Rail strike 23-Dec

As things stand at the time of writing, London Midland will be running very few trains on their various routes on Thursday 23 December.  The strike has been called by ASLEF and appears to be over an attempt by London Midland to consolidate the contractual terms of two sets of drivers who currently have different salary and benefit packages which pre-date the merger of two franchises.

Both parties have provided information on their websites stating their position.  I wouldn't normally copy over extracts but on the basis that the text on these is likely to change over time this posting is going to be an exception:

• London Midland: "London Midland employs train drivers from two former rail franchises with differing terms and conditions that were protected at the point of transfer. Some have higher salaries but a lower holiday entitlement than others, so we are seeking to equalise conditions across the company. ASLEF is seeking a substantial increase in pay and holiday entitlement for our train drivers that is unrealistic and unaffordable".
• ASLEF: "We have been negotiating for three years to harmonise the conditions of drivers from the two companies – over 600 in all - but our efforts have been resisted by management all the way. ... Some drivers are being paid £1,200 less than other drivers for doing exactly the same job".

There's always two sides to a story and only those directly involved can know enough to express a view on which party has the best claim to being 'right'. What us passengers can do though is talk about how this affects us.

As a result of ASLEF and London Midland being in dispute, few if any trains will be running.  London Midland are advising us to avoid travelling so we can take it that a large number of people are going to be unable to work and others will have their plans to visit family and friends disrupted.   With this strike falling two days before Christmas, the latter is particularly unfortunate.

I am in the fortunate position of being able to work from home but others aren't so lucky.  They will either have to try to get into London by other means, or take the day off as holiday.  

As compensation for the failure to provide a service, London Midland will pay compensation.  For an annual season ticket holder the amount paid will be a pittance.  The calculation will be 100% of the fare but based on an average of 10.5 journeys per week.  As a Bletchley commuter I reckon that means I'll get the princely sum of £13 in rail vouchers (I seem to remember that 10 years or so ago back in the Silverlink days that a different formula was used.  We must have been paying around a £1,000 a year less to travel but we got around £16-17 in the form of cash or a cheque for a day of lost or disrupted travel...)

How will this strike affect you?   I may be sitting on the fence in terms of not supporting either ASLEF or London Midland but do you have a view on who is most responsible for the dispute?  Do you feel that London Midland is doing enough to support its customers?

I would really like to know your views.

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