Strike

February 10, 2015 Longrider General News, Transport 10

There was a  time when withdrawing one’s labour was a valid weapon in fighting for improved working condition and pay. That time has passed, frankly. The RMT remains firmly at the dinosaur end of the union movement and will call a strike for all the wrong reasons. This is one of them.

Drivers on London Underground have voted to strike over the sacking of a colleague.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union backed industrial action by 299 votes to 221.

So, why was he sacked? Was this some sort of capricious and unfair dismissal that violated the law, therefore making a call to strike necessary?

LU had urged union members to vote against strikes, insisting they had dismissed the Northern Line driver for failing two random breath alcohol tests, adding that it operates a zero tolerance policy for drugs and alcohol.

Ah.

The zero tolerance approach to alcohol and drugs has been policy on the railways for over twenty years now. People joining the industry know what they are getting into. Every single one of us who works in the industry is affected by this. The reasons are pretty straightforward, we don’t want people under the influence of alcohol or narcotics driving trains, working signal boxes or  repairing infrastructure. Now, you might consider the policy and its implementation as a tad over the top. So, by all means campaign for a revision – but the RMT  likes to proudly boast about its role in making the railways a safer place yet will now call out its members over a driver who wilfully endangered the travelling public. This says much about the RMT, frankly. And, no, this driver should not be reinstated. He knew the policy and decided that he would get away with breaking it. In doing so he breached his contract of employment and the Transport and Works Act. Therefore, he must face the consequences of his actions.

10 Comments

  1. RMT claims the driver – 29 years in the job – was not over the limit, that the test was carried out by an unsupervised trainee and that his type 2 diabetes may have affected the equipment. RMT have offered to call the strike off if London Underground agree to abide by the decision of the Employment Tribunal and reinstate him if it decides he was unfairly sacked. LU have refused this offer so maybe they aren’t 100% sure they got it right.

    • How about seeing what the tribunal has to say first? I’m sceptical about the unsupervised trainee claim, frankly, having been involved in this in the past.

    • ‘…and that his type 2 diabetes may have affected the equipment. ‘

      And maybe the moon was in Aquarius..

      To quote someone else, ‘Well, they would say that, wouldn’t they?’

  2. The zero tolerance approach to alcohol and drugs has been policy on the airlines for over twenty years now. People joining the industry know what they are getting into. Every single one of them who works in the industry is affected by this. The reasons are pretty straightforward, we don’t want people under the influence of alcohol or narcotics flying or maintaining aircraft or running air traffic control. Now, you might consider the policy and its implementation as a tad over the top…

    Looks a bit different now, doesn’t it? What happens to pilots when they are caught again? Oh, that’s right, they’re imprisoned.

    And funnily enough, no commercial passenger aircraft has been shown to have crashed because of booze or drugs, whereas with trains –

    Still, not all of them are intestinal worms like Mick Cash, some drivers come up with some good repartee, and there were 221 dissenters. The Northern Line would make anyone turn to drink anyway.

    Someone who works for me is a socialist who has to take a bus to the Northern Line . Back of the net.

    • Looks a bit different now, doesn’t it?

      No.

      And funnily enough, no commercial passenger aircraft has been shown to have crashed because of booze or drugs, whereas with trains –

      Them neither.

  3. You’re right, there is no difference. As I understand it, the alcohol legislation for railways was introduced before that for aircraft (when it was 2003). It was 80mg/100ml. This applies to aircraft engineers, but everyone else is on 20mg/100ml.

    I think that the railways apply the harder limit themselves, but IANAL.

    Prangs: But what about Cannon St, or Amtrak, or that one that went around a bend too fast on an excursion to Margate or somewhere? On the other hand, this is just stupid: http://www.3news.co.nz/nznews/train-crash-driver-had-smoked-cannabis-2014072410#axzz3RNl3Ur8I

  5. There is something ‘orribly worng here …
    The fact that the union have gone public on TypeII diabetes & have stated, IN ADVANCE that they will accept any tribunal hearing verdict – whilst LUL are desperately trying NOT to go to tribunal – suggests … something nasty.
    I suspect said driver is a union so-called “militant”, but has diabetes, & the so-called “management” think they can get rid of him & cheat him out of his pension …
    Rather than give him a non-driving job ( he should not be driving with his diabetes anyway, oops) & forget the whole thing.
    We do not have all the facts, but something smells, as I said.

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