I'm both!
I’m a Tube Driver and I honestly can’t see much wrong with the latest pay offer.
One percent ahead of inflation over 4 years in return for a multi-year deal that the company have asked for. As a backdrop, similar deals are to be found across the railway industry.
I think that the key question here is why are similar deals not commonplace across the airline industry?
The Telegraph article has overcooked the current salary by around £2k, so whilst £50k is a real possibility over the lifetime of the proposed deal, it is by no means guaranteed.
The irony for me is that I took the Tube job to fund my Pilot training, but since I started, my T&Cs have steadily improved whilst airline T&Cs have rapidly deteriorated and now with a family to support, I genuinely couldn’t afford to take that elusive first job if I could find it!
When I joined London Underground I had little knowledge of Unions and the ways that they work. There are without doubt good and bad sides to them, but I have to say that on balance they have achieved more good than bad during my time with LU.
Unfortunately, Bob Crow is seen as a spokesman for the whole railway industry, and he’s a blunt tool at best. His union, the RMT, encompasses a wide range of members and is in some ways more akin to BASSA with ASLEF being to Drivers what BALPA is to Pilots.
Collective bargaining has kept the company honest with regard to pay reviews – no getting away with big payouts for a few whilst claiming poverty to the workers for example – and where the company have wanted improvements in efficiency, the unions have negotiated something in return.
What you’re left with after that is a broad trend of pay rises either in line with or slightly ahead of inflation. I’m not sure that I can think of a valid argument against such an aspiration!