ago, Barry Fish said:

Apparently people on £54,000+ are going on strike - power to the people 😄 

Y'know railway staff have decent wages because they're supported by a strong union and willing to fight for them, right? 

[Earth_pig]

1 hour ago, efcfanwirral said:

How many others do this do you think? Staying in Castle Cary to make use of the coaches vs staying there to drive in. For non drivers like us its always been the backup for when we aren't going with friends in cars and this is the first year I've had to use it, but I'd imagine a lot would be in the same position?

It actually feels like the best option for non drivers - 6am shuttle bus on dedicated roads. 

No idea but there are very limited hotels in Castle cary itself, some on the outskirts and lots in glastonbury town but that's 30 mins drive away.

[kugglaw]

On 6/16/2022 at 11:31 AM, rhyscork said:

Also another bit of info people might not know:

If you have an Advanced /  Advance ticket (a ticket for one train and one train only), and this train is cancelled, then your ticket is still valid for the next service, plus you get a full refund.

eg. If you are booked on the 10.02 and that gets cancelled, and theres a new train at 10.03, then you get a full refund 

How do I claim that?

[irnkrtn]

20 hours ago, zahidf said:

Well I'm sure a public backlash against a union when there is a 80 seat tory majority won't have any consequences.

 

 

I admire the grift Zahid, but there has to come a point where you accept people just don't agree with you. Plurality of opinion is the spice of life. See you in the fields! 

[DeanoL]

3 hours ago, rhyscork said:

I've been working in a train station all week, expecting the public to be angry. I haven't had a single person speak negatively to me about the strikes. I have had a LOT of people talk to me about them in a positive manner. There is overwhelming support. Don't believe what the media tell you.

Yeah because they'll just work at home those days. If people aren't frustrated and negative about the strikes, it's because they're not actually inconveniencing them.

I wish it was that the great British public are really angry and frustrated by the strikes but know enough to be angry just at the train companies and not the staff, but I genuinely don't think that's the case.

[zahidf]

7 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Yeah because they'll just work at home those days. If people aren't frustrated and negative about the strikes, it's because they're not actually inconveniencing them.

I wish it was that the great British public are really angry and frustrated by the strikes but know enough to be angry just at the train companies and not the staff, but I genuinely don't think that's the case.

The union and staff are choosing the dates of the strikes though. I appreciate its ultimately the train companies fault, but i dont see the issue in blaming all parties involved. 

I suspect that theyll be a lot more anger next week when people are being messed around over the strikes

[downtherabbithole]

Getting a lift down now thankfully instead of the train. Hopefully I can get some money back. Wouldn't say the strikes would have ruined my festival but definitely would ruined the Wednesday and the preceding excitement. As someone who's never really earned more than just above minimum wage and had to deal with loads of shit and also worked through the initial lockdown, I don't have too much symphony for the workers tbh. 

Edited June 17, 2022 by downtherabbithole

[Crazyfool01]

14 minutes ago, downtherabbithole said:

Getting a lift down now thankfully instead of the train. Hopefully I can get some money back. Wouldn't say the strikes would have ruined my festival but definitely would ruined the Wednesday and the preceding excitement. As someone who's never really earned more than just above minimum wage and had to deal with loads of shit and also worked through the initial lockdown, I don't have too much symphony for the workers tbh. 

What do you do ? Why shouldn’t you too have better wages ? 

[a6l6e6x]

Agreed that this has killed my wednesday buzz a bit as I now have no idea how difficult it will be for 2 of my group to get there and how late they will now arrive

[kugglaw]

It's a bit of a tough one logistically, but seems like the majority of people will be fine and we've all had a fair bit of time to plan ahead. Definitely on the side of the strikers. 

[rhyscork]

2 hours ago, kugglaw said:

How do I claim that?

Check the refunds process with wherever you bought it. Obviously wait until after your finish your trip to claim it. If you got it from a train company, it might be under something like (company name eg GWR)delay repay. For trainline and other 3rd parties, google it or have a look on the app. 

[rhyscork]

52 minutes ago, DeanoL said:

Yeah because they'll just work at home those days. If people aren't frustrated and negative about the strikes, it's because they're not actually inconveniencing them.

I wish it was that the great British public are really angry and frustrated by the strikes but know enough to be angry just at the train companies and not the staff, but I genuinely don't think that's the case.

People are frustrated and annoyed due to the inconvenience, however there is an overwhelming understanding that staff are not to blame. There is massive support for staff from what i have seen this week. 

When people see train companies this week announcing massive profits (latest i saw was a £36.2million profit for 1 company, so adding every company together you will be in the 100s of millions profits), whilst being on much lower passenger count than pre pandemic, whilst claiming they need to sack staff as they arent profitable, it opens a lot of eyes to whats really going on. 

