Solutions for cooling the tube.

just leave the trains idle!

fwiw i'm totally behind rmt on this

lots of disinfo though - is it a complete shutdown? will they continue to run the tube, but without maintenance workers?

I thought this was going to be about problems with hot televisions.

no you did not

A friend of mine who works for the Underground was saying yesterday that basically all the key union demands had been met and he thought everything would be sorted.

I thought this thread would be about sterility issues in men who wear tight pants

TS: Laying cable/pipe/tube.

Supposedly only Piccadilly, Northern, and Jubilee lines are running right now?

you are correct.

it just took me two hours to get from white city to hackney.

not bad actually, all things considered.

mark c that's what red ken keeps saying but it's patently false and it's astonishing to see his quotes repeated in the paper without comment. he has guaranteed metronet workers everything that's in their employment contracts WHILE METRONET REMAINS IN ADMINISTRATION. there are no guarantees about anything after that. given the incredibly ambiguous nature of what will happen to metronet, i can see why it would be difficult to guarantee anything for the long term, but the fact is that these men and women are employees of a company that had negotiated a 30-year contract to provide tube service and maintenance to london - the largest transport contract ever negotiated in european history, i believe, and it was by one gordon brown - and their managers wound up bollixing the entire thing in less than a decade. that's not the workers' faults and someone has to take responsibility for what these workers had signed up for.

strangely, i've read that bob crow of the rmt wants metronet to get taken over by tfl - i.e. red ken..

the bus from kensington to charing cross was fairly hellish

when was the last time bus drivers went on strike?

solution for cooling the bus: TURN THE FUCKING HEATERS OFF IN SUMMERTIME U BASTARDS

http://cidutest.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/chickeninpants.gif

Tracer - so you're saying that the Mayor of London should personally offer to honour the contracts of every metronet worker should the company go into liquidation? Wouldn't that bankrupt the city?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39310000/gif/_39310091_harrysabbers.gif

That article, the Olympics logo one, and the AbFab lady make me think they'll throw anything up on the BBC website. :D

Mark C:

i can see why it would be difficult to guarantee anything for the long term, but the fact is that these men and women are employees of a company that had negotiated a 30-year contract to provide tube service and maintenance to london - the largest transport contract ever negotiated in european history, i believe, and it was by one gordon brown - and their managers wound up bollixing the entire thing in less than a decade four years. that's not the workers' faults and someone has to take responsibility for what these workers had signed up for.

My wife just started a job last week after being out of work for 6 months and I'm really worried she'll lose it because of this. She gets really claustrophobic and can only just about deal with the commute at the best of times, getting home last night and to work this morning was hell for her and I'm not sure I'll be able to make her go in tomorrow :(

i didn't think metronet could go into liquidation? we're in PPP administration, which is different and has loads of safeguards. i don't understand it though.

Tracer, these workers are all on 30 year contracts? I'm honestly not being disingenuous here, I don't understand how it works.

picadilly line was working last night, thank fucking christ.

These workers had benefits, pensions etc. under London underground and they and those responsibilities got transferred to metronet. Metronet has gone belly up due to poor management and in the unwillingness of it's shareholders to stump up for the losses they incurred due to their poor management. The workers now face loosing their pensions, benefits etc. if they get transferred to a new employer.

the bus from kensington to charing cross was fairly hellish

-- Just got offed, Monday, September 3, 2007 8:07 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Link

lol

what Ed said. the actual length of invidual Metronet employment contracts probably varies, as well as pension provisions - depending on on payscale, job type, and other things. but all these provisions are up in the air at the moment because Metronet barely exists any more. now sure - companies go bankrupt all the time, and employees lose out. but this is a special case, not only because it was negotiated by the chancellor of the exchequer, but because it involves essential public infrastructure. these people need to not be in limbo. it would be especially rich if ken livingstone does manage to scarf up Metronet's contract into TfL - and then not honour those employees' previous terms of employment! but he won't promise not to.

yet he gets quoted everywhere as saying "we have given every guarantee they've asked for" without a peep from the reporter writing the story!

> The workers now face loosing their pensions, benefits etc. if they get transferred to a new employer.

don't the TUPE laws cover all this?

ah, http://www.out-law.com/page-448

"TUPE in insolvency

Finally, the new Regulations have relaxed TUPE to protect incoming employers where the exiting employer is insolvent. The liability for redundancy, notice and other payments to employees will not transfer to the incoming employer..."

ken's surely between rock and hard place if it's true he warned brown repeatedly about metronet but brown forced it thru. he's criticised brown in the press since the administration started too. damage limitation now innit?

so WHY was it a 30 year contract?

do Tube Lines also have a 30 year contract?

picadilly line was working last night, thank fucking christ.

Only between Hyde Park and Cockfosters :_(

http://nou.livejournal.com/135994.html