Still, even after all these comments about drivers standing together, my main priority is my family.
Yes, in an ideal world we would all be stood firm together, sticking 2 fingers up to William and trying to make a difference. I will say it again. I cannot afford to take 2 days off without pay. Bills do not pay themselves and food will not magically appear on the table. This is why strikes Do not work. Most workers cannot afford the time off and the company’s know this. There will always be someone willing to wear your shoes I’m afraid.
Call me a scab, infact call me what you like. I am just a bloke trying to earn a living and provide for my family.
If you’ve got a family, of course you can!
The boot is on the other foot now. Less is more. Not less pay - less HOURS!
Gordon Brown has made it possible for all of us with young families to drop half our pay, and take home the same amount.
If you’re afraid of pain, then everything is gonna ■■■■ well hurt. If you’re not afraid any more, then you’re immortal for at least the rest of the day!
People who have been told “You’re toast this time next year” often decide to stick their necks out quite recklessly in the meantime, since they have already found out that they’ll reach that year-away point before being shafted by whatever fate has in store for them… Putting it another way, If you’ve been told by a seer that you’'re gonna die a year from now - that’s 364 days of immortality to get through before you do! Make the most of that invulnerability! 
We don’t reach the age of 20 and think “Fffff… I’m gonna be dead by year 2120!” do we?
Like everyone else I’d hope, I have every intention of achieving immortality by not dying. If I AM to die, then something is gonna have to come and get me, 'cos I’m not serving myself up on a plate you see… 
It’s all in the mind. Joe gets paid more than Fred because Joe thinks different to Fred. In every other aspect, they are the same. It’s the mindsets that set them apart. 
To all those striking-
what are you wanting to achieve?
And do you think you will get it?
Genuine question.
Like someone said earlier ‘grow a pair’, I know of people been made redundant one day & a week later they were in another job taking home even more money-these are the things that separate the men from the boys…!
The Christmas is cancelled campaign.
We all park up on december 20th and dont come back till January 5th.
At which time we may decide to tell you, how its going to be
from now on. 
oatcake1967:
The Christmas is cancelled campaign.We all park up on december 20th and dont come back till January 5th.
At which time we may decide to tell you, how its going to be
from now on.
Joking aside…That would be perfect timing 
The losses would be enormous for the supermarkets.
att:
oatcake1967:
The Christmas is cancelled campaign.We all park up on december 20th and dont come back till January 5th.
At which time we may decide to tell you, how its going to be
from now on.Joking aside…That would be perfect timing
BUT WHAT ABOUT MY KIDS AND FAMILY AND HOW AM I GOING TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE AND PAY MY MORTGAGE!!!111111111111
The funny thing is here, is it happened across a number of firms come Christmas run-up, then there’s nothing to stop the striking driver getting on the books of an agency supplying another firm with nothing to do with the one they normally work for, also out on strike.
£20ph should easily become available if enough firm’s drivers were all out at once. Kinda pushes up wages across the industry - BUT it would be agency drivers that see the fastest rate hikes. The wheels of full time turn a bit slower alas.
2020 Vision
A new national driver’s union is what’s needed here I think. Unions affiliated with single firms can’t achieve anything anymore, but one that could call the entire industry out at once?
The agency of the future would become the plum driving job of the future. Their flexibility pulls in the premimium payments, and it actually becomes harder to get a job on the agencies (at least the ones that give you regular work!) than getting a full time job on some non-living wage.
Get rid of “Compulsory Salary Sacrifice/Umbrella” schemes, and replace them with a “chance to join the new union” instead.
Since so many full time jobs are being replaced by agency, I could even tentatively suggest that any new “Union of drivers” started with a round-up of everyone working for agencies everywhere…
New Pay & Conditions packages could include payments for things like being cancelled at last minute, a premium hourly rate for being given the job at barely drive time to work’s notice, and of course over-running an already long shift due to no fault of one’s own (acting above call of duty bonus?)
It won’t be practical to replace all such drivers with foreign competition, since the huge rise in accident rates (among the inexperienced at both driving & English) will make insurers withdraw cover altogether for anyone who’s not actually passed an O level equivalent in English Language, or has 10 rather than 2 years experience? Maybe there’d be no insurance at all, at which time the spotless driver becomes priceless overnight…
Cmon folks! Why NOT have “academic qualifications required” to get a job" make a comeback again? What was the POINT of school without it?