Also it was revealed the head of my company got a £1million bonus last year...... thats 40 jobs saved right there. 

[rhyscork]

43 minutes ago, downtherabbithole said:

Getting a lift down now thankfully instead of the train. Hopefully I can get some money back. Wouldn't say the strikes would have ruined my festival but definitely would ruined the Wednesday and the preceding excitement. As someone who's never really earned more than just above minimum wage and had to deal with loads of shit and also worked through the initial lockdown, I don't have too much symphony for the workers tbh. 

We should be trying to lift all workers rights and wages up to a better level, not dragging others down to a lower level.

I work for the railway, I earn just under 16k a year. Not sure why you all think we are all on mega bucks, because we are not.....

If your boss called you into their office tomorrow and fired you? Do you think that would be fair? Or would you fight it?

You should be able to get a full refund, depending where you bought it. 👍

[maelzoid]

56 minutes ago, downtherabbithole said:

As someone who's never really earned more than just above minimum wage and had to deal with loads of shit and also worked through the initial lockdown, I don't have too much symphony for the workers tbh. 

What a lousy attitude.

I would have hoped that going through similar difficulties would actually engender some 'symphony', but I guess not.

I am travelling by train and although don't expect too much trouble, there may well be delays. But.... this is the point of industrial action - it doesn't actually have any effect if nobody is inconvenienced by it. 

[maelzoid]

Sorry if this has already been shared, but useful info from GWR here:

https://www.gwr.com/strike

Castle Cary is green so 'very limited service' which is better than red.

[clarkete]

BTW Let's not forget that unions were a key player in us even having weekends off (although note the concern that we'd spend it c*** fighting) 

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/weekend-lesson-four-day-working-week-a9274096.html

[rhyscork]

6 minutes ago, maelzoid said:

Sorry if this has already been shared, but useful info from GWR here:

https://www.gwr.com/strike

Castle Cary is green so 'very limited service' which is better than red.

Too add to this, GWR has said they aim to maintain all timetabled trains between Castle Cary and London Paddington throughout the course of Glastonbury Festival.

[Crazyfool01]

Very recently we recieved a below inflation pay award and we were by quite a long way the lowest paid supermarket in our sector ( minimum wage ) fortunately the union stepped in and we now have a decent pay award to at least help with the mounting cost of living . So yeah total solidarity I’ve also watched our numbers dwindle over the years to redundancy and efficiency measures 

[downtherabbithole]

2 hours ago, rhyscork said:

We should be trying to lift all workers rights and wages up to a better level, not dragging others down to a lower level.

I work for the railway, I earn just under 16k a year. Not sure why you all think we are all on mega bucks, because we are not.....

If your boss called you into their office tomorrow and fired you? Do you think that would be fair? Or would you fight it?

You should be able to get a full refund, depending where you bought it. 👍

I get your point but in that case the whole country should go on strike. Retail workers, nurses, teachers, railway workers, fast food workers, hospitality workers. So many industries get paid little and have to deal with a lot. What's needed is a full on revolution but this short strike specifically targeted for one of the busiest weeks of the year just bums a load of people out. I can't imagine anyone who is actually f*cked over by these strikes actually supports them. Because living on minimum wage is so terrible now (nowadays earning less than £10 an hour in this country is basically living in poverty) it means people who live on that wage look forward to something like Glastonbury like a light in the darkness. Then this strike comes along and messes everything up for a load of people. At the very least they could have chosen another week. Someone not being able to get to work is not the same as getting to a festival people have been dying to go to for the last two or three years. I feel like there is a lot of middle-class elitism in this thread. People who want to be virtuous but not actually affected by the issue at hand. And even if they were, they can afford an alternative which others can't.

Edited June 17, 2022 by downtherabbithole

[DeanoL]

2 hours ago, rhyscork said:

If your boss called you into their office tomorrow and fired you? Do you think that would be fair? Or would you fight it?

Honestly, what I think a lot of railworkers aren't getting, is that this has happened to *so* many people over the last two years. Two-thirds of the world's economy shut down, loads of people lost their jobs, even more lost job security for a long time as companies went through the redundancy consultation process (which, is what would happen with the rail industry, you're not just going to get pulling into an office and fired, but you well know that).

I'm not against you, or the unions, good for them and you for fighting the best you can with the tools you have. But comments like that really won't win you public sympathy, if anything it just highlights the fact you've been one of the few groups with job security the past two years. I'm not singling you out either, a similar line has been the main talking point pushed by the unions, and it's really falling on unsympathetic ears from a public of which a good 30-50% have had to deal with that recently.