tube strike?

6.30pm sunday - 6.30pm wedneday, i have no other info

NOOOOO NOT THIS THURSDAY. ANY OTHER DAY, I DON'T GIVE A FUCK, I DON'T EVEN LIVE IN LONDON.

Where are you trying to get to and from?

colindale, nw9.

from civilization.

can't be done by bus, not sufficiently quickly anyway.

yeah it's gonna suck for me on thursday too--need to get to kensington fron n1

Oh god, getting home tonight is going to be painful, isn't it, as everyone tries to get MY BUS since the tube no workee.

Leave work early? I've been told to come in when I can tomorrow, but my boss knows I take the bus. Gonna come in an hour late and walk down to the start of the bus route.

Apparently rolling power cuts in the area between Oxford Street and Euston/Camden as well today? Anybody?

end times

It's on.

TfL urged people to check before they travel, to stagger their journeys and to consider alternative ways of getting to work, such as walking and cycling.

What does this mean?

beth green to white city a bit of a nightmare, think bbc have some shuttle buses but still

W1-W12 shuttle, goes from BH, but it will be overwhelmed and slow.

there's one from l'pool st too. might be better just taking two regular buses.

Overground will be too packed probably but Hackney Central to Willesden Junction then 220 could work for you Garda

tuba strike?

Or even Hackney Central to one of the Actons: much closer to White City.

Willsden and 220 better for TVC/WC. There is also the overground stop at the Westfield, change at Willsden.

thanks guys.

why the fuck does tfl's "alternative transport" form just tell you to get the tube!?

The Overground stop is Shepherds bush.

I don't envy anyone who has to use a bus; I'll be walking LOL zone one. Will strikes be on at the weekend too? Have to do farmers' marketing on Saturday, go to party in Kent, more farmer's market on Sun.

i was set to be all smug working-from-home don't-need-to-move smug, then it turns out that i have to be at elephant & castle by 10am (TEN IN THE MORNING WHAT IS THAT) tomorrow, and then get to and from the o2 in the evening, which is hellish at the best of times.

srsly considering walking to e&c...or at least til i get south of the river. 149 will be even more distressing than usual. will turn up all sweaty but it's only booty luv so who cares.

i have, like, negative sympathy w/the strikers btw. so many people wrestling between anger vs lefty principles today but fuck those.

they're striking over a pay rise? M8 THERE'S A RECESSION ON

get the thames clipper from the O2 if you can

Think anyone who can get the overground is better off doing that than relying on buses which will be beyond hellish. At least if the overground is rammed it'll get where it's going quickly.

overground at shepherds bush was always v v rammed in the evening from when westfield opened, hopefully it's quitened down a bit.

i hope there'll still be enough people at my work bday drinks to buy me free booze

The strike isn't over a pay rise IIRC, it's about whether or not TfL can sack station and ticket hall staff and replace them with Oyster machines.

if history has taught us anything, it's that that is a fight the strikers are bound to win in the long term

I've been told I have to still be in for 9am and I can't get stupid TFL journey planner to work to tell me how :(

sack them all and automate the whole thing tbh

really? i do believe all stations should be staffed to a degree, then again DLR seems to manage OK... xposts

DLR is wonderful. sack the staff already!! it'd solve the striking problem anyway.

Strike hard my ex-colleagues.

TFL staff are gonna strike the fuck out of the run up to the Olympics. This is just the start.

Northern Line apparently running great; thanks scabs.

DLR is a mickey mouse trainset, i'm not surprised it can run without staff.

Oh man took me an hour and a half to get to Bank today on teh bus, at which point I gave up and walked the rest of the way (Strand). Fortunately the bus I take starts outside my flat so I got a seat. When we got to liverpool street they were queuing six deep in the road and there was a serious attempt to bumrush the exit doors of the bus by loads of people, with lots of shouting and possibly fisticuffs (I couldn't quite tell - I was on the top deck). Someone was hilariously shouting "Get back, get back, you animals!" Boarders were repelled and we carried on our merry way only to get stuck in gridlock round bishopsgate...

It's a mickey mouse trainset that always works though, which is more than can be said for most of the actual trains in this country.

