Unions

[Josie Bloggs]

Originally Posted by gynn

Are you sitting comfortably, steeljack? Then I'll begin........(again!)

Once Upon a Time, there was a big bad public sector worker. He was a happy chappie, protected from the realities of life with his inflation linked salary and his gold plated pension. But he spent his life sponging off everybody else, so something had to be done about him.
Then one day, he lost his job, and couldn’t go to work that morning.
He didn’t get in his car, which stayed in the garage, and didn’t need filling up. So the petrol pump attendant wasn’t needed. Nor did the car need servicing, so the garage mechanic wasn’t needed. He didn’t get the bus, so the bus driver wasn’t needed. Nor did he get the train, so the train driver wasn’t needed, and the conductor on the train wasn’t needed, and the ticket collector wasn’t needed.
He didn’t buy a paper on the way into work, so the news vendor wasn’t needed. He didn’t buy a bar of chocolate, so the kiosk seller wasn’t needed.
He didn’t enter his office, so the receptionist wasn’t needed. He didn’t make a mess, so the cleaner wasn’t needed.
At dinner time, he didn’t go for lunch. So the canteen assistant wasn’t needed. He didn’t nip out for a sandwich, so the sandwich maker wasn’t needed. He didn’t get a drink from the vending machine, so the machine operator wasn’t needed.
On the way home, he hadn’t parked his car, so the car park attendant wasn’t needed. He hadn’t parked his car illegally so the traffic warden wasn’t needed.
He didn’t need to call in the pub on the way home, so the bar worker wasn’t needed.
Instead, he spent the day getting ready to go to the job centre to look for a job in the big bad world. After all, he’d been told that he and 499,999 of his colleagues would be absorbed by the private sector.
But when he got there, he couldn’t get through the door for the crowds of ex petrol pump attendants, garage mechanics, bus drivers, train drivers, conductors, ticket collectors, news vendors, kiosk sellers, receptionists, cleaners, canteen assistants, sandwich makers, machine operators, car park attendants, traffic wardens and bar workers.
So he couldn’t get a job and had to sign on, only to be told there was no money left to give him. And with his gold plated pension gone, there was no way he could possibly live happily ever after.................
The End.

Great post!

[Mancie]

Originally Posted by Josie Bloggs

The employees have still worked to earn that money though, mainly motivated by wanting to provide a great service to resident's. So its their money.

Almost unreal ain't it?...makes me sick how some people are lickin thier lips at the prospect of this government creating unemployment..those already retired seem indifferent...we always have the "young Mr Andrew" towing his party line... but in a few years time these people might just wonder about the future of thier younger ones who could end up with little chance of work and no chance of a pension... private or state.

[Bernard Dawson]

Originally Posted by gynn

Are you sitting comfortably, steeljack? Then I'll begin........(again!)

Once Upon a Time, there was a big bad public sector worker. He was a happy chappie, protected from the realities of life with his inflation linked salary and his gold plated pension. But he spent his life sponging off everybody else, so something had to be done about him.
Then one day, he lost his job, and couldn’t go to work that morning.
He didn’t get in his car, which stayed in the garage, and didn’t need filling up. So the petrol pump attendant wasn’t needed. Nor did the car need servicing, so the garage mechanic wasn’t needed. He didn’t get the bus, so the bus driver wasn’t needed. Nor did he get the train, so the train driver wasn’t needed, and the conductor on the train wasn’t needed, and the ticket collector wasn’t needed.
He didn’t buy a paper on the way into work, so the news vendor wasn’t needed. He didn’t buy a bar of chocolate, so the kiosk seller wasn’t needed.
He didn’t enter his office, so the receptionist wasn’t needed. He didn’t make a mess, so the cleaner wasn’t needed.
At dinner time, he didn’t go for lunch. So the canteen assistant wasn’t needed. He didn’t nip out for a sandwich, so the sandwich maker wasn’t needed. He didn’t get a drink from the vending machine, so the machine operator wasn’t needed.
On the way home, he hadn’t parked his car, so the car park attendant wasn’t needed. He hadn’t parked his car illegally so the traffic warden wasn’t needed.
He didn’t need to call in the pub on the way home, so the bar worker wasn’t needed.
Instead, he spent the day getting ready to go to the job centre to look for a job in the big bad world. After all, he’d been told that he and 499,999 of his colleagues would be absorbed by the private sector.
But when he got there, he couldn’t get through the door for the crowds of ex petrol pump attendants, garage mechanics, bus drivers, train drivers, conductors, ticket collectors, news vendors, kiosk sellers, receptionists, cleaners, canteen assistants, sandwich makers, machine operators, car park attendants, traffic wardens and bar workers.
So he couldn’t get a job and had to sign on, only to be told there was no money left to give him. And with his gold plated pension gone, there was no way he could possibly live happily ever after.................
The End.

