[Misc] Will the Unions bring everyone to their knees?

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

The Unions were alway going to fight back and given the current economic crisis we have it is a good enough reason to take on the Tory Government, we all this history goes back to Thatcher and closing the pits.

However the figures suggest modernisation can be achieved with natural wastage not actual redundancies and to be fair the railways do need to be dragged into the modern working world and with ticket automation you could easily reduce ticket offices. LUL went on strike over ticket office closures however they are all closed now.

What I do find strange about the Union leaders is they still talk an 80s rhetoric where you would have thought they would move on.

It doesn't surprise me at all, comrade. My union had a decent leader, good communicator. Compromiser. Art of the possible-er. She was bullied out, to be replaced by the sort of 12-fingered plum who considers that we cannot engage with the employer until the racist state of Israel has been rightly and properly, properly and, er rightly jolly well boycotted.

 

[Is it PotG?]

What is it then? And who gets to decide this figure? You? Me? Rupert Murdoch? I mean someone has to for your post to make sense.

I'm sure you are aware that aside from a mud hut and rats, Mr Bragg could elect to live in a 2 up 2 down, like many of those he represents do.

 

[A1X]

I'm sure you are aware that aside from a mud hut and rats, Mr Bragg could live in a 2 up 2 down, like may of those he represents do.

I wasn’t aware he was an elected representative. When did that happen?

 

[Blue3]

“Is it time for the worker to make a stand against their union”

The union is it’s members who voted to strike,

it’s time worker made a stand against this government

 

[Is it PotG?]

I wasn’t aware he was an elected representative. When did that happen?

I'll give you that, now you HAVE lost me.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

What is it then? And who gets to decide this figure? You? Me? Rupert Murdoch? I mean someone has to for your post to make sense.

Let me stop you there.

Remember the slightly fat boy in the playground who would hit you from behind then run away crying 'ha ha! Loser!'?

A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat

 

[Is it PotG?]

Let me stop you there.

Remember the slightly fat boy in the playground who would hit you from behind then run away crying 'ha ha! Loser!'?

A nod's as good as a wink to a blind bat

Not that you'd have any idea of the loser's content, being on the exclusive ignore list and all that.

 

[nicko31]

Offered 3% probably take 5 or 6%, even then circa 5% pay cut. Doesn't seem overly demanding, yet government determined to demonise them

 

[Lever]

nah. they've got plenty going on they cant manage. if it suits the tories, why would the unions be so daft as to give what they want? strikes are unavoidable because there is a real problem of pay falling behind and a desire for industrial action. unions are balloting for strikes before going into negotitation, have every intent exercising that mandate. who knows if it'll get them what they want, or what they want is partially bargaining for the main objective of pay. most the unions arent even messing around, simple asking for higher wages. i reckon many could get more without the strikes with better PR and alternative action.

The strike suits the tories politically because the Labour Party refuse to condemn it and the nation is divided... again. Tory voters and many of the 'undecided' will side with the travelling public and it is a great distraction from government mendacity and ineptitude. My comment is not about the political intentions of the Unions - clearly they have not intentionally given this dreadful Government what it wants.... it is just a handy bit of luck for them to use such extreme tactics and so Johnson can begin to stir up the faithful..as you see on this thread!

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

But they did, offer 3%?

I think every business worldwide could say corners have been and are being cut and safety is a risk.
But in tough times things need to give, the cash has been splashed like no other Tory government in recent times.
I would have thought the left would recognise this and understand it's time to keep that wallet sealed up.

Sorry, I don't get your point on the last sentence?

A poll has come out today which shows that 56% of the public support the rail strikers, and that 66% of people think the government has not done enough to prevent it.

You’re wrong!!!!!

 

[Blue Valkyrie]

No, because the country is already on its knees due to the big boozy dog of DownIt Street.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

A poll has come out today which shows that 56% of the public support the rail strikers, and that 66% of people think the government has not done enough to prevent it.

You’re wrong!!!!!