DLR promo video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IvZdUlbTs6U

When we got to liverpool street they were queuing six deep in the road and there was a serious attempt to bumrush the exit doors of the bus by loads of people, with lots of shouting and possibly fisticuffs (I couldn't quite tell - I was on the top deck). Someone was hilariously shouting "Get back, get back, you animals!"

London is funny, man

Well, my boss told me to take it easy and come in when I could, so I left my journey as late as possible to avoid what I knew was going to be a hellish rush hour.

Got a bus very easily (I'm near the end of the route) - got a seat (two seats since it was so empty) - there were 3 busses in quick succession that bunched quite badly towards the end of the route.

However, TRAFFIC was so bad that it took an hour and 45 minutes to make an hour's journey.

I don't know what it's gonna be like getting home, as I'm not at the beginning of the route at the other end. But I'm going to wait and go later in the hopes that the carnage will have abated. (Someone told me the Victoria Line is running so it might not be so bad.)

There are no Tube stations anywhere near where I live and yet my normal train was half empty this morning. I think everyone had just used the strike as an excuse to stay in bed.

tory lex upthread is a bit depressing, even though it has been forthcoming for some time.

i can walk to and from work and since the bus routes don't coincide with tube stations they're unlikely to be veal calf city so heigh ho.

The strike isn't over a pay rise IIRC, it's about whether or not TfL can sack station and ticket hall staff and replace them with Oyster machines.

― James Mitchell, Tuesday, 9 June 2009 21:49 (Yesterday) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

it's also about pay, with the rmt objecting to a five year deal that they say would be a real terms pay cut, although tube drivers are pretty well paid for a job that is basically pushing one button labelled "go" and another that says "stop" imo. otoh, bob crow says there are 123 tfl managers on over £100,000 which seems crazy.

"Get A BIKE! MORANS"

Don't know the rights and wrongs of individual disputes, but I am always inclined to trust a trade union and its members. Given how much their rights have been squeezed in the last 30 years, they don't take action lightly.

Here's someone who doesn't believe tube workers should strike.

Talking of unions we recently have watched the behaviour of RMT in their games of brinkmanship regarding the Tube drivers going on strike in London. The tube drivers are already earning up to £50,000 (according to the Times) but received a slightly smaller percentage pay rise than the employees of a privately owned company that works on the tube. Behind the unreasonable demands is the hand of the ultra communist Crow. RMT's threats were answered and a strike that would have put London out was averted. The Times newspaper in its comments describes RMT's behaviour as old class hatred.

I think that there is a real possibility of Richard Barnbrook becoming the London mayor when Londoners tire of Biffo the Buffoon. When this happens you can bet your bottom dollar that the Marxist driven unions will do all they can including bringing London to a halt to try to oust a BNP mayor.

There must be plans in place to deal with this. I would suggest that the only way to deal with Rottweilers is vigorously, immediate incarcaration of the gang leaders and services to be run by the armed forces, and a huge recruitment drive to replace those who would strike for political anti white anti British agendas. If the Times is right about those massive wage packets, somehow I don't see those employed to drive trains wanting to risk being kicked off the gravy train.

I must admit, looking at that page makes me feel slightly sick and soiled.

Tory Lex is gonna get a talking-to, but I feel the waaahmbulance that comes with each Metro-reading commuter complaining about strikes is generational; most ILXors would not define themselves as Thatcherbabies but the grumble of inconvenience is paydirt to spinners against unions from whichever party. Bear with the generational thing: my first summer in London was 20 years ago and there were massive snarling tube strikes. My workplace remained open and sent people to shops nearest their homes on those days; we were instructed to get there *without* crossing picket lines and to use taxis if necessary. It was also one hot summer so water taxi to work was no great hardship.

Good luck to them really. I don't care particularly either about the cost to the economy (how they arrive at the figures for these things I have no idea) or the fact that, oh no, I might get into work a bit late. It just means I spend half hour less of my day posting on ILX. Plus I get to laugh at city boys tussling with each other in the street.

I say good luck to them too: I don't use the Tube when the workers are on strike and the bleatings of viscose-encased scab enablers only harden my position on what their comments say about them.

