Buckstones:
Unions such as that of London Tube drivers appear to still dictate terms and conditions to their employers.
Still, their employers can’t go bankrupt because the money they pay comes from the apparently bottomless pockets of us taxpayers, as it did when British Railways were held to ransom by ASLEF.
It must be awful to be in that Union as an employee. and be on on their lucrative wage.
I’d much rather be in this job where in direct comparison we are dictated to by our employers, and are kept in our place, working a week and a half in terms of hours for what equates to a weeks wage, on a tenner an hour straight through.
[zb] Unions eh?
Absolutely agree with you, the difference is that virtually all tube drivers are in the same union so have leverage in threatening action, while very few lorry drivers are in one, powerful union and work for a large number of different employers.
Years ago I was on a union team negotiating terms/conditions and wages and our union (DATA) could sustain lengthy strikes because members received strike pay equivalent to 2/3rds of our take-home pay.
With customer deadlines to meet, our small to medium employer had to meet our key demands to settle - guidance from our full-time union officials was that our demands were affordable so would not jeopardise the company’s future, this proved to be the case.
My memories of unions were shop stewards never doing a ounce of work , ours just sat on his lathe all night , every night & never started it up , walkouts over the canteen menu being changed without the shop stewards being consulted , walkouts over not being able to spend half there week in the toilet doing the horses , they walked us out once as there wasn’t enough cheese bloody rolls on the food trolley
It was ok for me as I was a apprentice , but not good for the blokes with families,
The amount of trivial votes to strike where a clear majority voted no to strike action , and the shop stewards had it as a clear majority to strike
Bring them days back , and you won’t earn anything never mind more , as you’ll be sat at home on strike as the paint on the lorries is the wrong colour , or the arms on your shirts are too long / short
Nostalgia is not always a wonderful thing
Tarmaceater:
if the French don’t like it , they paralysed their country where their Government works for them
And yet the French have the in cab cameras, working time directive, EU drivers hours regulations, speed limiters, can be prosecuted for over-speeds and not only that they enacted the DCPC well over a year before the UK did and in a way where it’s done as a proper course with testing.
So the French ■■■■■ and whine about it but ultimately end up having to put up with it anyway. We just save wasting time, energy and money with all the waving of arms and stomping of feet that achieves nothing.
Franglais:
Well done to you, but why did that happen I wonder? Is it the Muppets reading the Tory rags (and sites) that drag them in with pictures of ■■■■ and celeb gossip, whilst linking anti union nonsense?
Even if one doesn’t follow the links the background noise of “unions are bad” does affect ones perception of the world. Murdoch, Barclay brother’s, etc maybe making money from their publishing enterprises, but they certainly take benefit from their political influence even more.
(I could mention the “B” word here, but won’t.)
The atmosphere has been poisoned by memories of excesses of the Leyland plants in the 70’s or docks in the 60’s. But no one much remembers the earlier queues of casual labour outside dock gates in earlier times.
Seems to me we are in danger of swinging back too far, but renaming the “gig-economy” as “freedom to choose” doesn’t make it less of an employers (and profit takers) abdication of their responsibility to the society they Are Members Of.
Companies and their owners are beneficiaries of our society, for decades they have been taking excess profits, whilst their mouthpieces still harp on about excesses years ago. Look at the figures about the increasing difference in wealth between the highest and lowest, or average paid workers. How is it right it is increasing? And these rags tell us we should cut taxes further so we benefit from investments…
let me say I am truly grateful for those crumbs from the table of their benevolence. I am glad I provide a place for them to make even more money by not raisinng a finger. Well done to our leaders and their paid journalists/ politicians, or whatever hat they are wearing today.
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Reckon I’ll get a job as a hack? Promotion to a safe seat? Retire to a well paid job on a board?
Unions such as that of London Tube drivers appear to still dictate terms and conditions to their employers.
Still, their employers can’t go bankrupt because the money they pay comes from the apparently bottomless pockets of us taxpayers, as it did when British Railways were held to ransom by ASLEF.
And what of “privatised” rail?
Share holders receive dividends out one end whilst the gov pours in taxpayers cash at the other! Profits go to the rich, including fiteifn investors, losses are subsidised by tax payers…and we all know the wealthiest are adept avoiding tax.