The industry will easily be able to afford this blatant wage inflation within the transport sector BECAUSE by this point insurance is getting to be too expensive, and FUEL COSTS have come down to the point that employees no longer need to be skinned to make the firm pay.
Cheaper running costs for hauliers beyond the payroll = better pay & conditions available for the staff themselves - across the board. It’s totally fair, and the way capitalism SHOULD work, instead of this “rewards for failure” and “racing to the bottom” culture so evident in today’s transport industry.
The establishment will continue bailing out insurers and banks along with keeping fuel prices high to PREVENT this from happening for the foreseeable future of course… We know that. 
Fortunately, the time is coming when these crooks that run it all will find themselves removed - even if it means waiting for them to retire on their gold-plated pensions. 
The last time I looked, officials in ivory towers who squeeze us out of ever more livelihood were even older than the average driver’s age!
The stupid thing is, the majority of transport firms will actually be making more money at this point - as those on the ball will have invested in their workforce, and pushed a few non-compliant firms out of buisiness already, brought down by naked claims against their outgoing workforce that can no longer be covered.
Happy managers, happy profits, good dividends for shareholders, and a motivated happy driving workforce.
Change at the top in officialdom is what’s needed to get all this started.
“Officialdom” - those faceless freaks who were always there, despite governments coming and going, but now face retirement and a shrinking industry which they of course are trying to palm off upon US. There’s a lot of room for a smaller state in this country.
I, for one, am fed up with the “only thing saving us from the bureaucracy is its inefficiency” system we’ve had these past few years… What was the latest? £40m taxpayers money WASTED trying to fiddle branson out of the rail franchise? - FFS! 
Who’s more important? - The old posh geezer in the chandeliered room making up stupid rules that only line the pockets of paper pushers, OR someone who does a job putting goods on shelves, puts money in the pockets of families BUYING goods on shelves, and paying taxes that they don’t get out of? Even the GOVERNMENT wins on that last point, should they crack down on it properly, like recent headlines have suggested…
Let’s pull the rest of the country away from this “public/pimp” relationship the people nowdays seem to have with the faceless part of the state that was supposed to be looking after them!
Rob K:
att:
oatcake1967:
The Christmas is cancelled campaign.We all park up on december 20th and dont come back till January 5th.
At which time we may decide to tell you, how its going to be
from now on.Joking aside…That would be perfect timing
BUT WHAT ABOUT MY KIDS AND FAMILY AND HOW AM I GOING TO PUT FOOD ON THE TABLE AND PAY MY MORTGAGE!!!111111111111
Instead of being paid £500pw gross (takehome £400 at most) for working 5-6 days and never being at home, try dropping to 2x15 hour shifts per week, grossing a minimum of £300 of which £160 (tax allowance) and £110 (tax offsets) bring the annual gross taxable pay down to around £9.5k. (takehome £13.5k already!) A taxable wage of £9.5k a year entitles you to upwards of £130 per week in top-ups if you have kids under 16 and you’re the only earner in the household, taking your total takehome pay to around the SAME AMOUNT (£20k total takehome income - allbeit from multiple sources) for working 2x15hrs shifts to make up the 30 hours pw (or even 3x10 hours if you can’t get 15 hour shifts anywhere) as you got for working flat out.
Only working part time like this gives you a certain amount of being able to “pick and choose”, and of course I can “choose” not to work either at establishments that might ask me to cross a picket line, or “choose” to take one of 5 days off that week on the days any such strikes are occuring.
Thus, I can support the strike, without having to lose a bean in the process!
Who’s the scab here? - Me for working the system that is supposed to be there for all of us OR someone who’ll cross a picket line and become a “traditional scab” out of fear of losing money? 
“I was never mad. I only came up with the mehod to it.”
For those actually IN the strike - they should be registered on agencies already, and merely need to avoid working at firms that might put them straight back to the target depot!
That’s assuming that you feel the need to actually be working on the strike days, which MIGHT be the case for the young single folk without kids in tow. I thought there was a dearth of such folk in this industry at the moment though? - What do I know?! 
How did such folk get a mortgage anyways? awkward question number 64.
Eg. if there are mail courier strikes, I’ll do some supermarket work. If the supermarket is out, I’ll put in some shifts at, say, UPS and never worry about being sent “to the wrong place”! 
haribo4000:
To all those striking-what are you wanting to achieve?
And do you think you will get it?Genuine question.