Joe, it actually would be a pay cut since what TfL offered is linked to deflation. If we end up getting deflation.

If someone wanted to cut my salary and sack 20% of the workforce, damn right I'd want my union to make a stupid offer in response in order to negotiate from. Except that no longer works, because you now just get LOLBoris and his deputies doing nothing except promising to show commuters how to get their office on their bikes.

Surprised no one in the media has yet blamed Prime Mentalist Moron "Unelected? Why Don't You Call An Election NOW?" Clown for this since the whole Metronet thing was basically his big idea.

Pinefox I've removed your link, I don't really want direct linking to the BNP website on here for fairly obvious reasons.

i was considerably more inconvenienced by the absence of buses on snow monday due to useless boris in his henley bunker (walking to work was definitely NOT an option then, regardless of distance; it was torvill & dean time where i was & it took us approx 90 mins to walk to sainsbury's at end of street, do shopping and walk back) tbh.

the grumble of inconvenience is paydirt to spinners against unions from whichever party

This is the key sticking point with me - avoidable strikes only serve to further undermine the public image of all unions which can only be a bad thing in my book. The question is less the rights and wrongs of what the RMT are fighting for and more whether the strike was avoidable at this stage - I'm not sure I'm equipped with the right information to make that call at the moment but it certainly doesn't appear so.

Matt, the papers which are most relentless about vox pops of commuters having a sad about strikes are always Associated or Murdoch, neither of which are anti-union at all, oh no...

back in the eighties day when i worked in kensington you couldn't come out of high street ken tube without tripping over a couple of dozen commuters being told by mail/standard reporters to look harassed about strike action (even though in their actual vox pops they always sport these stupid, vacant hi-mum grins and moreover never actually seem to have proper jobs - mostly in the meejah surprise surprise).

Thought as much. I'm amazed whenever even one vox popper in thelondonpaper says 'these guys have every right to withhold their labour' nevertheless I'm sure more than one in ten feel like this.

Without veering wildly off topic this aspect of media ownership really hit me when home for Xmas and Fox was running wall-to-wall DICTATOR GIVES CHRISTMAS MESSAGE stories and I had to explain to my mom that yes, true but the way the network were hammering this was shady seeing as C4 is huge competitor for Sky in UK, so more here than met her eye.

http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/galleries/news/tubestrikejune/boris-clipper-embankmentPA.jpg

Nice to see he's learnt how now to to fall into rivers.

Given the BBC's outrageous anti-union bias along with the rest of the media, it's no wonder everyone gets so apoplectic by the strikes. It's given me a day working from home, so that's not so bad IMO.

how now

Brown cowed?

fuck was looking for that joke

Whoops.

i think when a strike doesn't affect you it's easier to be sympathetic to their cause.

The BNP are sick cunts; as if we needed no further proof. However I was lolling very hard at the idea of squaddies being brought in to drive tubes.

clever use of "gravy train" metaphor

I was equally sympathetic to striking tube workers when I didn't live in Zone One.

Pretty sure the fact that thousands of Londoners are losing their jobs and being denied payrises isn't exactly going to endear the strikers to many people. 10% support sounds about right to me.

So because some people are losing their jobs, Tube workers aren't entitled to fight for their rights? It may not be endearing, and is undeniably annoying, but this is what happens in labour disputes.

I got to Liverpool St (eventually, couldn't get on the 1st 2 trains), took a look at the biggest queue for a bus I've seen outside of a festival (it was winding all around the upper floor of the station, to be fair it was well organised with police community support and that) and walked to work, which I won't be trying tomorrow cos it took me 45 minutes and I was all sweaty when I finally got in.

It is difficult to be sympathetic, it's true, when I haven't had a payrise either this year and my wife can't even get a job.

i'd be more sympathetic if they fight for their rights by volunteering to do my job for me for the day, so i can sit at home.

the tube strike also somehow seem to make bus driver think it's okay to skip bus stops with 3/4 full buses the day people need it the most.

