Thanks to David Nove for sending in this opinion piece on Wightlink (which we received yesterday morning before the ballot results were published). VB welcomes opinion pieces from readers. This in his own words. Ed
I saw an interesting e-mail from Wightlink last Sunday Morning. It said that due to ‘crew shortage’ the Company was only able to provide an hourly service on the Portsmouth to Fishbourne route.
The English translation is that there were only enough people to run two ships instead of three.
Crew shortage?
The term crew shortage is an interesting one, since I have not seen adverts either in the County Press or Mainland papers for vacancies.
Indeed with cutbacks for the Winter Services I would not be surprised to see Wightlink try to shed staff.
Sunday shifts
I am reminded of a tactic brilliantly, or effectively employed by Rail Unions (depending on your point of view) against London Midland and Arriva Trains Wales.
Both companies had contracts, which did not require workers to turn up on Sundays. Thus anyone who did agree to do shifts on that day was presumably rewarded financially for so doing.
Quite simply drivers would “spontaneously” decide they wished to spend Sundays with their families (aw bless). The result was no trains ran and the beauty of this tactic was that it did not constitute industrial action and therefore didn’t need to be put to ballot.
Reflecting the mood of employees?
Now I have no way of knowing whether last Sunday the same situation applied to the ferries, but it does seem a little odd that with Christmas approaching there were insufficient crew to operate a normal service.
I’m wondering it this may just possibly reflect the mood of employees ahead of the ballot result over the dismissal of Mr. Kelly.
Fighting for the rights of members
The RMT does have a history of fighting their members’ corners. Industrial Action followed the dismissal of a driver when the doors were opened on the wrong side.
The Union successfully argued in an Industrial Tribunal that the person concerned had health issues and should not have been put on driving duties.
When the Employer failed to reinstate, the RMT made it clear they were prepared to disrupt the service until he got his job back.
Using us as ammunition
I mention this as, if RMT members have voted to support Mr. Kelly, Wightlink could face a dogged opponent in which Islanders and Visitors will be used as ammunition.
The pressure to settle will build up very quickly particularly if the Christmas Travel Plans and Supplies are disrupted.
For many, sympathy for Wightlink will be in short supply. Cuts in services and short notice cancellations seem to happen more and more frequently.
Time for a ferry regulator?
It’s all very well Kerry Jackson, for the Company, saying it’s not commercially viable to keep spare vessels.
This does however mean that the ships that do the work have to be reliable and not break down. There comes a point when if difficulties reach a certain level this policy may have to be looked at afresh.
Wightlink should be thankful it’s not subject, like the train companies, to a regulator who looks at frequency, reliability and punctuality.
Image: wheatfields under a CC BY 2.0 license
