Strikes!

[Mancie]

It's creeping in slowly...the unions that still have the means to disrupt everyday lives (the public service unions) are flexing there muscles and there are some mutterings of strikes in the near future ... are they just "trying it on" with this labour goverment?.. I usually support the unions, if they have no other option but to strike, but in my cynical old age i'm wondering why now? why did you do nothing when the Tories were wrecking the unions?

[poppy]

Maggie Maggie Maggie, Oi Oi Oi!

[MargaretR]

As a former member of a civil service union who stood on a picket line a few times - we did try.

Another 'winter of discontent' is coming - told you so

[grego]

Well, I've received ballot papers from my union to vote re the recent pay award, so strike action usually follows that, it wouldn't surprise me anyway.

[jambutty]

Originally Posted by Mancie

It's creeping in slowly...the unions that still have the means to disrupt everyday lives (the public service unions) are flexing there muscles and there are some mutterings of strikes in the near future ... are they just "trying it on" with this labour goverment?.. I usually support the unions, if they have no other option but to strike, but in my cynical old age i'm wondering why now? why did you do nothing when the Tories were wrecking the unions?

I’m out of the jobs market now but from what I have seen today’s workers need a strong union more than ever these days.

Not the stupid lot that brought out their members because they couldn’t agree who should drill a hole through a piece of steel that had some timber attached to it, like happened in the ship building yards and brought them to a halt for weeks on end. Not the miners who tried to govern the country by proxy. But unions who will get their members a fair deal. A fair deal that surely they are entitled to.

Fire, police, paramedics, nurses etc have all had a raw deal in recent years with cut backs in man/woman power whilst the managers or officers dipped their snouts in the trough.

Quangos spring up like spring flowers and of course they are managed by the incumbent government’s cronies on a hefty salary.

Gordon (Blair MkII) Brown is right to try and keep inflation down but he should start with the MP’s themselves and not just burden the workforce.

The minimum wage might have seemed like a good idea and on the one hand it was. It ensured that no one could be paid less than the minimum. But many managers now only pay the minimum wage where before market forces dictated what a particular job paid and it would have been more than the minimum.

[Stanaccy]

Originally Posted by [email protected]

As a former member of a civil service union who stood on a picket line a few times - we did try.

Another 'winter of discontent' is coming - told you so

I also have stood on numerous picket lines under both the tories and "New Labour" (old tories more like), and I will do again no doubt.

This year I am watching my pay rise by £45 a month less tax if the offer goes through, this pay should have been in my salary at the end of July, it is still being negotiated 2 months after it should have been paid. Management didn't start negotiating until June. My mortgage has gone up £50 a month my direct debit for gas, & electricity has had to go up £12 and that is just 3 things, not including council tax, food etc. Now yes I do have decent pension sorted, I also work flexi time and have a decent leave provision but after 17 years in the service I feel I deserve more than the cost of a daily newspaper as a rise.

I also have colleagues who after 3 years wrking with me are still on the same scale as someone who starts tomorrow, is that fair?

Especially when the executives running the show get bonuses of around double my salary.

[jambutty]

The problem with inflation figures and pay awards is they still use percentages and to add insult to injury senior managers and officers get a higher percentage rate than the hoipoloi. That’s you and me.

I understand that the inflation figure is derived from the cost of the National Shopping Basket that is a selection of goods that most people buy but does not include mortgages (it should). However from time to time some goods are discarded and replaced by others. I don’t for one moment suppose that the discarded goods have risen sharply and are replaced by goods that have hardly moved at all. Nah! That would be cheating. It is also rather strange that the inflation figure for October is usually the lowest for the year. It wouldn’t have anything to do with the fact that pension and benefit increases are based on October’s inflation figures would it. Nah! That’s being cynical!

The point I am making is that when the price of bread goes up it goes up the same amount for everyone, regardless of whether you earn £200 per week or £5,000. And the same applies to most other goods. In other words if the National Shopping Basket costs £100 and inflation is at 2.5% it would cost £102.50. So to keep pace earnings should go up by £2.50. So the rich get richer (at out expense) and the poor get poorer. 2.5% of £200 is just a fiver. But 2.5% of £5,000 is £125. To be fair if bread has gone up by 10p it should go up by £2.50 for the rich people. Obviously that does not happen nor could it be done that way.

So to try and offset the disparity the chancellor hammers the rich with higher taxes. But all that does is the upper echelon just claim a higher salary (because they control the purse strings) so the end cash result is the same as it was, or more likely more. This in turn means that there is less money to distribute in wage increases lower down. The chancellor gains with more taxes coming in and the senior managers also gain but we down the bottom of the barrel lose out – again.

It’s no wonder that the people are getting fed up and ready to go on strike for a fair deal. The only problem is that it is we the ordinary folk who do the suffering as there are no trains or buses or the Post Office is closed just when we need it most or the rubbish doesn’t get taken away.