And we can’t stand in the way of the will of the people, I’m sure [MENTION=2719]Mouldy Boots[/MENTION] will understand this.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

nah. they've got plenty going on they cant manage. if it suits the tories, why would the unions be so daft as to give what they want? strikes are unavoidable because there is a real problem of pay falling behind and a desire for industrial action. unions are balloting for strikes before going into negotitation, have every intent exercising that mandate. who knows if it'll get them what they want, or what they want is partially bargaining for the main objective of pay. most the unions arent even messing around, simple asking for higher wages. i reckon many could get more without the strikes with better PR and alternative action.

You underestimate the stipidity and capriciousness of the SWP and fellow momentumistas. They genuinely think that constant industrial action is the best mechanism of disruptive change. Yet another example of the folly of living in an echo chamber.

The narrative here has little to do with reason and logic. It is about who can win the most from the conflict. My money is firmly on Johnson. He is on an absolute winner. The public by and large are unhappy about the strike, the unions are presenting themselves poorly (cockney wankers with an HMD in marxism from a correspondence course) and all he needs to do is sit back, allow 'the employer' to take all the flack, murmer platitudes, and then engineer some sort of solution when it suits him. Could be a subsistence diet deal. Could be a strengthening of union laws. Perhaps he will fly in a plane load of train drivers from Rwanda! Johnson is presently pissing himself.

 

[beorhthelm]

“Is it time for the worker to make a stand against their union”

The union is it’s members who voted to strike,

it’s time worker made a stand against this government

about the wages remember.

i'd love to see in one dispute, the minister to have the union in for the all important talk around the table. there's always a demand for this. and then what?

 

[A1X]

Wasting hundreds of billions on new transport infrustructure such as HS2 which isn’t needed

It’s such a shame we got here as it was going so well. This is wrong on two levels;

1. Investment in new transport infrastructure is never, ever “wasted” unless it’s linking places people / goods don’t want to go or for outdated technology (for example, spending a billion pounds to build a canal). It always, always pays for itself over the years that follow it’s opening, maybe not immediately but it will. Thameslink has. HS1 has. Crossrail will.

2. HS2 is very, very much needed. It’s needed right now, truth be told it was needed a decade ago. For reasons of capacity and the environment.

 

[Super Steve Earle]

Perhaps Billy Bragg could underline his credentials by making an album of songs on British railway platforms like he did in America. Proceeds to the Union strike fund obvs.

 

[Harry Wilson's tackle]

Re Point 2, RMT man said on the news that the strike was about "modernising the economy" and "job security for their members".

What they say and what they think (the RMT and HMG) are not necessarily the same thing. All Hitler wanted was peace in Europe, wan't it?

I should probably stop mocking the RMT. Their PR and presentation are doing a far better job of undermining them than I ever could, and I don't even want to undermine them. I just wish they were.....better at their job.

 

[Neville's Breakfast]

You underestimate the stipidity and capriciousness of the SWP and fellow momentumistas. They genuinely think that constant industrial action is the best mechanism of disruptive change. Yet another example of the folly of living in an echo chamber.

The narrative here has little to do with reason and logic. It is about who can win the most from the conflict. My money is firmly on Johnson. He is on an absolute winner. The public by and large are unhappy about the strike, the unions are presenting themselves poorly (cockney wankers with an HMD in marxism from a correspondence course) and all he needs to do is sit back, allow 'the employer' to take all the flack, murmer platitudes, and then engineer some sort of solution when it suits him. Could be a subsistence diet deal. Could be a strengthening of union laws. Perhaps he will fly in a plane load of train drivers from Rwanda! Johnson is presently pissing himself.

Yep. This all seems a blast from the past and may actually be intended to undermine Starmer more than Johnson. The left obsesses about diversionary tactics from the Tories then gives Johnson the present he has been waiting for.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

And we can’t stand in the way of the will of the people, I’m sure [MENTION=2719]Mouldy Boots[/MENTION] will understand this.

…… it’s what the people want!

 

[portslade seagull]

BT have offered their workforce a £1500 rise which has been flatly refused by the union. The stupid thing is if they vote to strike they lose more money at a time they can least afford it.