(4 busses passed me today)

stand by everything i said upthread, if that makes me a tory then so be it. tube strikers are cunts and it doesn't help that it seems to be a first resort for them. a tube driver's starting salary is 40k - a friend of mine whose mother has been a teacher for nearly 40 years earns 7k less than that. a "pay rise" is no one's fucking right in this economy, if most people arbitrarily took days off work they wouldn't get paid and frankly the sooner all those cunts are replaced by machines the better. and bob crow needs to fucking die already.

^nice

tbh i would like to know what has bumped average tube driver salary up by nearly 25% over 7 years. 7/7 presumably a factor in this but considering bus drivers salaries are like half (plus they have to deal with a lot more grief from the public), i'm not quite getting it.

i'd volunteer to drive the tube for free fwiw.

and the people who created "this economy" are who, again, exactly, lex?

and i am very good at pressing the door opening button that correspond to which side of the train the platform resides. i'm not saying that i can do a better job or anything, i'm just saying.

retarded house buyers who can't do maths? xpost

To be fair the black hole in the Tube's finances precedes the recession and guess whose fault that was? Hint, it wasn't the people driving the trains.

That said this is almost impossible for me to come down on either side of, mostly because I just do not believe or trust Bob Crow.

i have no problem deciding which side to come down on. if it's between the useless managers and shareholders who squandered all the money they got from the government and elsewhere on crap (including investments in dodgy banks and pointless "management consultants") and the workers who are expected to eat shit and be grateful for it it's a fucking no brainer.

how about "neither"

xp OTM. And it's very easy to say "driving a tube, easy money!", until you have to do a job that involves unsociable hours, very difficult working conditions (including the constant threat of suicides hurling themselves in front of your train), and the possibility of losing your job.

what i definitely don't come down on the side of are lazy "journalists" whose life gets moderately inconvenienced for half a day because workers aren't necessarily prepared to wait on them hand and foot for no reward.

Lest we forget.

I wouldn't say I am 100% behind the strikers or anything. But people have the right to strike. And although it looks like they are making outrageous demands now, they might feel it is the thin end of the wedge; if they don't make a stand now, it might be too late further down the road.

Also if being a tube driver is such a wonderfully cushy deal, as some of you seem to think it is, how come you aren't all tube drivers?

as i have said many times before, the solution is:

1. make accommodation in central london affordable, cap rents etc. so that people don't have to travel long distances between home and work and therefore don't get inconvenienced when the system's down, with the side result that london will have more life in it since it will be inhabited by ordinary people rather than just hedge fund managers and celebrities.

2. get rid of outdated victorian 9-5 working ethic so that masses don't come in and out of work at the same time.

but of course that would mean changing society.

Lex, if this is about strike today making it that little bit harder to go to see Britney or whatever...

I don't agree with low teacher salaries either but shooting resentment rays at yr common or garden tube driver who is *not* striking at first option (news of runups tend to be in more 'specialist' areas of the media, not what we read most of the time) is kindasorta allowing emotion to help your comparison of apples and oranges. Women are still on 80 per cent of boy money IIRC. Which of us has the right to be angrier, generally?

Also what we're forgetting is that not every worker on the London Underground is a Tube driver on a £40k+ salary and the ones that aren't are the ones in the most danger of losing their jobs.

I asshopped to Glasgow and missed all the fun, apparwently

2. get rid of outdated victorian 9-5 working ethic so that masses don't come in and out of work at the same time.

but of course that would mean changing society.

― Dingbod Kesterson, Wednesday, June 10, 2009 1:28 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark

lol wut

Meanwhile Tube strike drinking game.

until or unless society changes we should make do as best we can, treat the people who do the donkey work so that we can get to and from our jobs with a degree of respect and pay them accordingly. otherwise britney can wait. or at least be watched on live feed.

2. get rid of outdated victorian 9-5 working ethic so that masses don't come in and out of work at the same time.

I like this suggestion. I am continually perplexed and depressed with people's willingness to subject themselves to this and resentment with anyone who either a) finds a way out of it b) tries to make a stand to at least make it a little less soul-destroying.

dom_great_thread.jpg

Most of the media does 10.30/11-7 anyway.

word up

i thought flexitime was a common company standard nowadays?

i saw alistair stewart on a fag break on my way to work. i wonder how he got in.

The same way he would every morning, CAR AND DRIVER.

