Transport unions are shooting themselves in the foot

The recent two tube strikes and the two planned strikes are forcing many millions to use different methods of transport, to be massively delayed or feel obliged to take holidays to avoid the stress of a strike days.

The scenes at many of our rail stations shows that we both have a good and varied transport network but when the railways are loaded they understandably cannot fully cope. The loss to businesses in Ealing and London wide is very large because of strikes.

Many tourists who have visited Ealing and London for a short break will not return.

Chiswick Park tube station

I am a great supporter of unions, as history shows without unions many workers would have a poorer level of health and safety in their workplace. Many accidents have been averted and incidents of bullying, because of unions.

In a company I worked for previously, I was a Workplace Representative and a First-aider. My approach was not to be argumentative but raise issues that fellow employees had concerns about so that management could consider them and hopefully accept sensible ideas after discussion.

We have seen for many years that unions have worked with management effectively but in the transport sector there is a different situation. We often see those unions using language that is aggressive, calling for strikes using reasons that are not by many, seen as being fair.

General Secretaries seem to act as if they are in the playground shouting at Transport for London ‘teachers’. Calling each other names, refusing to talk despite what appears to be a fair deal for many workers who get paid much more than many teachers, bus drivers and other public workers.

No job should always be regarded as sacred. Companies and their employees need to adapt to what the world needs and what technologies exist. So the introduction of a night service is good initiative and the workplace needs to adapt. They appear to have been given a reasonable deal.

Caroline Pidgeon at Ealing Broadway station

I have twice been made redundant. I did not give up and complain, but adapted and successfully found work. Change can be unsettling but what is needed in all disputes is a grown up discussion.

Reforms are needed and some of this needs to take place to take the financial link between political parties and MPs with unions. Political parties’ policies should arise because it will solve the problems of the day and not because a union paid the political party like the Labour party millions of pounds.

I am not, however, in favour of there being a minimum requirement for the share of employees voting in a strike ballot. I think it is crucial that employees retain the right to strike but the key is to ensure that the union management do not strike for reasons that most would state as being unnecessary or unwarranted.

Some of the unnecessary transport strikes are essentially the unions shooting themselves into the foot. Like somebody ‘crying wolf’. When the next dispute takes place, which may deal with some very important matters, no one will care. People are turning against transport unions as they appear to only cause negativity to London.

Striking should be the last resort. I hope we can see everyone get around the table when the next Mayor of London is elected.

Lib Dem MP Norman Lamb visits Southfield

We were lucky to have the Lib Dem MP, Norman Lamb, drop my recently. We were knocking on doors asking residents in Chiswick about their views on some national matters including Heathrow, the Human Rights Act and Europe.

Norman Lamb in Southfield

Of course people were still raising the issue of the impending wheelie bins which we are still fighting to stop. Such a waste of money that could be spent on vital services.

Labour seem happy to close our day centres whilst the fail to keep our streets clean.

Norman Lamb MP has a great history in government and since the general election of raising the profile of mental health.

Norman commented very openly about legalising assisted dying... "For many years, I opposed attempts to legalise assisted dying. I had concerns, shared by many, that the risk to the most vulnerable individuals outweighed the benefits.

Norman talking to a resident in Ramillies Road

Equally, I respect those with deeply held religious concerns. But my views have been challenged in recent years. As an MP and in my role in the last Parliament as a health minister, I have spoken to many terminally ill patients, and the families of those who suffered slow deaths in great pain.
So many of them were convinced, when someone is suffering intolerably, and when they are reaching the end of their life, they should be allowed to end their suffering with dignity, and with the support of those closest to them.

These testimonies have forced me to think again. Would I want the right to decide for myself, when faced with terminal illness, when I wished to die? And would I want it for loved ones? The answer is unequivocally, yes.

Every few months, we hear about a case where someone who is terminally ill is faced with an impossible dilemma.  Either they must accept a slow and painful deterioration and death, or they must endure the indignity of travelling to another country to end their life – risking criminalisation of the relatives or friends who support them. And they only have this option if they can afford it, which many simply cannot. The current legal situation is not just a messy compromise; it is cruel, and it is wrong."

Photos were taken by Suzanne Tanswell, so thank you for the time spent snapping away.