Coffeeholic:
del949:
so tell us Coffee , why you would cfoss a picket line. Not just the fuel tankers lines.Err, I just told you why in my last post. It ■■■■■■ off union people.
My reason too. Make sure they see my cheery wave and smile. 
pavaroti:
Coffeeholic:
del949:
so tell us Coffee , why you would cfoss a picket line. Not just the fuel tankers lines.Err, I just told you why in my last post. It ■■■■■■ off union people.
My reason too. Make sure they see my cheery wave and smile.
Blowing kisses works even better. 
and while you are blowing kisses they are probably wondering why someone who gets shafted by the law, the employer, the public and pretty much everyone, isn’t prepared to do the same to improve their own jobs.
del949:
Nobody mentioned fuel tank drivers.
The OP did in almost all their other 20 posts
P&O Roadtanks, where are they now?
Tankfreight
Jet
not on this thread though.
Wheel Nut:
Yes I would.I have no sympathy for the fuel tanker drivers anymore.
Why would that be, haven’t they supported every strike ?
Tanker drivers, by and large, were on a good wedge. Presumably because they were unionised and stuck together 
Presumably because they were unionised and stuck together
hit the nail on the head!
So I get to a picket line and there’s a bunch of people standing at the side of some gates peacefully waving some flags.
Perhaps one of them even comes over to me and tries to persuade me not to go through.
My problem would be this…
They won’t actually block the entrance because that’s unlawful.
It would also be unlawful for me to break my contract.
If they made some effort to give me an excuse to not got through then I could take a photo of that to cover myself but that doesn’t tend to happen because they like to play safe and not take too many risks.
So let me get this straight…
They are expecting me to take a much greater risk with my job over the dispute than they are prepared to take with theirs…
…and if I cross I’ll be called a scab and vilified by unionists forever.
This doesn’t sound fair to me. Why do I have to lose my job over it?
I’ve spent a lot of my working life doing agency work and unions haven’t really fought very hard for agency workers.
Many unionists have called all agency workers scabs too and treated them accordingly.
With so little sympathy being shown to other sections of the workforce by some of these trade unionists, why do they still think they have the god given right to demand it for themselves?
This demands an explanation from the mud slingers on here.
The world doesn’t owe me a job, my employer doesn’t owe me a job. When I signed up for any work I agreed to their terms and conditions, if I suddenly decide I don’t like them, or they change them, I will go elsewhere.
All these union twerps think as soon as they get a job it’s the employers duty to keep them in bread for life.
It isn’t, if you don’t like the T’s & C’s go elsewhere. Don’t stand about round burning oil drums whinging that you don’t like it anymore.
del949:
interesting that on the other threads (and no doubt on this one shortly) people will be saying that they will cross picket lines.
This is strange when half the posts on here complain that drivers don’t stick together and so never get a good deal.
but when other workers do stick together plenty of posters will be saying I will cross the line(and as the second post claims, will even drive their trucks).
so, whats it to be, sticking together a good thing or not?I am with Phil on this, for me to cross a picket line the circumstances would have to be very strange.
On the other hand, it’s a shame that factory workers, whilst wanting every truck driver to hounour their picket lines, will happily tip or load a truck which is being driven by a strike breaker if truckers are on strike.
^+1
The fact is if you’re going to have to strike then every strike needs to be an indefinite general strike to make it effective and to make sure that you win and to get it over with as quickly as possible.The unions had their chance in 1979 to help the public sevices employees and then again in 1984 to help the miners and by doing so saving the British economy.But they blew it.
The British are no good when it comes to standing together because if they did you wouldn’t need to picket anyway.So strikes are therefore a waste of everyone’s time and aggro. 
've spent a lot of my working life doing agency work and unions haven’t really fought very hard for agency workers.
who do you think campaigned for the new laws re agency workers?
The bosses?
no, the bosses insisted on the swedish derogation , which makes a mockery of some of the new rulings.
lots of places the agency workers are on equal terms to the fulltime workforce, courtesy of the bosses again, the ones who employ agencies to cut costs?, No. the unions in these places insisted on it to protect the full time jobs from being undercut.
if you don’t like the T’s & C’s go elsewhere.
translates as “run away”
not all strikes or actions are about pay
del949:
Presumably because they were unionised and stuck together
hit the nail on the head!
Not really.
More like because (so far) they’ve never been subjected to a real concerted attempt by their employers to break them because (so far) it’s been more in their employers’ interests to settle instead of getting involved in a prolonged dispute with a specialised sector of the industry that needs special ADR qualifications.But I wouldn’t be surprised to see the government getting the army involved in moving fuel supplies if push came to shove.
But I don’t remember the tanker drivers ever striking in support of any other sector of the road transport industry when it’s tried to improve conditions or for that matter when Maggie introduced secondary action legislation when their muscle might have made her think twice.
Scarab:
The world doesn’t owe me a job, my employer doesn’t owe me a job. When I signed up for any work I agreed to their terms and conditions, if I suddenly decide I don’t like them, or they change them, I will go elsewhere.All these union twerps think as soon as they get a job it’s the employers duty to keep them in bread for life.
It isn’t, if you don’t like the T’s & C’s go elsewhere. Don’t stand about round burning oil drums whinging that you don’t like it anymore.
