Reply to: RMT signal staff vote for strikes

[threaded]

I can’t find it now, but a couple of weeks ago I read an article that had a passage that stuck in my mind. The author said something like there had been a move away from mechanisation towards humanisation because it was cheaper to get things done by people in the third world than to tie up capital in automated plant. This is the stuff that makes dystopian fiction like the Matrix come ever closer to reality.

Well, it's actually cheaper in the west now too...

Example I know of is a big chicken unit. Free range chickens they are, so an enormous hanger like shed with hundreds of chickens running about init. They used to have this giant hoover robot thing to pick the chickens up, out of the sheds, up onto the line and onto the processing unit next door.

Nowdays it is actually cheaper to have temporary staff come, only when they need them like, to chase the chickens into a corner, pick them up and put them up onto the line, manually, than it is to run the machine.

Humans aren't as good, so the wastage is increased, and the line comes to a halt every so often when someone gets themselves caught on the hooks, gets an electric shock off the killing bath, that kinda thing but it's still cheaper.

[threaded]

It's a sad day when we're so critical of 'workers' standing up to management teams who think that the workers should be sacrificed to protect their multi-mllion pound remuneration packages.

Maybe if the IT Industry had had a bit more balls a few years ago we might be seeing a bit less offshoring now.

WHS++

[Board Game Geek]

It's a sad day when we're so critical of 'workers' standing up to management teams who think that the workers should be sacrificed to protect their multi-mllion pound remuneration packages.

Maybe if the IT Industry had had a bit more balls a few years ago we might be seeing a bit less offshoring now.

I'm with AlfW on this one, and whilst it's easy to critcise the workers in these service industries, particulary when it inconveniences you, you have to try and appreciate how they and their families are affected too.

I know a train driver, and he's a decent chap, and yet the stories I hear from him regarding their management would make you rant even more.

His train used to have a guard that travelled with the train. The guard would be on board to handle various issues that can arise on a journey.

Not any more.

1 train, 1 rail company operative. Several hundred tonnes of steel thundering along the track, with only 1 person to manage it all.

When passengers alight, who need a little extra time, due to disability, bringing on a buggy or bike, etc, they have to hope there is someone on the station to help them. Not always. Used to be a guard's job, amongst other things.

What horrifies me the most, is the number of incidents he gets on his line, especially during school holidays.

On an almost daily basis, the line, as it passed on the outskirts of vast sink estates, will get targetted by any of the following.

1. Breeze blocks being dropped from bridges on to the train, aimed for the cab.
2. Burned out cars left on the track
3. Flaming mattresses thrown on to the track
4. Other debris intended to derail the trail, like scaffolding poles, lumps of iron, etc.
5. Last year, a wall of bricks was built across the line.
6. Airgun attacks on the train

I could go on..

[HairyArsedBloke]

It's a sad day when we're so critical of 'workers' standing up to management teams who think that the workers should be sacrificed to protect their multi-mllion pound remuneration packages.

Maybe if the IT Industry had had a bit more balls a few years ago we might be seeing a bit less offshoring now.

True, but I remember when I was at university in the late seventies there was so much talk by the unions to block the introduction of computers because of the damage they would do to employment prospects.

Unionisation or protectionism isn't the answer to the problems. Offshoring can only really be tackled by making local working more cost effective.

On the other hand on-shoring, the shipping of Bob's to the UK, is just plain fraud. It is discriminatory against local labour and those shipped in are, possibly the subject of human rights abuse.

[HairyArsedBloke]

It'll only be another 10-15 years before we all live a life of luxury whilst robots do all our work for us....

I can’t find it now, but a couple of weeks ago I read an article that had a passage that stuck in my mind. The author said something like there had been a move away from mechanisation towards humanisation because it was cheaper to get things done by people in the third world than to tie up capital in automated plant. This is the stuff that makes dystopian fiction like the Matrix come ever closer to reality.

[Alf W]

It's a sad day when we're so critical of 'workers' standing up to management teams who think that the workers should be sacrificed to protect their multi-mllion pound remuneration packages.

Maybe if the IT Industry had had a bit more balls a few years ago we might be seeing a bit less offshoring now.

[moorfield]

Why has Bob Crow not been eliminated by the SAS yet?

w**k*r

[doodab]

It'll only be another 10-15 years before we all live in vats of sludge while robots harvest our body heat for energy...

FTFY

[threaded]

Automate them and sack all the staff.. Sure it should be possible to have a robot train that was safer than one with a human driver.

Erm, the signals people are them that look after and maintain the many automated systems on the railways: things like track circuits (you no longer need a guy at each end, the tokens are transferred electrically) the switches (you no longer need a guy at either end to push them over and make sure they're locked).

[Moscow Mule]

Automate them and sack all the staff.. Sure it should be possible to have a robot train that was safer than one with a human driver.

It'll only be another 10-15 years before we all live a life of luxury whilst robots do all our work for us....

[xoggoth]

Automate them and sack all the staff.. Sure it should be possible to have a robot train that was safer than one with a human driver.

[minestrone]

A week of trains and I am having a nice time just now, Oban 14 year old, a bolivar, beach boys on the big speakers.

Give it monday morning I will be back on this thread.

[shaunbhoy]

The RMT. Are they the ones with that nice Mr Bob Crow in charge? He always comes across as such a personable conciliatory chap............NOT!
He has the sort of face you'd never get tired of kicking!!!

[minestrone]

Why are they striking ? It isnt a council job or anything where they are stuck for life. It's private sector, so why cant they do what we do and join another company? Surely their skills will be appreciated by a competing company ?

...calm...angry...calm...compose...

A drunken train driver who was caught three times over the alcohol limit after downing a bottle of whisky while on duty has been jailed for more than four months.

linky

then there was the other guy who got so pissed on the job he forgot to open the doors and fell asleep leaving everyone stuck on the train and Edinburgh.

My rants could go on and on and on

[fullyautomatix]

Why are they striking ? It isnt a council job or anything where they are stuck for life. It's private sector, so why cant they do what we do and join another company? Surely their skills will be appreciated by a competing company ?