Lex, if this is about strike today making it that little bit harder to go to see Britney or whatever...

it's more imagining how horrendously inconvenient it must be for people who actually have to do important, time-sensitive travel in london today, if it's this hard to make relatively unimportant journeys as i have to. luckily i have a degree of flexibility when it comes to my time today.

I'm thinking it's a good week to be in China! Now all I have to do is find a bar that is showing the British Lions game in the wee small hours and everything will be perfect...

I'm thinking it's a good week to be in China!

communists tend to know how to handle the unions...

if you're worried about "important, time-sensitive travel" then you read the papers, listen to the news, anticipate what it's going to be like and make appropriate/alternative arrangements. alternately you might wish to consider doing a boris and getting a bike if you don't already have one.

Also if being a tube driver is such a wonderfully cushy deal, as some of you seem to think it is, how come you aren't all tube drivers?

― ears are wounds, Wednesday, 10 June 2009 12:27 (41 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

if a tube driver wants to swap jobs with me i will do this starting tomorrow.

i mean, i would start today but obv i can't

i don't think they're living a high life but they seem to strike a hell of a lot more often than any other groups, their daily working lives must be completely fucked for them to be this unhappy about their working conditions?

does ben a still work for LU? does he have any dirt you can post here?

he does but i don't think he's a union member. will find out though..

and channel 4 could make a crap documentary about it Ken called, presumably, Ken Swaps Jobs With A Tube Driver. Would watch.

you might wish to consider doing a boris and getting a bike if you don't already have one.

done and done. and BOY am I smug about it. Tbh as little as I know about the politics of this, considering how much I hate getting on the tube for a few minutes at a time, I imagine it must be pretty hellish to spend all of my working day down there.

Ken having heard about the way you drive a car I'm pretty sure the taxpayer would stump up £40k to ensure you never get allowed to drive a train ever.

Important: despite what the TFL email and newspapers say, trying to use an Oyster card on National Rail during the strike is apparently NOT permitted.

dreading having to move back to zone 3 by the end of the year (probably)

"Damn TUBE strike tomorrow, I say sack them all, TFL has a choice of over 2 million out of work, would be grateful to have a job. The tube companies UNION surely know we are in a recession!!! SO BLUE COLLAR TO STRIKE, end of the day people it is a business, and printing money hasn’t proven to be a great idea!!!"

would cycle tho xp

i've never crashed my car and i'm pretty certain trains are harder to crash than cars! i'd just get everyone there quicker..

i've never crashed my car

you've just enabled other cars to be crashed into

it's so dangerous. i'm calling a strike

car strike?

bikes are not really an alternative to trains and other vehicles.

for instance they are very tiring to pedal.

are you one of these layabouts who lay about when michael caine's getting up at six in the morning aged 76 to support you?

They aren't really an alternative if you don't actually live in London either, which I imagine is true of the vast majority of commuters. I was under the impression that a lot of suburban railway services don't let you take bikes on board?

people who take bikes on trains are the worst fucking savages imo: it would be ok, but quite often it's standing room only and the bikes get in the way.

You can take folding bikes but not full size.

It would be good if trains were specified with a decent number of vertical hanging bike racks but that would cut out a lot of space and with trains not able to run 12 car in most places let alone double decker this would be unfeasible.

oh jeeeeeesus no-one is saying EVERYONE should get on their bikes but pretty much anyone who lives within an hour's bus ride of their work could feasibly cycle it in half the time.

some people quite understandably don't feel confident about cycling on london roads.

also some people CAN'T CYCLE.

i tried it once and nearly died (was almost mowed down by ken)

Same thing happened to Boris.

london can do with a velib/bicing/etc system obv

has anyone done taxi sharing today? you could be like these guys! http://taxitaxiband.com/2009/the-band/

It was funny last night, as I spent two hours and 20 mins getting to to the Forum in Kentish Town, to discover that the Northern Line and the Picadilly Line were running fine! (I'm totally non-tube phobic these days, jel fans). It was my own fault for thinking the 27 from Chiswick to Camden would take 40 minutes or so, ha.

I used to get that 27 - it's all sorts of useful, but Paddington/Edgeware Road/Marylebone Road can be cruel.

