As some of you may have heard on the news (if it made it over to America) the London Tube Workers Union staged a two day strike last week. Tube strikes are threatened on a fairly regular basis in this city, and, occasionally, a strike will close down a line or two. This strike, however, knocked out nearly the entire London Underground network.
While I normally side with Unions who are out to fight “the Man,” whether that Man be large corporations, governments, etc, this Tube strike annoyed me beyond words. Why? Well…..
1: In a time of world-wide recession when many people in London are thankful just to have a job, the Tube workers decided that they wanted a 5% pay raise for working few hours.
2: It has been reported that there was almost a settlement of the strike but, at the last minute, the Tube union added on a demand to rehire two workers who had been recently fired. One of these workers opened the wrong doors of the train when he stopped at Victoria station (instead of opening the doors onto the platform, he opened them onto the adjacent track and oncoming train traffic) and the second of whom was under investigation for theft. Are these really the people I want driving me to work every day?
3: One of the platforms London’s Mayor, Boris, ran on in his election last year was coming to a strike-free agreement with the Tube union. Due to the fact that Boris’ first major act in office was to outlaw drinking on the tube, I already dislike the man. His inability to come to some kind of strike-free agreement with the Tube union is just another reason to hate him.
4: I live in East London and work in West London. London is a large city. On a good day, a bus ride to work takes me nearly an hour. On a strike day, it turns out, a ride to work takes me nearly 2 hours and 15 minutes. If you were lucky enough to get on a bus (most were so crowded they just stopped letting people on), you stood in traffic most of the way. The ride home? Well, I never found out how long the ride home would take because traffic was at such a stand-still that I ended up walking almost the entire way. It took me nearly 3 hours. On day one of the strike, I spent 6 hours commuting- a trip that normally takes me an hour.
2: It has been reported that there was almost a settlement of the strike but, at the last minute, the Tube union added on a demand to rehire two workers who had been recently fired. One of these workers opened the wrong doors of the train when he stopped at Victoria station (instead of opening the doors onto the platform, he opened them onto the adjacent track and oncoming train traffic) and the second of whom was under investigation for theft. Are these really the people I want driving me to work every day?
3: One of the platforms London’s Mayor, Boris, ran on in his election last year was coming to a strike-free agreement with the Tube union. Due to the fact that Boris’ first major act in office was to outlaw drinking on the tube, I already dislike the man. His inability to come to some kind of strike-free agreement with the Tube union is just another reason to hate him.
4: I live in East London and work in West London. London is a large city. On a good day, a bus ride to work takes me nearly an hour. On a strike day, it turns out, a ride to work takes me nearly 2 hours and 15 minutes. If you were lucky enough to get on a bus (most were so crowded they just stopped letting people on), you stood in traffic most of the way. The ride home? Well, I never found out how long the ride home would take because traffic was at such a stand-still that I ended up walking almost the entire way. It took me nearly 3 hours. On day one of the strike, I spent 6 hours commuting- a trip that normally takes me an hour.
6 Million people use London's Tube every day. When there's a strike, it turns out, a large portion of these people move to the busses. Needless to say, lines at the stops were long...
Mad rush to get home Tuesday night before the Strike began.
I have mentioned my hatred for the London Underground, for various reasons, before. This Tube strike, however, brought my loathing to a whole new level.
