Re: re why ......

[BEE EFF <mcreely@pnc.com.au>]

 I  agree with you Rod it's halfwits like this(and am I being polite)who have
kept the drivers position as it is it wasn't until NR first came along that you
were able to move from state to state as a driver(except Pilbara
region)without  having to start all over again.

As I have said before I have never understood with the amount of training and
knowledge that is required to become a driver and maintain that qualification
why it has never been recognised as a trade, something the union should have
pushed for years ago(please I don't want to start a seperate argument about
what unions do and don't do).

I can remember hearing years ago that a driver used to be held in the same
esteem as a High School Principal or a Crown Sergeant of Police(not now, we are
treated with contempt as any other blue collar worker is treated).

As I said before if this was this guys attitude to the job no wonder he bailed
out(must have been all too much).

At least now Drivers can move from operator to operator and state to state(the
only good thing to come out of deregulating the industry- I'll get a barage on
that last statement).

Regards BEE EFF



"Rod [comtrain]" wrote:

> obviously Greg a moron would know...eh?
> by the way, I have a military trunk overfilled with Classroom notes,
> manuals, safeworking exams, appendixes, Diesel guides, Help manuals etc etc.
> You are welcome to come and peruse them any time, although I doubt that a
> moron would get much value out of any of this stuff! Then probably that is
> what is wrong with Sydney's Electric Train System at this time...they want
> to relax the job classification so that wages of $75000 can be 'moronised'
> back to a comfortable $35000 or so. Guess what would happen to your trains
> then?
>
> In Melbourne we got rid of guards pretty quickly. Guards were offered spots
> in classes to learn how to drive trains and much to the Drivers disgust were
> offered reduced classes, taking account of their experience[?].
> My figures are a little bit flaky, but essentially very few guards actually
> took up the option, most left the job, or remained in the traffic sector as
> Signalmen, shunters and even gangers.
> Of those that sat the entrance exams, less than 5% went on to Drive.
> Of those that passed Drivers exams, only about 10 are still in the job .
> V/Line spent millions getting rid of guards, and got very little out of it.
> Sydney seems to be making a complete mess of it, as usual. They better pull
> their fingers out real soon, before class action is taken against the
> operators, by some angry Corporations, big and small, who are sick and tired
> of the unreliability of the Sydney System. Several Lawyers are sniffing
> around at the moment, and remember, its the people of NSW who will pay this
> bill.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Greg <good@heart.organ>
> Newsgroups: aus.rail
> Sent: Tuesday, February 06, 2001 11:43 AM
> Subject: re why ......
>
> > LOL are you a wee bit pissy that a silly sub intelligent bell pusher can
> > actually drive a train?  god man toughen up .. train driving is a simple
> > skilled labourers job.. any moron can do it.