Strike action by members of unions Aslef and RMT means there will be no trains running on Southeastern routes tomorrow (September 1) and a limited service on September 2.
There will be no replacement buses. For alternative transport options visit traveline.
ASLEF, the train drivers’ union, will hold its one day strike on Friday 1 September and an overtime ban across the UK rail network on Saturday 2 September.
RMT members strike on September 2.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “The mood among our members remains solid and determined in our national dispute over pay, job security and working conditions.
“We have had to call further strike action as we have received no improved or revised offer from the Rail Delivery Group.
“The reason for this is the government has not allowed them a fresh mandate on which discussions could be held.
“Our members and our union will continue fighting until we can reach a negotiated and just settlement.”
⚠️Due to Strike action by the RMT and ASLEF Unions:
❌ Friday 1 September – NO Southeastern, Thameslink or Southern trains from our stations.
⬇️ 2 September – limited service and some routes will be closed.
ℹ️ Check Before You Travel: https://t.co/Imud6ZU5HV #railstrike pic.twitter.com/yeNKDKpi4C— Southeastern (@Se_Railway) August 31, 2023
Mick Whelan, ASLEF’s general secretary, said: ‘We don’t want to take this action but the train companies, and the government which stands behind them, have forced us into this place because they refuse to sit down and talk to us and have not made a fair and sensible pay offer to train drivers who have not had one for four years – since 2019 – while prices have soared in that time by more than 12%.
“The government appears happy to let passengers – and businesses – suffer in the mistaken belief that they can bully us into submission. They don’t care about passengers – or Britain’s railway – but they will not break us.”
Find service availability and updates at https://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/travel-information/live-travel-information/industrial-action
Mick Whelan is right. The bosses really don’t care about passengers or the railways themselves.
If the parasites in the boardrooms thought they could get away with it, they would probably melt down all the rails and rolling stock, sell them off as scrap metal, and rent out the railway land to the highest bidders. And the government would give them 100 percent support.
You do talk tosh, Ian Shacklock.
They’ve been offered a reasonable pay rise but the union bosses are intent on bringing down the government.
If I wanted to talk tosh then I wouldn’t use my real name in threads like this.
If the railway bosses cared about the passengers then they wouldn’t be opening unstaffed stations or threatening to close ticket offices.
If the government cared about human rights then they wouldn’t be going out of their way to crush your unions.
Some one needs to bring this government down, they only care about their millionaires friends
If you are blaming the workers and not the unjust capitalist system, then you are part of the problem.
Do you REALLY think the work harder than care workers, farm labourers, or pub/restaurant staff dealing with drunks on a friday night, all on minimum wage?
It’s not a competition between workers, I’m sure most work bloody hard. The enemy is the system, the industrial capitalists and the fat cats. When we encourage fighting between workers we ignore the crony capitalism that keeps the 1% very, very rich. Are you one of the 1% Peter? Did that nude book of women make you a billionaire?
Oh dear, a lefty lunatic conspiracy theorist. Stay happy.
“Oh dear, a lefty lunatic conspiracy theorist. Stay happy.”
They’re not wrong though, hence your use of pejorative language aimed at undermining their mental health, because you had literally nothing of substance to counter them with.
Are you happy with billions of your taxpayer funded pounds going to cronies/friends/donors of the Tories during the rank episode of PPE Fraud during covid?
Are you happy with the like of Michelle Mone running off with tens of millions of our money, to buy a new yacht, after supplying the nhs with PPE not fit for purpose?
Are you happy that schools are crumbling, after the Tories removed building schools for the future funding that would’ve abated it?
PS, before you reply with some more claptrap about me being a lefty or a conspiracy theorist, I’ll let you know I’m a centrist floating voter, and ashamedly, have voted Tory in the past. Not any time in the future though, given the constant evidence of malfeasance in public office that they’re giving us.
surely this government can see the unrest in this country , most groups of workers have a greviance about something , the sooner this tory rabble of millionaires goes the better
Average Train Driver Salaries Per Year
2020 2022 2023
GWR – train driver salary – Cashfloat Great Western Railway £56,773 £60,620 £63,000
SER – train driver salary – Cashfloat Southeastern Railway £53,620 £57,030 £57,705
London Underground – train driver salary – Cashfloat London Underground £55,711 £59,732 £62,947
Arriva group – train driver salary – Cashfloat Arriva Group £60,945 £66,677 £69,746
london midland – train driver salary – Cashfloat London Midland £54,040 £55,854 N/A
virgin trains – train driver salary – Cashfloat Avanti West Coast (Virgin) £66,231 £74,151 £70,690
Poor underpaid drivers.
They’re vile! They really are.
These are the highly-trained people that thousands of passengers trust with their lives every day, who operate machines going over 100mph. Why don’t you publish the incomes of the directors who are determined to undermine them?
How can they trust them ‘ every day of their lives’ when there not working every day. How many days, so far, have they been on strike this year ?
Don’t be bitter and salty you don’t earn what you’re worth. Join or create a union and fight for pay solidarity.
I would keep them out until they came to an agreement, even if it meant a total shutdown for weeks. This two week cycle only harms everyone except those striking. Time both sides of the table grew up.
A sensible comment.
Ms Pink x
Sack em all, start training people who are willing to do the job for a lot less, or bring driverless trains, of course platforms should be manned and each train should have staff on board, a ticket collector for example. Move into the modern world on the railways.