Very good that. Keynesian economics at its best.

[cmonstanley]

the thing is public sector work still needs doing so a private company who will probably fiddle the figures and cost more in the long run thats not very economic Wise Group considers legal action over Work Programme - Third Sector

[Margaret Pilkington]

And the public sector are paying taxes out of their earnings to keep those lazy people who don't want to work in fags, beer and daytime TV.
They are working, adding to the communal pot. They spend in local shops.
I think it is pretty nigh impossible for the private sector to take up the slack of the redundancies in the public sector.

It is also laughable that there is a crackdown on those claiming benefits.........the government is saying they will have to go out to work........doing what? where are all these jobs coming from, Pray tell...they will just shuffle from one type of benefit to another........and we, who pay taxes are keeping them.

[cmonstanley]

Originally Posted by Margaret Pilkington

And the public sector are paying taxes out of their earnings to keep those lazy people who don't want to work in fags, beer and daytime TV.
They are working, adding to the communal pot. They spend in local shops.
I think it is pretty nigh impossible for the private sector to take up the slack of the redundancies in the public sector.

It is also laughable that there is a crackdown on those claiming benefits.........the government is saying they will have to go out to work........doing what? where are all these jobs coming from, Pray tell...they will just shuffle from one type of benefit to another........and we, who pay taxes are keeping them.

agree with you, one of the main providers is an australian company who have failed in other countries and needs to keep its shareholders happy so more money going out the country doesnt make sense

[Eric]

Originally Posted by steeljack

since Public sector employees are paid through the Public purse its the Private (Tax Paying) employees who are paying these union dues.

something for you to note , the "taxes" paid by Pubic employees are only re-cycled £s collected by taxation that have been previously contributed by folks who create wealth .

If public sector employees were not paid from the public purse, who would be responsible for paying them Maybe the public sector should be privatised, then the private corporations could out source the jobs overseas

[steeljack]

I'm not denying the need for public sector employees, what gets my goat is that private employees pay taxes to employee people who then use their union slush funds for political activism . ie supporting there left wing agendas.
No problem with public employees having the vote , but do complain about left wing ideologies being pushed/
proselytized in what should be a independant place of employment

[yerself]

Pete Seeger: Talking Union Lyrics
Songwriters: Millard Lampell;Lee Hays;Pete Seeger

If you want higher wages, let me tell you what to do;
You got to talk to the workers in the shop with you;
You got to build you a union, got to make it strong,
But if you all stick together, now, 'twont be long.
You'll get shorter hours,
Better working conditions.
Vacations with pay,
Take your kids to the seashore.

It ain't quite this simple, so I better explain
Just why you got to ride on the union train;
'Cause if you wait for the boss to raise your pay,
We'll all be waiting till Judgment Day;
We'll all he buried - gone to Heaven -
Saint Peter'll be the straw boss then.

Now, you know you're underpaid, hut the boss says you ain't;
He speeds up the work till you're 'bout to faint,
You may he down and out, but you ain't beaten,
Pass out a leaflet and call a meetin'
Talk it over - speak your mind -
Decide to do something about it.

'Course, the boss may persuade some poor damn fool
To go to your meeting and act like a stool;
But you can always tell a stool, though - that's a fact;
He's got a yellow streak running down his back;
He doesn't have to stool - he'll always make a good living
On what he takes out of blind men's cups.