I think you are doing the right thing … you are not a scab, you are looking after the important things in your life your wife your kids your home etc, in my last full time job in the UK, the union I was in tried to stop Work Force modernisation to our role … we voted no … the Government brought it in anyway … and they were on 13k a year less then us just called them Officer 2’s so not the same did slightly different roles so you have two officers doing exactly the same job bu 13k a year difference in wages … and now Officer 1’s are getting sacked if they ■■■■ on the job … what did the union do nothing just bent over and took it dry … Unions are a waste of space just look after themselves!
you just work and look after your family screw what the other drivers on here say.
serious point frim myself as a newbie to the industry and driving for the firm for only a mobth im in same boat as haribo kids and house and all that plus i feel a bit under pressure that as a newbie i have to do as im told so if they send me from chessy to donny to do a store,in fear of my own safety can i or do i have a right to refuse as iv heard rumours it will get nasty and dobt wanna be involved in all this crap i just wanna earn my crust that im happy with
worksopboy:
serious point frim myself as a newbie to the industry and driving for the firm for only a mobth im in same boat as haribo kids and house and all that plus i feel a bit under pressure that as a newbie i have to do as im told so if they send me from chessy to donny to do a store,in fear of my own safety can i or do i have a right to refuse as iv heard rumours it will get nasty and dobt wanna be involved in all this crap i just wanna earn my crust that im happy with
Reading another forum it looks like stobarts have put their strike busting team into full swing so you’ll be defo getting sent. What you have to realise when you drive over that line is you are doing the work of guys who are on a legally sanctioned strike. I don’t expect things to turn nasty because it is bad publicly for the strikers but you’ll get the usual insults and maybe throwing the odd egg but lock your doors and keep on your toes that nobody jumps in front of you!
Personally i would take a holiday lot less hassle!
Good luck donaster its refreshing to see workers in transport (outwith tankers) defend their pay and conditions, but to really hurt tesco would be to stay away from the dc and cause a lot of disruption at the shops.
Strike busters lol.
haribo4000:
Still, even after all these comments about drivers standing together, my main priority is my family.
Yes, in an ideal world we would all be stood firm together, sticking 2 fingers up to William and trying to make a difference. I will say it again. I cannot afford to take 2 days off without pay. Bills do not pay themselves and food will not magically appear on the table. This is why strikes Do not work. Most workers cannot afford the time off and the company’s know this. There will always be someone willing to wear your shoes I’m afraid.
Call me a scab, infact call me what you like. I am just a bloke trying to earn a living and provide for my family.
Then what are you going to do to defend your earnings? And since you have children, what are you going to do to ensure that they can earn a decent living in the future? It’s pointless breaking a strike on account of your responsibility to your family, when in doing so you mortgage your children’s futures.
The real problem with strikes is not that they do not work, but that they do not work without unity of the workforce. If you don’t think the strike will work in this case, then don’t strike. But what are you going to do when your pay and conditions are attacked?
Down tools and all park up dec 20th-5th jan…yeh right… and how many haulage firms would you have left doing that,profit margins are that tight that most small and medium haulage firms would go bust or call it aday if drivers did that…so you would all come back,head held high telling everyone you stood up to be counted only to find ya job gone and the company you worked for as called it aday,get real it aint going to happen,been in this transport industry over 40yrs and its not changed and will not change,Doncaster drivers only have themselves to blame,no haulage company is going to pay £40.000 a year for one load and 8hrs a day,Doncaster drivers are being offered other jobs,its there choice not to take them,it all boils down to the name STOBARTS…and plus they dont want to get off their lazy backsides and work,well though if i get sent i will be like others,my house and wife and my earnings will come before stupid strikes and my job security is the other important topic,so we will just have to wait and see what develops tuesday…
ste87:
haribo4000:
Still, even after all these comments about drivers standing together, my main priority is my family.
Yes, in an ideal world we would all be stood firm together, sticking 2 fingers up to William and trying to make a difference. I will say it again. I cannot afford to take 2 days off without pay. Bills do not pay themselves and food will not magically appear on the table. This is why strikes Do not work. Most workers cannot afford the time off and the company’s know this. There will always be someone willing to wear your shoes I’m afraid.
Call me a scab, infact call me what you like. I am just a bloke trying to earn a living and provide for my family.Then what are you going to do to defend your earnings? And since you have children, what are you going to do to ensure that they can earn a decent living in the future? It’s pointless breaking a strike on account of your responsibility to your family, when in doing so you mortgage your children’s futures.