I think the country would be even (a lot) poorer than it is if every one had thought like that since the 1920’s. 
del949:
translates as “run away”
not all strikes or actions are about pay
Like hell it does, If my employer does something I don’t like then I’ll go elsewhere.
Why should they have to give their workforce what they want? They are the bosses.
IF for some reason you have found an entirely democratic employer then yes, complain if they do something that displeases you, BUT if you choose an employer where the bosses call the shots and then suddenly decide to down tools when they make a decision you don’t like then you probably chose the wrong employer.
Even when I was a tanker driver, the chemical workers and oil tanker drivers didn’t help me, when the dockers were on strike, that didn’t help the lorry driver, when the lorry drivers were on strike, the dockers kept loading lorries.
We had a union man who called a strike if his morning mugga was late or not up to temperature, he called for a strike because someone else was sent out in “his” lorry
The unions agreed to the RTD and POA, drivers are not working any less hours, just more unpaid hours
The unions were amongst the final decision makers for the DCPC
Unions belong in Fairchilds mill
I have had no need for union representation in court, therefore I have no need for unions.
CF, we are not in the 1920’s we have moved on almost 100 years
del949:
've spent a lot of my working life doing agency work and unions haven’t really fought very hard for agency workers.
who do you think campaigned for the new laws re agency workers?
The bosses?
no, the bosses insisted on the swedish derogation , which makes a mockery of some of the new rulings.
lots of places the agency workers are on equal terms to the fulltime workforce, courtesy of the bosses again, the ones who employ agencies to cut costs?, No. the unions in these places insisted on it to protect the full time jobs from being undercut.
It recent years the trade unions have been making more effort to try to gain back the ground which they had neglected for a long time. It is a relatively new thing, for instance, for an agency worker to be allowed to so much as join some of the trade unions.
They are beginning to realise that they need to change to make themselves more relevant to 21st century industrial relations and contemporary social reality. But these changes don’t happen overnight and much of the damage has already been done. There’s no use carrying on pretending that we’re still living in the bygone days of the 1980’s and previous. They need to change their attitudes too in order to regain the acceptance and respect that they have lost.
Scarab:
del949:
translates as “run away”
not all strikes or actions are about payLike hell it does, If my employer does something I don’t like then I’ll go elsewhere.
Why should they have to give their workforce what they want? They are the bosses.
IF for some reason you have found an entirely democratic employer then yes, complain if they do something that displeases you, BUT if you choose an employer where the bosses call the shots and then suddenly decide to down tools when they make a decision you don’t like then you probably chose the wrong employer.
If your employer decides to cut your wages overnight to minimum wage there’s not much point in ‘going elsewhere’ if all the other bosses do the same.Which,logically under the present economic climate of fuel costs and supply of and demand for drivers is exactly what I’d be doing if I was a boss.I’d also be asking the tories to get rid of the minimum wage so I could cut your wages a bit more. 
Wheel Nut:
CF, we are not in the 1920’s we have moved on almost 100 years
Absolutely but only because of what the unions did between then and the mid 1970’s.It doesn’t take a genius to realise that wage increases have been falling well behind price increases since the late 1970’s and the economy is going down the tubes because of it.
Red Squirrel:
del949:
've spent a lot of my working life doing agency work and unions haven’t really fought very hard for agency workers.
who do you think campaigned for the new laws re agency workers?
The bosses?
no, the bosses insisted on the swedish derogation , which makes a mockery of some of the new rulings.
lots of places the agency workers are on equal terms to the fulltime workforce, courtesy of the bosses again, the ones who employ agencies to cut costs?, No. the unions in these places insisted on it to protect the full time jobs from being undercut.It recent years the trade unions have been making more effort to try to gain back the ground which they had neglected for a long time. It is a relatively new thing, for instance, for an agency worker to be allowed to so much as join some of the trade unions.
They are beginning to realise that they need to change to make themselves more relevant to 21st century industrial relations and contemporary social reality. But these changes don’t happen overnight and much of the damage has already been done. There’s no use carrying on pretending that we’re still living in the bygone days of the 1980’s and previous. They need to change their attitudes too in order to regain the acceptance and respect that they have lost.
Without the powers that they had before the 1980’s there’s absolutely no point in unions because they can’t actually do anything that the employers or the government don’t agree with.We’ve had the contemporary social reality and unions are irrelevant under it and the economy as it stands today compared to the early 1970’s is the result.
steve_24v:
Tanker drivers, by and large, were on a good wedge. Presumably because they were unionised and stuck together
More likely because the unions know darn well that if they stop, we stop; not because we might sympathise with them but because without diesel we’re stuck. So they make ■■■■ sure they look after them well; plenty of cautionary tales on this site of what you can expect from unions if you don’t happen to be such a key worker. Basically, not a bloody sight.
Net result of that is most of the refinery jobs are dead mens’ shoes; I’ve even been told ( and I do hope this is just rumour) that the unions even get a say in who gets any new jobs going.
@ Red Squirrel; back in the early 80’s I had to join the TGWU in order to work at BRS on agency, as it was then a closed shop.
I wouldn’t cross a picket line in my own company but elsewhere I’d have to weigh up the circumstances and decide for myself whether or not I thought the picket was justified. Thankfully nowadays my work involves farm deliveries where this isn’t likely to be a problem.