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Jimmy Knapp
James Knapp (29 September 1940 – 13 August 2001) was a British trades unionist. He was successively General Secretary of the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) from 1983, and then of the merged National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) from 1990 to his death in 2001. He served on the executive board of the International Transport Workers' Federation from 1983 to 2001, the General Council of the Trades Union Congress from 1983 to 2001, and was President of the Trades Union Congress in 1994. Early and private life Knapp was born into a railway family in Hurlford, Ayrshire one of two boys. He was educated at Hurlford primary school and Kilmarnock Academy. He learned his politics at a Socialist Sunday school. He was distinguished by his broad Scottish accent and his height, standing 6'4" tall. He married Sylvia Florence Yeomans in 1965 and together they had a daughter. He married his second wife Eva Leigh, shortly before he died. He loved football and supp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trades Union
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits (such as holiday, health care, and retirement), improving working conditions, improving safety standards, establishing complaint procedures, developing rules governing status of employees (rules governing promotions, just-cause conditions for termination) and protecting the integrity of their trade through the increased bargaining power wielded by solidarity among workers. Trade unions typically fund their head office and legal team functions through regularly imposed fees called ''union dues''. The delegate staff of the trade union representation in the workforce are usually made up of workplace volunteers who are often appointed by members in democratic elections. The trade union, through an elected leadership and bargaining committee, b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Signal Box
In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' includes audio, video, speech, image, sonar, and radar as examples of signal. A signal may also be defined as observable change in a quantity over space or time (a time series), even if it does not carry information. In nature, signals can be actions done by an organism to alert other organisms, ranging from the release of plant chemicals to warn nearby plants of a predator, to sounds or motions made by animals to alert other animals of food. Signaling occurs in all organisms even at cellular levels, with cell signaling. Signaling theory, in evolutionary biology, proposes that a substantial driver for evolution is the ability of animals to communicate with each other by developing ways of signaling. In human engineering, signals are typi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neil Kinnock
Neil Gordon Kinnock, Baron Kinnock (born 28 March 1942) is a British former politician. As a member of the Labour Party, he served as a Member of Parliament from 1970 until 1995, first for Bedwellty and then for Islwyn. He was the Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition from 1983 until 1992, and Vice-President of the European Commission from 1999 to 2004. Kinnock was considered as being on the soft left of the Labour Party. Born and raised in South Wales, Kinnock was first elected to the House of Commons in the 1970 general election. He became the Labour Party’s shadow education minister after the Conservatives won power in the 1979 general election. After the party under Michael Foot suffered a landslide defeat to Margaret Thatcher in the 1983 election, Kinnock was elected Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition. During his tenure as leader, Kinnock proceeded to fight the party's left wing, especially Militant tendency, and he opposed N ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rail Privatisation
The privatization of transport refers to the process of shifting responsibility regarding the provision of public transport or service from the public to the private sector. Introduction Transit privatization is highly controversial, with proponents claiming great potential benefits and detractors pointing to cases where privatization has been highly problematic. One important argument in this respect is the consideration of public transport as a merit good. The rationale behind it is the idea that governments should guarantee basic service in public transport to deprived customer groups despite the fact that it is economically irrational. While the subsidization of public transport is basically not contested, the important question in the public vs. private debate refers to the optimal level of subsidy. Today there are no real answers to this issue, but Japanese policy to have a relatively free transportation market is considered to function well in providing transport to Japa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Union Of Seamen
The National Union of Seamen (NUS) was the principal trade union of merchant seafarers in the United Kingdom from the late 1880s to 1990. In 1990, the union amalgamated with the National Union of Railwaymen to form the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT). National Amalgamated Sailors' and Firemen's Union (1887–1893) The Seamen's Union was founded in Sunderland in 1887 as the National Amalgamated Sailors' and Firemen's Union. Its founder, J. Havelock Wilson became its president. It quickly spread to other ports and had become genuinely national by the end of 1888. In 1888 and 1889 the union fought a number of successful strikes in Glasgow, Seaham, Liverpool and other major ports. By 1889 it had 45 branches and a nominal membership of 80,000. But from 1890, it began to face determined resistance from shipowners, who formed an association, the Shipping Federation, to co-ordinate their strike-breaking and anti-union activity. The union fought and los ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Conductor (transportation)
A conductor (North American English) or guard (Commonwealth English) is a train crew member responsible for operational and safety duties that do not involve actual operation of the train/locomotive. The ''conductor'' title is most common in North American railway operations, but the role is common worldwide under various job titles. In Commonwealth English, a conductor is also known as guard or train manager. The responsibilities of a conductor or guard typically include the following: * Ensuring that the train follows applicable safety rules and practices * Making sure that the train stays on schedule starting from the stations * Opening and closing power operated doors * Selling and checking tickets, and other customer service duties * Ensuring that any cars and cargo are picked up and dropped off properly * Completing en-route paperwork * Directing the train's movement while operating in reverse * Coupling or uncoupling cars * Assisting with the setting out or picking up of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
