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Strikes


JustMe
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At the time of my last message the phone rang and I was called out to aid a friend in distress. Had intended to make it clear that I was not thinking about the council workers as although I think some of them, at least within the SIC, are well paid I do not think that any union should contemplate accepting what is on offer from COSLA right now.

 

I was thinking more about strikes in general. For a start the post office workers have handed business on a plate to other companies who handle the more profitable side of mail and parcels services.

 

The railways and the London Underground are being held back from capturing more trade by their services being considered unreliable due to the strikes that keep getting called.........several new ones as I write including one that may severely hit me.

 

Airport strikes hurt the travelling public which includes many working people who have saved hard for some kind of holiday..........strikes at Gatwick and Stansted airports over the bank holiday weekend are a prime example.

 

Guess I ought to mention the coastguard. Not sure about this one. Parity with the other blue light services sounds reasonable but are the coastguards under such stress as the other staff?.

 

Thoughts anyone?.

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as one of the councils overpaid and underworked (and grateful for it) employees i'm horrifed about this stike.

 

I'm exempt it seems but i wouldn't be joining in wether or not we should be glad for what weve got....inlation is going to hit people hard and i doubt this government has the bottle to say no to all the greedy public sector workers lining up for more dosh

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..inlation is going to hit people hard and i doubt this government has the bottle to say no to all the greedy public sector workers lining up for more dosh

I would feel better about this point of view if we didn't have to listen to constant reports of public and private sector bosses awarding themselves massive bonuses, share options and pay rises. Fair enough, times may be hard but when the top people are preaching restraint and practising greed and excess in such an obscene way it's difficult to take them seriously. If the government wants restraint then they should begin by showing it themselves.

 

Especially when the bonuses etc seem to bare no relation to the actual success of the enterprise concerned. The prime example being the boss of Northern Rock who got a pay off of £750,000 while his business went down the tubes and thousands of his employees were laid off. While that sort of thing continues then the workers have a perfect right to ask for as much as they can get.

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I would feel better about this point of view if we didn't have to listen to constant reports of public and private sector bosses awarding themselves massive bonuses, share options and pay rises.

Has there been many examples of this in the public sector? There's no recent stories that come to mind, and the public sector wage levels not set by national agreement are in the hands of local politicians, not the management....... unless you are thinking of quangos and other NGOs?

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I would feel better about this point of view if we didn't have to listen to constant reports of public and private sector bosses awarding themselves massive bonuses, share options and pay rises.

Has there been many examples of this in the public sector? There's no recent stories that come to mind, and the public sector wage levels not set by national agreement are in the hands of local politicians, not the management....... unless you are thinking of quangos and other NGOs?

That's exactly who I'm thinking of. Examples which spring to mind are Adam Crozier, boss of the Post Office and any number of water company execs, the bosses of gas and electricity companies, the bosses of the railways.

 

Ok, the gas and electricity companies and the water companies are private companies, but they employ thousands and provide vital public services which we are obliged to buy. They have a guaranteed captive market yet still fail to meet the performance targets set by government and the watchdogs, yet their prices continually rise and so do the salaries of their bosses.

 

If the state of the economy is such that restraint is necessary, then it should be seen to begin at the top, with the bosses. Then I might be able to take the Government seriously. Also, if the salaries and bonuses actually bore some relationship to the companies performance then they would have some credibility.

 

A good start would be to have MP's and ministers pay and conditions decided by an independent body, not by the MP's themselves. It's the sheer hypocrisy of the current set-up which winds me up.

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Just so there is no confusion as to why the council workers are a little pissed off with their pay offer , 2.5 percent (inflation is 4.4% at the moment , even with the gov.fiddled sums) fixed over three years with no negotiation possible within that 3 years is just the start, it also appears that the top flight of management (heads of dept. etc) within the council were given a 5 percent increase this year. Do they need a higher offer than the rest of us when they get payed the most ?

In England and Wales there has been 2 strikes this year for the same reasons as this strike is happening , and guess what , COSLA(I think) are back around the table discussing a new offer after they initially refused .

Can't think why we all voted to strike , can you ?

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The SIC strikers get my full support, it's a shame not everyone supports their action but then there's always been the 'north sea chinaman' attitude in shetland, no solidarity and too much fear of employers.

A few years ago SBS tried to change saturday overtime from double time to time and a half and just enough employees stuck together and joined a union which worried management into backtracking, the other example of the 'north sea chinaman' attitude i remember is the situation at LFT many years ago when the workers took a massive pay cut because just enough of them were too frightened to stick together.

The details of the stories may not be perfectly accurate but the end result is the point. I'd be interested to hear the views of anyone involved in the two situations.

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