I'm waiting for my boss to leave, so I too can leave to avoid as much as possible the chaos - cycling Brentford > Stoke Newington, then I too shall be heading to The Forum to see The Fall and the Buzzcocks in Kentish Town. Bit of a trek but as long as I stay in one piece, I'll get there.

I mean, I cycle normally, but the number of extra cars and higher level of aggro makes it all a bit more stressful.

The Central line was running between Mile End and Liverpool Street this morning, but it was raining and the bus stop's nearer to my house. Normally walk it, except when it's raining.

I'm totally non-tube phobic these days, jel fans

really? what changed? i haven't been on an underground tube for nearly 7 years :o

LOL, latest update from TFL:

Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy said: 'Services are now running on nearly all London Underground lines, with good service on the Northern line and a decent service across the Jubilee line.

'Clearly, support for the RMT leadership's actions is far from the level they were expecting.

in yr face crow. now please die.

Everyone in London has apparently left work half an hour early in order to all try and beat the rush at the same time. Just go to the pub you fools.

Dunno Steve, I guess, it was being out in Hampstead one day and having no choice. I could also put it down to the restorative powers of eating more, and being less panic-y as a result.

oh yay now i can go to colindale :/

Solidarity pubbers.

Lex, it's uncool to wish death on another human being also LOL whenever officials use the word 'clearly' in a statement ANYTHING BUT, pls add to drinking game.

none of you people know you were born. lol.

took me about an hour and a half to get from shepherd's bush to hackney central and walk to bethnal green tonight, all the while with ultra aggressive wankers on the train swearing at people etc. the journey was only made worthwhile by meeting a mate from Dublin utterly randomly on the platform at Shepherd's Bush, and getting an "I was there" conspiratorial smile from a pretty girl passing me on Cambridge Heath road who was in the same carriage.

I'm thinking it's a good week to be in China! Now all I have to do is find a bar that is showing the British Lions game in the wee small hours and everything will be perfect...

okay so Dr C you are the only other ILX poster watching this event...am loving it so far, despite the Irish players all getting injured.

yeah just saw suzy's post, there are no fucking lines running. I left work at 7 and the entire system was utterly fucked. EG masses and masses of people fighting to get on an eastbound at Shep's Bush most of whom want to get off at the next stop....

London without Tubes - like dublin on any weekday.

slightly more people

London without Tubes - like dublin on any weekday.

haha I made this exact observation, but it's not quite true. The buses in Dublin are quicker than London as there are more bus lanes (lol my Dad introduced the first bus corridors into Dublin in the 70s, I think he appeared on an Irish chat show as a result!) the only prob is they're also really infrequent on some routes. Waiting for public transport is a part of life in Dublin, a shit part.

The DART though, sure, prob a shambles of overcrowding and aggression day in day out.

Just walked down Brick Lane and it was totally dead despite being pub chucking out time.

Actually harder to get into work today than yesterday - Victoria Line looked decidedly closed at Brixton in a way it didn't yesterday.

Was it Channel 4 News or Newsnight where an interviewer accused Bob Crow of organising the strike deliberately to clash with the England v. Andorra game? Bob Crow's face said it all. I despair of the media sometimes. Plus anti-union Thatcherkids in general, wherever they may be.

Power cut!

Well, it's a good story isn't it?

Walked home last night in pleasant sunshine. Bus to work this morning unproblematic. Working and living in the same part of town is a good feeling, it must be said. More people should be encouraged to do it.

power cut?

I'd love to be able to afford to live on Harley Street, but not any time soon. :-(

More a power outage than a power cut, obv. localised

more an outrage, obv

Bob Crow must die, obv

oddly the street seems totally quiet today on my bike ride to work - very pleasant! except the first 3 minutes as i was very hungover, but i feel great now.

I decided to ignore the TFL journey planner and got 2 buses in, it took 2 hours but I had a seat the whole way, didn't have to walk anywhere and didn't have to scrum to get on. So I'm considerably less grumpy than I was yesterday.

yes, bob crow only needs to maybe lose a limb and castrated now

Yeah, that'd do.

enough b*p-friendly talk here. you were momentarily inconvenienced for a day or so. it wasn't rwanda.