One-man Operation
One-person operation (OPO), also known as driver-only operation (DOO), one-man operation (OMO), single person train operation (SPTO), or one-person train operation (OPTO), similarly to Driver Controlled Operation, is operation of a train, bus, or tram by the driver alone, without a conductor. On one-person operated passenger trains, the engineer must be able to see the whole train to make sure that all the doors are safe for departure. On curved platforms a CCTV system, mirror or station dispatch staff are required. Although extra infrastructure such as cameras and mirrors might require additional investment, one-person operation is usually faster and cheaper to implement than automatic train operation, requiring a smaller investment in, for example, platform intruder detection systems and track protection (fencing, bridge-caging, CCTV etc.). In some cases, one-person operation can be seen as an intermediate step towards automatic train operation. While European freight tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Trade Union Act 1984
The Trade Union Act 1984 was a law in the United Kingdom that required all trade unions to hold a secret ballot before calling a strike. The majority of the act did not apply to trade unions based in Northern Ireland. The act was repealed on 16 October 1992. Sir Peter Bottomley, who is the current MP for Worthing West, reportedly said that the act was "designed to ensure that trade unions are more democratic and their leaders more accountable to their members." The act also required unions to elect a new general secretary every five years and to validate funds every ten years. Kenneth Clarke, who is a politician for the Conservative Party (UK) reported that, at a point approximately two years after the passing of the bill, 19 unions changed the practice to comply with the act. The act also says that those who are in high up positions in the union must "be accountable to the membership f the unionas a whole. Context At the time the act was passed, the UK miner's strike had just s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 Miners' Strike
Events January * January 1 – The Bornean Sultanate of Brunei gains full independence from the United Kingdom, having become a British protectorate in 1888. * January 7 – Brunei becomes the sixth member of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). * January 10 ** The United States and the Vatican City, Vatican (Holy See) restore full diplomatic relations. ** The Victoria, Seychelles, Victoria Agreement is signed, institutionalising the Indian Ocean Commission. *January 24 – Steve Jobs launches the Macintosh 128K, Macintosh personal computer in the United States. February * February 3 ** Dr. John Buster and the research team at Harbor–UCLA Medical Center announce history's first embryo transfer from one woman to another, resulting in a live birth. ** STS-41-B: Space Shuttle Challenger, Space Shuttle ''Challenger'' is launched on the 10th Space Shuttle mission. * February 7 – Astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L. Stewart make the first untethered spac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Union Of Mineworkers (Great Britain)
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) is a trade union for coal miners in Great Britain, formed in 1945 from the Miners' Federation of Great Britain (MFGB). The NUM took part in three national miners' strikes, in UK miners' strike (1972), 1972, Three-Day Week, 1974 and UK miners' strike (1984–85), 1984–85. After the 1984–85 strike, and the subsequent closure of most of Britain's coal mines, it became a much smaller union. It had around 170,000 members when Arthur Scargill became leader in 1981, a figure which had fallen in 2015 to an active membership of around 100. Origins The Miners' Federation of Great Britain was established in Newport, Wales, Newport, Monmouthshire (historic), Monmouthshire in 1888 but did not function as a unified, centralised trade union for all miners. Instead the federation represented and co-ordinated the affairs of the existing local and regional miners' unions whose associations remained largely autonomous. The South Wales Miners' Federation, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arthur Scargill
Arthur Scargill (born 11 January 1938) is a British trade unionist who was President of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) from 1982 to 2002. He is best known for leading the UK miners' strike (1984–85), a major event in the history of the British labour movement. Joining the NUM at the age of 19 in 1957, Scargill was one of its leading activists by the late 1960s. He led an unofficial strike in 1969, and played a key organising role during strikes of 1972 and 1974, the latter of which played a part in the downfall of Edward Heath's Conservative government. Thereafter Scargill led the NUM through the 1984–1985 miners' strike. It turned into a confrontation with the Conservative government of Margaret Thatcher in which the miners' union was defeated. A former Labour Party member, Scargill is now leader of the Socialist Labour Party (SLP), founded by him in 1996. Early life Scargill was born in Worsbrough Dale near Barnsley, West Riding of Yorkshire. His father, Har ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Serpell Report
The Serpell Report was produced by a committee chaired by Sir David Serpell, a retired senior civil servant. It was commissioned by the government of Margaret Thatcher to examine the state and long-term prospects of Great Britain's railway system. There were two main parts to the report. The first (and lengthier) part described in detail the state of British Rail's finances in 1982. The second looked at various options for a future (1992) rail network, and made comparisons between each option and the continuation of the existing network. Background In many ways, 1982 represented the nadir of Britain's railways. That year saw the lowest number of passenger journeys of the second half of the 20th century, the lowest level of passenger-miles, and the lowest (real) level of passenger revenue since 1968. Although these figures were partly the result of the 1982 strike (over rostering arrangements), rail passenger numbers had been in steady decline since 1957. (Only 1978–1980 saw con ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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