Its a shame, but HG drivers have the potential to be the most powerful union force ever seen, but (again) you have more chance of Action Man getting a hard on than getting drivers from across the country to stick together.
Dodgy Permit:
Its a shame, but HG drivers have the potential to be the most powerful union force ever seen, but (again) you have more chance of Action Man getting a hard on than getting drivers from across the country to stick together.
not something i have ever thought of 
whatever floats your boat i guess 
rambo19:
But, remember the tanker drivers earlier this year going on strike?, plenty on here slagged them off for being greedy, when what they were doing is fighting for thier terms and conditions..
Plenty of firms giving assurances that their drivers would cross picket lines.
Same as Tesco Doncaster no problems finding haulage to deliver there.
Said it over on another thread no point blaiming Thatcher.
If all the unions had came out with the miners she would have been brought down.
As it was if you watch the films there is plenty of wagons loaded with coal running through picket ines.
Don’t see many firms backing their mining brothers when money could be made.
I would also suggest that Labour did just as much damage to the working man in our industry as Thatcher or the tories.
Soldier z:
Don’t see many firms backing their mining brothers when money could be made.
I would also suggest that Labour did just as much damage to the working man in our industry as Thatcher or the tories.
Bills still had to be paid, or firms went out of business. Mine did, and I didn’t have an NUM to keep me going with strike pay, so that was me on the dole with a wife and kid to support. I was living in Eastwood during the strike BTW.
If you remember, the rail union support was at best half-hearted, and it’s often conveniently forgotten that the NACODS union ( colliry deputies, effectively the shift leaders) rejected the strike call altogether. The steelworkers didn’t back the miners either. Those who didn’t live in the affected areas during that strike can have no idea what it was like. The irony is that Scargill came out of it viewed as some sort of prophet; recent news reports about his London flat etc. should give an indication of the hypocritical self-serving idiot he actually is.
To drag this back on topic; it has to be remembered that not all of us work for hauliers. I’m in a union, but it’s the one recognised by our company, which is GMB. I joined not because I sympathise with their greater ambitions (though the magazine is a good laugh if you’re into fantasy) but to benefit from the back-up.
the miners on strike didnt get a penny from the NUM or anyone else apart money in buckets raised on street colletions
and going by some of the posts on here
i wouldnt want to be in any union with those idiots
I used to be a rep for unison where i used to work, after totally being screwed over by them I believe its not so much the membership but the guys at the top who cause the problems, lining their own pockets…
I’ve yet to find a union that was any use. The miners behaved like sheep, couldn’t see what was happening, although the rest of the country could. As mentioned, Scargill was only in it for his own benefit, like so many others. The members haven’t got the brains to vote these parasites out of their sponge off the members for life attitude.
The miners could have won through if it wasn’t for the breakaway union, you know the one promised the earth by thatchers minions, ironically their mines were shut down too just like all the rest, did they believe the line they were spun?
We as a group, like the miners or train drivers or dockers or any other group only have strength when we stick together.
Politically motivated stooges know they only have to pat a certain type of blinkered idiot on the head and make vague inferences of future reward (we’ll remember you after this is all over son you’ll be safe with us) and they have a ready stream of scabs only too willing to do their dirty work for them, dropped like the rest once their usefulness over.
I look forward to the continued race to the bottom of many drivers here in the new year, too many seem to prefer 80 hour weeks of living in a tin box to 45 for the same pay and go home after every shift.
d4c24a:
the demise of most British industry’s was down to unions
This.
Juddian:
I look forward to the continued race to the bottom of many drivers here in the new year, too many seem to prefer 80 hour weeks of living in a tin box to 45 for the same pay and go home after every shift.
I think thats a bit harsh. I say that because I’ve never considered myself in a race to the bottom but I do enjoy trucking driving and the longer the distance the better. I’m more than happy to be out all week, or longer than that if outside of the UK etc and as such will never be at home after every shift in my line of work but in that vein I’m just continuing whats always been happening in this line of work, definetely not racing to the bottom and lowering my conditions or anyone elses.
im in.
If anyone here truly believes Unions have been a force for good in this country, you only need to look both sides of you next time you drive down the A13 to see the good they’ve done. Manufacturing firms will leave this country in droves while employers can so easily be sued for constructive dismissal and have militant unions to work with. Why bother with any of that when you can get workforces elsewhere who don’t cost loads and cause you problems?
