Well if you listen to some they are. Seems that train drivers think a bit differently though…
Cue howls of jealousy from Daily Mail readers
That’s silly money, regardless of the job. And wonder why trains are so expensive and yet so unreliable 
Those figures on top of your normal salary is frankly ridiculous beyond belief. How can any person or even union justify additional payments like that.
I’m all for fairness and being paid a worthwhile amount but if that’s true it’s crazy as hell.
Yep - I totally regret my short-sightedness of shying away from a pay cut for 2 years to train to be a train driver last time opportunities opened up near me.
It’s only silly money, ridiculous, crazy, and all the rest of it if YOU aint on it.
I don’t know about you lot, but if I was offered it I’d take it in a heartbeat, and not gaf about the jealousy and adverse comments around me.
In this world, and especially in this industry, you have to look after and look out for no1…nobody else will, and nobody will back you
If you are in a Union like that one, you do not, and they will, and they do.
Oh for a body like that in this crappy industry.
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happen to know a train driver -they do say that money cant buy you happiness -and in his case its so true - pretty wife,plush house , cool car too ,but iv never seen him smiling . Iv not ever dared ask him if hes had a jumper or 2 in front of his train bothering him forever afterwards i reck its something awful like that has happened
I’m with you @corij , are the rest of you all mad? It would take a lot more than that to persuade me to drive a thousand tonnes (and the rest) down a motorway made of shiny steel with wheels made out of the same stuff and as if that wasn’t enough, they’ve taken your steering wheel away from you as well. 
I’d stick with the sixpence I could stop on. 
Train drivers are not poverty stricken. Good!
To go to work on Boxing Day (a dryish Xmas Day then) or New Year’s Eve, will clearly take a bit of encouragement.
Those who dislike Unions on principle, also seem to dislike free-market trading when they see it…If they are losing, not gaining.
Good on em, like the unionised place where i work, in addition to your basic salary we get an additional £450 for a rolled bank holiday, join a union and campaign to get good T&cs.
Absolutely.
I’ve compared pay rates and t.s & c.s with mates who have worked on Union firms.
Absolutely no comparison to the pi55 poor rate I am on.
Working Bank Hols, almost 2x my rate,.and with days in lieu.
It always makes me laugh when drivers run Unions down, they have swallowed what they want you to believe…a classic case of ‘divide and conquer’.
Because you can sure as hell bet that if your firm is union based, and as long as that Union does not try and take the proverbial, you will be much better off all round.
Don’t think anyone is saying they wouldn’t take it if offered it. But what I’m saying it is a stupid amount of money to work a shift on boxing day or Xmas eve. On top of the already decent salary they are on. Up to a 250 bonus for working a bad shift fair enough. But that amount of money is just daft, it has to come from somewhere and all it does is increase the cost to use the service and it’s the customer needing to use it they suffers that crazy increase in cost.
Would they be on that sort of money if the railways were in private hands and had to make a profit like haulage companies have to-instead of being bankrolled by us? I think not. Even the new minimum wage and NI payments will adversely affect the jobs situation.
The Serious Fraud Office is investigating the construction of a hotel and conference centre owned by one of the UK’s biggest trade unions, the BBC can reveal.
Unite the Union spent a total of £112m of its members’ money on the project in Birmingham.
The building has since been valued at just £29m, suggesting £83m has been wasted.
A KC-led inquiry commissioned by Unite’s general secretary Sharon Graham also identified a missing £14m which has been described as a “mystery” and does not feature in the project’s final accounts.
Unite has told the BBC the case is “now with the Serious Fraud Office” and Ms Graham, who took over as Unite general secretary in 2021, would “leave no stone unturned in finding out if there was any financial wrongdoing”.
An SFO spokesperson said: “In line with long established practice to avoid prejudice to law enforcement activity, we can neither confirm nor deny any investigation into this matter."
Len McCluskey, Sharon Graham’s predecessor as general secretary, had championed the project and said in 2021 that it was “a fantastic investment”.
He later tweeted the internal inquiry was “sensible and will answer any questions”.
A lawyer for Mr McCluskey has told the BBC that due to the ongoing investigation it would be inappropriate for him to comment.
The Birmingham project was intended to be an investment for Unite as well as saving the union money with hotel and conference costs.
Construction was completed in 2020 and development includes the four-star, 195-bedroom Aloft Birmingham Eastside hotel and a 1,000-person capacity conference centre, as well as Unite’s regional offices.
Employment tribunal documents reveal the union believes its ruling executive council had been misled as to the true value of the project.
In 2022 South Wales Police searched the union’s London headquarters as part of a separate bribery, money-laundering and fraud investigation.
The force has told the BBC that the investigation is ongoing.
A Unite spokesperson said: “It is important to note that Sharon Graham has had to endure repeated attacks by those with much to lose since she launched these inquiries, from both inside and outside the union.
"These have been sickening and horrendous but she has remained determined to get to the truth.
“We are also pursuing legal claims to recover money lost to the union and the general secretary has put safeguards in place to ensure that such things can never happen again.”
Yes keep paying your subs , mugs
I’m confident that those in the Rail Union are gladly paying their subs…but mugs?
Nah.
It helps when rail transport and the ‘union’ in questions is seen as being an essential part of the Socialist struggle and revolution.
They can keep it, I’m due to fly back from Lisbon into Manchester on Boxing Day if I’m sober enough to get back to the airport in time
i once had a neighbour whose job was to get down to a train station pronto if a train had overshot/undershot the platform by a certain margin-only by a few metres hed then run tests on the driver for drink/drugs/eyesight etc .This guy was a real ■■■■■■■ iv just remembered him. Where we lived was a pond on tother side of the road,kids fished there itd been a wildlife haven centuries.■■■■■■■ Malc campaigned and got it filled in on safety grounds.
Two union officials ripped off members to pay for affair
TWO union officials who were having an affair used £160,000 of members’ subs to fund a champagne lifestyle that continued for FIVE years, a court heard yesterday
Imagine paying towards someone’s affair & champagne lifestyle
Even talking about what a union can do and does do, you still have the negative responses
Its why the industry is the bottom of the pit in regards to the mentality of most people in it
What a great professional job it could have been except for the sheep followers who never experienced good salary or good conditions
Once or twice the chance was there for the taking to be united, but the motto was look after number one
The job involves the last leg, the final destination, the end product, the most important part of the whole process and yet the cheapest
And who’s fault is that
The sheep
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