Train drivers these days work single handed with complex machinery and have hundreds of travellers relying on them for safety and performance. The privatisation of rail was a total disaster with millions being paid out for greedy shareholders that would be far better invested in new stock and better staff wages and conditions. Scotsrail is back in public ownership. As these dreadful private contacts expire, they should revert back to public ownership. No cost and a win-win situation. In the meantime, pay the railworkers a decent rise.
Ian Shacklock makes a valid point that persons posting here should use their own names or keep quiet. Trolling has no place in these discussions!
I agree totally.
Ms. Pink. x
I worked as a Senior Carer at a Residential Home on 5% above minimum wage. I was responsible for making sure my 28 residents were given the correct medication. I’m certain to Train Drivers wouldn’t work for that wage,
“The enemy is the system, the industrial capitalists and the fat cats. When we encourage fighting between workers we ignore the crony capitalism that keeps the 1% very, very rich.”
What do you say to replies like that?
It’s a pretty accurate statement, so no need to say anything.
Unless you have a cunning strategy for reducing the obscene inequality.
I’m more equal than you’ll ever be, darling!
Ian Shacklock- it’s difficult not to reply to Peter Checksfield, but if you do you will probably not get a serious response,as you have just seen. “Ramsgate Resident”‘s statement is certainly correct.
With a reply like that you might reflect and stop being a mouth piece for 55 Tufton Street and develop empathy for those who work hard and deserve decent pay. A reply like that might also notice that the very rich keep getting richer because the system is rigged and supports them through hand outs and tax cuts. Finally you might just learn that your views support massive social injustice.
I started life poor, but I’ve gradually got wealthier throughout life thanks to the capitalist system that rewards hard work and enterprise.
Ms. Pink X
Sure, Peter. So why are you book sales so low going off amazon rankings?
The railway system is old fashioned, move on bring the whole thing into this century, start by getting rid of overpaid self important drivers who voted to strike for political reasons not the money.
@Fred, people like you seem convinced that the strikers are villains not victims.
The villains are the railway bosses who don’t suffer at all during strikes. The government compensates them for any losses. Nice work if you can get it, eh?
The rest of us are victims. The strikers are our heroes for making this sacrifice to protect the passengers’ long-term safety and convenience. But you might not hear that in the Daily Mail
And people like you think that anyone who goes on strike are heroes – and all bosses are villains.
Once again, Ms Pink you are wrong!
People like me recognise that these railway strikes are not just about pay. They are about working conditions that affect passengers as well as employees.
People like you are so selfish, arrogant and short-sighted that you think we can do away with face-to-face customer services, push everything online and adopt a “survival of the fittest” approach.
Railways are not like factories, mines or building sites where employees work in isolation from the public. They are shared spaces. We need protection and convenience, we are customers not nuisances.
Ms Pink, aka Peter Checksfield, is a troll. He never got out of arrested development and the teenage edgelord phase. What he does is regularly post what is known colloquially on the internet as “rage bait” or “sh17 posting”.
They’re closing ticket offices and putting staff on platforms. Surely much safer?
That’s hardly safe or convenient for passengers with mobility or communication difficulties. We need assistance from the station concourse onwards.
Often one of the first questions people ask is which platform they require. Are you expecting them to go up and down every staircase or lift until they get an answer?
No, I expect them to look at the screens like everybody else (unless they’re blind of course, when I’d expect someone to travel with them anyway).
Wow! You really have plumbed new depths this time Ms Pink!
Are you also expecting all passengers to be fluent in hexadecimal diagnostics so they can analyse crash dumps when the displays fail?
No, they can ask other passengers like I do.
The strikers I worked with, if I had joined them, would have cost me my job my pension my house and all I had worked for. I don’t trust union reps or leaders the ones I knew were corrupt bullies who threatened workers who disagreed worth them, cars and homes were damaged and people beaten up, don’t tell me union people are heroes.
The union to which I belonged principally protected my conditions of employment. They also negotiated wage rises.
But every action they carried out was a consequence of a democratic vote of union members.
I was never bullied, threatened nor menaced.
Sounds like you were a scab and swallowed capitalist agitprop wholesale. Lick those boots clean, Fred.
How can ‘strikers be our heroes’ pay increases mean higher inflation. If all essential services went on strike, then there might be a problem, but train drivers, no. People can work from home ( it’s been proved when the covid epidemic hit ) also there are other, and cheaper, forms of public transport available.
I wonder if any of the striking train drivers families needed an ambulance, or emergency hospital treatment were told, sorry, all the ambulance staff and all the doctors and nurses are on strike for the next 2 days, what would there reaction be, especially it it was life threatening.
You might direct exactly the same comment to the bosses. It’s they that hold the purse strings (and have consistently awarded themselves inflation busting pay rises over the past decade)
Another one who believes that all “workers” are heroes and all bosses are villains. Without bosses, nothing would work.
“Without bosses, nothing would work.”
B0ll0cks.
Its workers that provide the labour, which provides the company with income, which then provides the bosses with their bonuses…as the workers get nowt.
“ll the ambulance staff and all the doctors and nurses are on strike for the next 2 days, what would there reaction be, especially it it was life threatening”
Given that Dr’s, Nurses and Ambo drivers all have safe staffing protocols in place for strike days kind of undermines your point, wholesale.
Why do people take poorly paid jobs in the first place, like doctors and nurses some of the strikers have only been in the job a few months
“Why do people take poorly paid jobs in the first place”
If you have to ask a question like this, its clear as day to all reading that you’re vastly out of your depth here.