“Too big to fail” is still all over. It isn’t limited to nationalised industry.
After paying the fees to the government for the franchise.They will be left with nothing.You will find bidders for franchises are few these days.National Express have said they will never go on trains again.Stagecoach walked away.
Daft how some people think we have the power to pull together collectively. we are all employed by different people doing different jobs and the only common denominator is the truck. Sticking together only really works with one employer industry like emergency services and rail etc.
Just a few of the excuses I’ve heard over the years from the weak & spineless. Someone has to go over the top first. Join them & stop waiting for others to stick their neck out ffs, If you want to continue being viewed as generally fat, lazy , knuckle dragging bellends who deserve to be spoken to like crap for a bag of peanuts each week, crack on. OR…you could grab the opportunity and work to rule and DEMAND better wages & conditions. Failing that just stop working for crap firms and gain some pride and self esteem.
The previous lorry driver’s strike in the 70’s was a bad joke, just as today it was the hire and reward sector paid poor with people having work all hours to make a decent wage up, those in other sectors were already on more than what was being demanded, i was.
Now is much the same, if you want better pay and conditions get out of hire and reward, it shouldn’t be hard for the better drivers to find good gigs in the present climate which handily starves the poor payers ** of the better staff so they have to up their game to keep good staff, this has worked all the years i’ve been in the job, the mob i started for on the cars was a poor payer eventually through enough people leaving so they effectively became the training school for half the industry (people started there, learned their game and buggered off to better jobs, me among them) and in due course had to up their pay massively in order to attract and retain.
We all have this capability, it doesn’t need some pointless nationwide action which will only further alienate an already hostile public.
Take a pride in your work, do it well, find that better job and do your best to make it last forever, every good job i’ve had they had no bother paying the money, unionised with pay increases every year (to date), but best for everyone if you give them value for money and try your best not to cost them via damage sickies etc, a profitable successful company can afford decent pay and perks.
** and yes i understand those who live in less industrialised areas don’t always have the same opportunities, but these things have knock on effects…just as making the Severn Bridge free has improved the lot of drivers in SE Wales, the wave effect.
chester1:
Daft how some people think we have the power to pull together collectively. we are all employed by different people doing different jobs and the only common denominator is the truck. Sticking together only really works with one employer industry like emergency services and rail etc.
No.
When we did have high union membership, and JICs back in the 70’s strik8ng did get us somewhere.
The industry was very disparate then, but Thatcher helped stop all of that.
Juddian:
The previous lorry driver’s strike in the 70’s was a bad joke, just as today it was the hire and reward sector paid poor with people having work all hours to make a decent wage up, those in other sectors were already on more than what was being demanded, i was.
Now is much the same, if you want better pay and conditions get out of hire and reward, it shouldn’t be hard for the better drivers to find good gigs in the present climate which handily starves the poor payers ** of the better staff so they have to up their game to keep good staff, this has worked all the years i’ve been in the job, the mob i started for on the cars was a poor payer eventually through enough people leaving so they effectively became the training school for half the industry (people started there, learned their game and buggered off to better jobs, me among them) and in due course had to up their pay massively in order to attract and retain.
We all have this capability, it doesn’t need some pointless nationwide action which will only further alienate an already hostile public.
Take a pride in your work, do it well, find that better job and do your best to make it last forever, every good job i’ve had they had no bother paying the money, unionised with pay increases every year (to date), but best for everyone if you give them value for money and try your best not to cost them via damage sickies etc, a profitable successful company can afford decent pay and perks.
** and yes i understand those who live in less industrialised areas don’t always have the same opportunities, but these things have knock on effects…just as making the Severn Bridge free has improved the lot of drivers in SE Wales, the wave effect.
I don’t understand what you’re saying in your first paragraph Juddian?
Those in the union, on better rates shouldn’t also strike to help the worse off?
That really is divide and conquer for employers isn’t it.
Let the better employers put pressure on the recalcitrant ones to get everyone on an equal footing.
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And let’s not sacrifice this holy cow of “free market” bollox that so many seem to believe is a universal truth.
It ISN’T.
