Leekbrookgull
Well-known member
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- #21
The militant British unions are frankly envious of the strikes that happen in France and Greece and are trying desperately doing anything they can to create some militancy. What they don't realise is that there isn't that sort of militancy left in workers. Employment rights are miles miles better than they were in the 80's so while there is clearly a role for unions the power of an employer to bully their staff into submission isn't there anymore.
McCluskey doesn't 'have to' make noises as you say - and listening to the political and public reaction to his statement he is already losing the PR battle.
I do agree that he should be sabre rattling. However his particular PR 'own goal' seems to be urging his members not just for industrial action, but public disorder too. However it is a high risk approach as the unions would probably be become even less popular than an unpopular Govt (thats not easy). Especially if the unions are seen to ignore today's urges from all 3 main parties (inc. Labour) who are all against industrial action during the Olympics. And thats before they lose public support as well. The Govt will wage a PR campaign based on no public money being available to meet the Union demands and break pay agreements unless there are further cut backs and/or job losses and/or tax hikes. The public won't stomach that. I'm not saying its right or that Unions should roll over but McCluskey seems motivated more by political posturing than a realistic pay and conditions campaign.
I can see that anyone with a grievance let alone those more organised activists could crawl out of the woodwork to try to take advantage of the Olympics because they know the world's media will have the UK under even more of microscope plus they know they can fairly readily cause disruption to joe public. It would be a shame for any good that might come out of the Olympics gets overshadowed by negative events. It's sadly ironic that the campaign to win the Olympics for London which had its origins back the days of Tony Blair's cool Britannia has become more of a political football in the very grim bankrupt economic landscape that a generation of New Labour created - and the coalition is now trying to rectify.
It will be interesting to look back in a year or so and reflect on what impact the London Olympics had (other than sporting terms) and whether it is seen as a 'cost' or an 'investment'.
Yes. It's called socialism.
typical of unions now, no actual cause just want to strike for maximum inconvienence. i read the RMT are going to vote on strikes after rejecting a £500 Olympic bonus. yep, getting £500 extra for just turning up to work as normal, but thats not good enough.
is this really what the labour movement is about?
The £500 bonus on the table has been meddled about by Boris Johnson , would you like to work throughout the summer months without being able to take even a single day as annual leave and have your shift patterns f***ed about with extreme short notice ?
Makes me laugh how so few remember the concept of having a bargaining chip up your sleeve. Are we heading towards a Thatcherite society where the poor and elderly are conveniently forgotten about ?
The £500 bonus on the table has been meddled about by Boris Johnson , would you like to work throughout the summer months without being able to take even a single day as annual leave and have your shift patterns f***ed about with extreme short notice ?
On the contrary, whilst workers individual right have improved under EU rulings, the power has shifted from the unions to the employers since the 80's.
no. power has shifted from the unions to the employee. there is so much legislation and protection in statute at national and EU levels that unions have little purpose thse days, so they flex the selling point they have left, collective bargining over pay, at every opportunity. they have become a businesses like any others, they sell a product and compete for cutomers.
Here you go, Socialism explained:
An economics professor at a college made a statement that he had never failed a single student before, but had recently failed an entire class. That class had insisted that socialism worked and that no one would be poor and no one would be rich, a great equalizer.
The professor then said, “OK, we will have an experiment in this class on Socialism”. All grades will be averaged and everyone will receive the same grade so no one will fail and no one will receive an A…. (substituting grades for money – something closer to home and more readily understood by all).
After the first test, the grades were averaged and everyone got a B. The students who studied hard were upset and the students who studied little were happy. As the second test rolled around, the students who studied little had studied even less and the ones who studied hard decided they wanted a free ride too so they studied little..
The second test average was a D! No one was happy. When the 3rd test rolled around, the average was an F.
As the tests proceeded, the scores never increased as bickering, blame and name-calling all resulted in hard feelings and no one would study for the benefit of anyone else. To their great surprise, ALL FAILED and the professor told them that socialism would also ultimately fail because when the reward is great, the effort to succeed is great, but when government takes all the reward away, no one will try or want to succeed.
These are possibly the 5 best sentences you’ll ever read and all applicable to this experiment:
1. You cannot legislate the poor into prosperity by legislating the wealthy out of prosperity.
2. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving.
3. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else.
4. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it!
5. When half of the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that is the beginning of the end of any nation.
I work through the summer months every year, and have done since 1984, what does that have to do with anything? I take my holidays in the late spring or early autumn. As for annual leave, they already get a minimm 5 weeks a year, so there is plenty of tme thoughout the rest of the year to enjoy thier holiday time.
How does anyone know if shift patterns will be f***ed around with at extreme short notice? Until it is extreme short notice no-one can know this is going to happen. I have a friend who is a tube driver, he never has a problem arranging his holidays, and doesn't suffer extreme short notice shift changes.
You seem to be completely failing to understand that socialism =/= communism.