The real problem with strikes is not that they do not work, but that they do not work without unity of the workforce. If you don’t think the strike will work in this case, then don’t strike. But what are you going to do when your pay and conditions are attacked?
my father in law went on strike many moons ago, they lost the family home
MO(Topgun):
Down tools and all park up dec 20th-5th jan…yeh right… and how many haulage firms would you have left doing that,profit margins are that tight that most small and medium haulage firms would go bust or call it aday if drivers did that…so you would all come back,head held high telling everyone you stood up to be counted only to find ya job gone and the company you worked for as called it aday,get real it aint going to happen,been in this transport industry over 40yrs and its not changed and will not change,Doncaster drivers only have themselves to blame,no haulage company is going to pay £40.000 a year for one load and 8hrs a day,Doncaster drivers are being offered other jobs,its there choice not to take them,it all boils down to the name STOBARTS…and plus they dont want to get off their lazy backsides and work,well though if i get sent i will be like others,my house and wife and my earnings will come before stupid strikes and my job security is the other important topic,so we will just have to wait and see what develops tuesday…
Why do people worry so much about “small and medium haulage firms” going bust? The vast majority of them are cowboy outfits that pay a pittance, and the presence of a multitude of small firms simply pits driver against driver in competing for the same limited amount of work, whilst providing many a boss with a lavish income.
And also why do some people always say that workers who try to protect their pay and conditions, “only have themselves to blame”? Workers fought hard for things like a 40 hour working week - so that they could enjoy hobbies outside of work, and actually spend time with their partners and children. So too, is it unreasonable to expect a decent rate of pay?
stevieboy308:
ste87:
haribo4000:
Still, even after all these comments about drivers standing together, my main priority is my family.
Yes, in an ideal world we would all be stood firm together, sticking 2 fingers up to William and trying to make a difference. I will say it again. I cannot afford to take 2 days off without pay. Bills do not pay themselves and food will not magically appear on the table. This is why strikes Do not work. Most workers cannot afford the time off and the company’s know this. There will always be someone willing to wear your shoes I’m afraid.
Call me a scab, infact call me what you like. I am just a bloke trying to earn a living and provide for my family.Then what are you going to do to defend your earnings? And since you have children, what are you going to do to ensure that they can earn a decent living in the future? It’s pointless breaking a strike on account of your responsibility to your family, when in doing so you mortgage your children’s futures.
The real problem with strikes is not that they do not work, but that they do not work without unity of the workforce. If you don’t think the strike will work in this case, then don’t strike. But what are you going to do when your pay and conditions are attacked?
my father in law went on strike many moons ago, they lost the family home
The thing is, in the end people who just bend over lose their homes anyway, or don’t get a home in the first place. I know several guys whose incomes have taken a turn for the worst in recent years because of redundancy and low pay, and now they’re only just managing to pay their mortgages - if they were buying today, they wouldn’t be able to afford it.
Many working families are already receiving massive cash subsidies from the state, to supplement earned incomes that are often inadequate to keep a family even when both partners are working - although the Tories are about to take a hatchet to these too.
Would I drive through?
YES…
not becuase I dont belive the guys have a point- but because from past experience
Let me take you back to the 1980’s the dock workers at Tilbury earnt a ■■■■ sight more than I did- but they went out on strike , with the threat that any haulage firm that broke the line would never be loaded again out of the docks,
I worked for a small family firm that could not afford to be blacked from the docks as that was 90% of their work. so every day we drove to Tilbury and parked up just outside in case the strike was called off - the company was earning no money and the owner was paying us out of his personal bank account.
The big Guys, Brains, Jess B Woodcocks AA Fisher etc just broke the line- the dockers asssured us as we waited outside that once it was all resolved those who refused to break the line would be remembered and we would always get looked after and they would not get loaded ever again by a union gang … after a number of weeks - of us being on minimum hours - the dockers union got their demands- and their pay rise, but they also agreed a clause in the new agreement not to victimise any company that broke the strike.
For their strike that I got nothing out of I lost every hour of overtime for a number of weeks- a big hit on the wages- and once they got their wage the solidarity that they said was so important went straight out the window.
They sold every driver and company that didnt cross the picket line down the river for their own pockets… guess what next time they went out on strike I didnt even slow down to read the banners.
In a nutshell this^^^^ many many many times
Tesco drivers have had it too good and let it go to their heads! Stobarts will cross the pickets and any driver who refuses will be disciplined! It’s what they do! 
I’ve done a lot of “night hire” at many different Tesco DCs and a large majority of their drivers are lazy swines! 