Says Mr Privatise the Royal Mail now because my letter was late

i like the way people seem to assume that only middle-class people have been inconvenienced by this. no one else depends on the tube obv!!!

(fyi i am not remotely inconvenienced today, i am just having empathy~~ with my brotherhood~~~ of fellow commuting workers)

maybe commuters should unionise and walk into work every day, seeing as how it's so great and all, and then where would tube workers be

Everyone should unionise

my union of creative industry slackers will be discussing this at our AGM tonight. assuming we can be bothered to turn up.

Point of order, brother, I was not invited to this AGM

secy. is a slacker innit, invites are lying under an ashtray somewhere.

that is an occupational hazard, comrade xp

tbh it was just an excuse to make some pretty pamphlets

I decided to ignore the TFL journey planner and got 2 buses in, it took 2 hours but I had a seat the whole way, didn't have to walk anywhere and didn't have to scrum to get on. So I'm considerably less grumpy than I was yesterday.

― Colonel Poo, Thursday, June 11, 2009 11:24 AM (15 minutes ago) Bookmark

you could be in paris in 2 hours, colonel pewp.
also wtf some buses are barely running today

Pretty bad going home last night on bike - gridlock at Hammersmith (pedestrian under a truck) and Kensington (although this isn't uncommon tbh). Strangely quiet eye-of-the-storm effect in central London, but bad again round Angel.

This morning, gridlock at King's Cross and Kensington and Hammersmith (again, not really anything MUCH worse than usual).

I hope those drivers (like my former landlady) who don't like subsidised public transport realise what it'd be like now, and also go to Hell.

also wtf some buses are barely running today

Maybe Boris saw some blossom falling and thought it was snow

blossom dearie looks nothing like peter snow

I walked from Stoke Newington to Waterloo this morning, it took me 1hr 10mins which is only slightly more than my regular bus. Flagged a bit around Angel but got a second wind around Holborn, thankfully!

There seemed to be even more traffic around than usual from Essex Rd onwards. If you think striking tube workers are selfish, what about people who take to their (generally single-occupant) cars at the first opportunity?

if they were really that selfish they would drive regardless of the strike

enough b*p-friendly talk here. you were momentarily inconvenienced for a day or so. it wasn't rwanda.
― Dingbod Kesterson, Thursday, 11 June 2009 10:27 (26 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

but bob crow is british.. and hate europe??

I have to wonder how the decision to lift the congestion charge for the duration of the strike has affected the traffic volume as much as the strike itself. (In other obvious news, bears found to defecate in forests.)

It certainly hasn't helped anyone trying to get around by bus, that's for sure.

and where do people park in central london?

but bob crow is british.. and hate europe??

Nick Griffin only gets eggs thrown at him, whereas Bob Crow gets death wished on him by inconvenienced ILXors

is crow really pro capital punishment? having trouble finding citation/evidence

Please don't throw eggy-weggs at the democratically elected racist, KILL THE UNION LEADER!!!!

um we are only amputating the leader now actually.

You do know that when people on the internet say someone should die they are not actually wishing death on them, right?

I didn't think they had lifted the charge this time? http://www.tfl.gov.uk/corporate/media/newscentre/11979.aspx

Still completely bemused by people driving. Traffic not as bad today as yesterday, and fewer cyclists today.

it's just unfair to label things BNP friendly when they are not necessarily so.. there are probably thousands of pro-trade-union racists out there. there's probably a union of them.

except bob crow [CITATION NEEDED] xp2

Oh, my mistake. I thought they had. Oops!

You do know that when people on the internet say someone should die they are not actually wishing death on them, right?

Yes, I've never done it myself though

x-post I think Boris has utilised it a couple of times already when there's been 'disruption' so maybe everyone who's driving has assumed it too, and will get a surprise £60 fine in a month or whenever.

yay

Yes, I've never done it myself though

not even re Thatcher?

