Has Anyone Had to Cross A Picket Line To Get to Work??

[Mendoza]

Seems I will have to do it tomorrow and Thursday as the council workers in the office start a 2 day strike over pay.

As I am not employed by the council but work in the council offices I have to come to work as normal but cross the picket line.

And if they werent angry enough about pay at work, they have the news that the bus prices to get to work are going up too next week :thud:

 

[Trufflehound]

I had to pass a picket fence on my way to work once - does that count?

 

[Woodchip]

Expect to be spat at and called a scag. No matter what the weather is a sow-wester and daft hat might be an idea.

You could always retaliate with the lighter and hairspray flamethrower to clear a pathway to your office door.

 

[Buttinhams]

The administrative civil service is full of jobsworths and overstaffed bureaucratic departments. They should think themselves lucky to get a payrise at all. Very few of them would cut it in the private sector. The picket line is as insignificant as they are.

 

[Chicken Run]

looking at some of the limp wristers that work at grand ave i would welcome the chance to cross the picket line their, in fact i might even pay for the experience

 

[Questions]

I`ve never passed a 'line' up in my life.

 

[London Calling]

Always refuse to.

Expectt to see same old agruments.

 

[The Oldman]

Yep. Many times in the 70's when the country was being brought to its knees by public workers striking. Rubbish all over the place, dead bodies not being buried, picket lines at dock gates. Those were the days.

I was head honcho of a health authority so got quite a bit of stick. Remember one incident among many when we were desperate for clean sheets for one of our major hospitals so we had to get some out of the laundry quick.

There were 2 picket lines at the front and back of the laundry. So I got my personnel manager (HR these days) to go to the front to plead with them but tipped off the local press and TV what we were going to do. The picket line at the back heard and went round to the front. We knew that the local union officials would not agree to us removing anything but they loved their moment on TV arguing their case.

Meanwhile at the back 4 of us loaded up our cars with the clean linen and drove off. After the strike was over they were good enough to admit we had done well but at the time they were furious. Those strikes led to contracting out in the Health Service which IMHO is the worst thing that ever happened and shows how strikers and unions never think through the long term affects of their actions.

 

[Ding Dong !]

Seems I will have to do it tomorrow and Thursday as the council workers in the office start a 2 day strike over pay.

As I am not employed by the council but work in the council offices I have to come to work as normal but cross the picket line.

And if they werent angry enough about pay at work, they have the news that the bus prices to get to work are going up too next week :thud:

Scab, scab, scab, scab.

 

[Lady Bracknell]

I've never crossed a picket line and don't intend to break the tradition.

 

[Taxman]

Now, I’m a Union man, amazed at what I am,
I’ll say what I think, that the (Amin)company (G)stinks,
Yes, I’m a Union man.

Well, we meet in the local hall, I’ll be voting with them all.
With a hell of a shout it’s, “Out Brothers, Out”.
And the rise of the factories, fall.

Oh, you won’t get me, I’m part of the Union,
You won’t get me, I’m part of the Union,
You won’t get me, I’m part of the Union,
‘Til the day I die,
‘Til the day I die.

As a union man, I’m wise, to the lies of the company spies.
And I don’t get fooled by the factory rules,
‘Cause I always read between the lines.

And I always get my way, if I strike for higher pay.
When I show my card, at the Scotland Yard,
This is what I’ll say.

Oh, you won’t get me, I’m part of the Union,
You won’t get me, I’m part of the Union,
You won’t get me, I’m part of the Union,
‘Til the day I die,
‘Til the day I die.

Before the Unions did appear, my life wasn’t half as clear.
Now I’ve got the power, for the working hour,
And every other day of the year.

So, though I’m a working man, I can ruin the government’s plans.
I’m not too hard, but the sight of my card
Makes me some kind of Superman.

Oh, you won’t get me, I’m part of the Union,
You won’t get me, I’m part of the Union,
You won’t get me, I’m part of the Union,
‘Til the day I die,
‘Til the day I die

 

[Gwylan]

I've never crossed a picket line and don't intend to break the tradition.

Ditto.

It's one of life's absolutes.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

If it was something I believed in even partially then no I wouldnt.

 

[tedebear]

I'm quite unpopular with my view on this. I have crossed picket lines and I will continue to do so. Unions are very outdated (yes there was a time and place for them) and create more problems for industries than they are worth. I see people in my company hiding behind the union for their own puny excuses, instead of helping the union for the benefit of the entire workforce in the company.

 

[Buttinhams]

Yes lets turn back the clock to the 70's & 80's . FFS

 

[Scarface]

I will be crossing the line as I'm not losing two days pay and then having a shitload to catch up on when I come back

 

[Napper]

Scabs !

Never have crossed a picket line, never will

 

[Storer68]

My Department made me super-numerary and told me to go to a career transition centre and do noting but look for another job. Funny thing was that to do so I had to cross a picket line of union people protesting about job cuts in the civil service..........

 

[Skintagain 1983]

I have been a trade union official for nearly 20years and have been on strike more times than I care to remember, so can speak with some degree of authority on this subject.

If you are not involved in the dispute, but happen to work in the same building, then the pickets shouldn't have a problem with you going in. Their dispute will be with their employer not you.

When we are on strike (PCS Union in the civil service) we ask post office workers and others who are making deliveries not to do so and most often they show their support by not making deliveries on that day.

But we also have Employment Agency casual staff who are not in our union, nor involved in our disputes, and they are allowed in. We don't put any pressure on them as they are not involved in the dispute.

If you are faced with a picket line but are not involved with the dispute, you could always stop and speak to the pickets and offer your support. From experience I know they would really appreciate this. But unless your presence at work was aiding the employer in the dispute the pickets would generally have no gripe with you crossing their picket line.

All the best to our public sector colleagues in their dispute over public sector pay.

 

[Wardy]

As one of the people striking tomorrow I find some of the comments above rather strange. Local Govenment workers have for years been the poor relations when it comes to pay raises and pay in general.

The government have said that no one in the public sector can have a payrise over 2%. This they say is to keep down inflation. Yet the RPI is currently running at nearer 5% and even the governments own way of recording inflation that does not include mortgage or fuel increases is running at nearly 3.5%.

I am chairperson for our branch and I joined the union not because of my political views but to help those people who for one reason or another have got in to trouble. Sometimes this is their own fault by most of the time it is because they have been treated badly by others. I spend a lot of my own time unpaid helping these people out.

Unlike the private sector where payrises are normally reflected by the performance of either you or the company, in local government that is not the case.

The current offer by the employers is in effect a pay cut. We are not asking for much, just to be paid the going rate for what we do. Most of the people striking tomorrow will be on less then £15000 a year so are not the fat cats the press like to make out.