You got a union now; you're sitting pretty;
Put some of the boys on the steering committee.
The boss won't listen when one man squawks.
But he's got to listen when the union talks.
He better -
He'll be mighty lonely one of these days.

Suppose they're working you so hard it's just outrageous,
They're paying you all starvation wages;
You go to the boss, and the boss would yell,
"Before I'd raise your pay I'd see you all in Hell."
Well, he's puffing a big see-gar and feeling mighty slick,
He thinks he's got your union licked.
He looks out the window, and what does he see
But a thousand pickets, and they all agree
He's a bastard - unfair - slave driver -
Bet he beats his own wife.

Now, boy, you've come to the hardest time;
The boss will try to bust your picket line.
He'll call out the police, the National Guard;
They'll tell you it's a crime to have a union card.
They'll raid your meeting, hit you on the head.
Call every one of you a goddamn Red -
Unpatriotic - Moscow agents -
Bomb throwers, even the kids.

But out in Detroit here's what they found,
And out in Frisco here's what they found,
And out in Pittsburgh here's what they found,
And down in Bethlehem here's what they found,
That if you don't let Red-baiting break you up,
If you don't let stool pigeons break you up,
If you don't let vigilantes break you up,
And if you don't let race hatred break you up -
You'll win. What I mean,
Take it easy - but take it!

[Eric]

Originally Posted by steeljack

I'm not denying the need for public sector employees, what gets my goat is that private employees pay taxes to employee people who then use their union slush funds for political activism . ie supporting there left wing agendas.
No problem with public employees having the vote , but do complain about left wing ideologies being pushed/
proselytized in what should be a independant place of employment

Of course unions will be left-leaning with left wing agendas. And the wealthy, and big business in general, with their right-wing agendas, will donate money to right wing parties. It's the name of the game. Or, at least, how the game is played. In Canada, the unions stand solid behind the New Democratic Party, although individual members vote for other parties.

By the way, there is a chance, according to the polls, that the New Democrats may get enough seats in next week's general election, to form a minority government ... or, at least, lead Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. I wonder how that will go down in Washington

[Mancie]

Originally Posted by steeljack

I'm not denying the need for public sector employees, what gets my goat is that private employees pay taxes to employee people who then use their union slush funds for political activism . ie supporting there left wing agendas.
No problem with public employees having the vote , but do complain about left wing ideologies being pushed/
proselytized in what should be a independant place of employment

Is this an American thing?.. the public employees in this country include the Police, Nurses, Doctors .. are these people to be stero-typed as left wing?... one thing is for certain when these "workers" unions begin to hold strike ballots this country should take notice ... the present government is probaly the weakest we have had since the 70's .. I've got a feeling those in public service will very soon have to stand up to this governments destruction of the NHS, our defence and the basic safety of it's citizens.. and they have only been in power for a year..

[Eric]

Originally Posted by Mancie

Is this an American thing?.. the public employees in this country include the Police, Nurses, Doctors .. are these people to be stero-typed as left wing?... one thing is for certain when these "workers" unions begin to hold strike ballots this country should take notice ... the present government is probaly the weakest we have had since the 70's .. I've got a feeling those in public service will very soon have to stand up to this governments destruction of the NHS, our defence and the basic safety of it's citizens.. and they have only been in power for a year..

Only a year Seems like 13

[Josie Bloggs]

So much has been privatised, but has it really beneffited the non-shareholders? There's no real national control over our gas and leccy bills.

[cmonstanley]

true the billions the gas and electric shareholders have made would have staved off cuts to essential services ie closing down of ambulance stations, fire stations ,airforce,army,navy etc..

[jaysay]

Originally Posted by cmonstanley

true the billions the gas and electric shareholders have made would have staved off cuts to essential services ie closing down of ambulance stations, fire stations ,airforce,army,navy etc..

Considering the Tories did so many things wrong why didn't Labour put them right, after all they did have quite a long time to redress the balance, just forget how long it was now