No, of course not. Stupid thing to do.

i'm still hoping she'll go just an hour before the Queen...

it's alright to wish death on old people. like when harold shipman killed all them pensioners it wasn't quite as bad as if he'd killed 200 nubile young blondes.

there are probably thousands of pro-trade-union racists out there

I can think of one :(

nubile young blonde bob crow

nubile young Aryan blonde bob crow

So this bullshit is supposed to wrap up at 7pm tonight, right? My co-workers are telling me that the tube will likely remain a mess for another 24 hours as things get "back to normal." Does that sound about right, from past experience with this kind of thing?

Maybe not 24 hours but I wouldn't expect it to get back to normal until tomorrow morning at the earliest. Tonight will still be screwed up after 7pm

Bummer. I have a ticket to see a gig tonight way across town and the TFL journey planner is basically laughing in my face when I try to work out getting there easily.

my colleague took a tube that was running yesterday and because nobody knew it was running she got pretty much a whole carriage to herself so maybe it's just pot luck

i remember once (on a train not a tube) getting a whole carriage to myself and thinking WOWOW GREATNESS, and put my feet up on the opposite seat. But then getting told off by the cleaner woman which ruined the rest of the journey as I was then stacked with guilt and shame.

A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM THE GENERAL SECRETARY
THE TRUTH (AND IF NOT SUE US FOR LIBEL)

This is my 31st year as a member of this Union and a worker on London Underground and in all that time I have never experienced such dishonesty from any management that I have dealt with. Let me explain to you what really happened at the talks.

The Facts

Pay. Management made a revised offer on a two year deal or four year deal. We said we would go away, speak to our members and representatives and come back to them. We said this did not have to be resolved immediately and hence we could suspend the action.

Breaches of Agreements. It is an out and out lie that we were only interested in the two sacked drivers. There were another five specific cases where management had abused the disciplinary procedures. It was agreed that ACAS would look at all seven cases and we said that we would be able to suspend the action to allow this to go ahead.

On the application of the sickness procedures, management were abusing it by making unannounced visits to members without a Trade Union representative being present. They were also issuing 52 week warnings as opposed to the maximum allowed which is 26 weeks. We reached agreement that the 26 weeks maximum would be adhered to and that a Trade Union representative would be in attendance at the interviews.

Redundancies. In 2001 after campaigning that the privatisation of the infrastructure would be a disaster LUL members were transferred to Metronet. We reached an agreement with LUL and Metronet that there would be no compulsory redundancies and that staff would be offered alternative employment in the event of their job going. This was enshrined in members' contracts. As we predicted Metronet went bust with massive debts. We asked that all Metronet members that came back to LUL, and all other LUL members, should have the same agreement of no compulsory redundancies. At 6 o'clock, and hour before the strike was to begin, agreement was reached with the Acting Managing Director, Richard Parry. In fact I signed a document to this effect and this was to go back in front of your General Grades Committee immediately so that we could suspend the strike. At 6.35 p.m. whilst awaiting the final typed agreement we were told by management that they had made a phone call and that they could no longer abide by the agreement - they reneged before the ink was even dry. We were stunned that management could be so dishonest.

I have no doubt that the phone call made was to the Transport Commission or City Hall and they instructed the negotiators to pull the agreed deal. It became quite clear that the Transport Commission or City Hall were using stalling tactics to try and extend the talks to 7 p.m. in the hope that staff would believe agreement had been reached and turn up for work and members were also getting anonymous texts telling them the action was being called off.

It is an absolute disgrace that these bodies should interfere in the negotiations taking place between your Union and the LUL management. We negotiate in good faith and expect the same from the other side. It is the management side that have forced this strike to go ahead and now they will have to find a way to deal with the outstanding issues all over again.

The RMT want a negotiated settlement without interference from the Politicians. Agreement can be reached if management sit down and negotiate honestly.

Thank you for your support - the strike is solid and it is a tremendous effort by all of you. I will write to you with developments.

Best wishes

Bob Crow
General Secretary

There you go, you heard it from the Crow's mouth, errrrr, beak

From the Guardian:

Check out the hordes of cyclists taking advantage of Boris' City Hall publicity stunt

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2009/6/11/1244710025503/0.jpg

I no longer know who to believe any more.

I'm inclined to believe Crow over Boris et al for some reason.

believe in bikes and (if getting drunk) buses tbh.

Boris Johnson's wife would probably call him an egregious liar too.