The only people who benefit from unions are the Staff who work there and the Shop Stewards. I’ll never forget the Shop Steward at the bus company I used to work for going round all four depots emptying the fruit machines every week in his brand new BMW.
I work at the ASDA George RDC in Northampton.
We are currently jut about to hold a ballot for ‘depot recognition’ with the GMB union.
We have over 50% membership now so should get it, which enters us into the ‘national pay deal’ inline with most of the other ASDA depots with are GMB majority. This means ALOT to us, on average about £2500 a year!!!, with countless changes for the better within our T’s & C’s. That alone is worth the subs.
The GMB have also saved me from a disciplinary recently, and are currently fighting tooth and nail to save me from another. (1st was speeding which was spotted on Isotrak, 2nd is absence due to an accident at work!!) Again, money well spent.
I’m not a typical ‘striker’, but I do like the backing the GMB gives.
Juddian:
The miners could have won through if it wasn’t for the breakaway union, you know the one promised the earth by thatchers minions, ironically their mines were shut down too just like all the rest, did they believe the line they were spun?
When an industry’s workforce goes on strike, and isn’t supported in that strike even by their own foremen, you have to question the sanity of the action.
Thatcher and her ministers learned lessons from the strikes in the Heath era; Scargill did not. That is why the NUM failed; they tried to take on a strong government not a weak one, in an era of declining dependence on coal. Furthermore, it was basically Scargill’s arrogance and intransigence which caused the UDM’s birth in the first place. It is frequently said in Nottinghamshire that had he agreed to a ballot instead of expecting blind obedience as his hero Joseph Stalin was accustomed to, the result could well have been very different.
If closing nearly all of the pits was such a political move, why is it that Blair din’t re-open even one, given the overwhelming strength of the 1997 victory? Simple; because he knew ■■■■ well that deep-mined coal is not the cheap fuel that we were led to believe it is. We, the public, paid double what every ton cost, as our taxes subsidised vast chunks of an inefficiently-managed and profligately wasteful industry. That, by the way, is not intended as any slight on those who went down to dig it; I have only respect for them.
Sidevalve:
Juddian:
If closing nearly all of the pits was such a political move, why is it that Blair din’t re-open even one, given the overwhelming strength of the 1997 victory? Simple; because he knew ■■■■ well that deep-mined coal is not the cheap fuel that we were led to believe it is.
NO he was simply another tory who went for his own agenda and called his faction of the Three Cheeks Of The Same Arse party NuLabour, his agenda? to destroy what was left of this country and its (to him and his kind) hideous traditions and culture by an open door policy of unlimited immigration, designed to turn the country into a haven of multiculturalism…at the same time bombing three sheets out of millions of our recent immigrants family’s relations at home to hell and then wondering why we might have a terrorist threat, i bloody give up.
Well it worked, he turned it into a hell hole and there’s no going back, he and his kind shafted every working person in the country by undermining their working potential by providing a source of increasingly cheaper labour to replace them.
His son good old Cast Iron Dave continues the good works to date.
Watch it continue and weep.
Sidevalve:
Juddian:
The miners could have won through if it wasn’t for the breakaway union, you know the one promised the earth by thatchers minions, ironically their mines were shut down too just like all the rest, did they believe the line they were spun?When an industry’s workforce goes on strike, and isn’t supported in that strike even by their own foremen, you have to question the sanity of the action.
Thatcher and her ministers learned lessons from the strikes in the Heath era; Scargill did not. That is why the NUM failed; they tried to take on a strong government not a weak one, in an era of declining dependence on coal. Furthermore, it was basically Scargill’s arrogance and intransigence which caused the UDM’s birth in the first place. It is frequently said in Nottinghamshire that had he agreed to a ballot instead of expecting blind obedience as his hero Joseph Stalin was accustomed to, the result could well have been very different.
If closing nearly all of the pits was such a political move, why is it that Blair din’t re-open even one, given the overwhelming strength of the 1997 victory? Simple; because he knew ■■■■ well that deep-mined coal is not the cheap fuel that we were led to believe it is. We, the public, paid double what every ton cost, as our taxes subsidised vast chunks of an inefficiently-managed and profligately wasteful industry. That, by the way, is not intended as any slight on those who went down to dig it; I have only respect for them.
Really so you’re saying that we’re paying less for domestic fuel like gas and electricity now that we’re a net importer of gas and coal in real terms than we were when we were self sufficient in coal and coal derived gas supplies.We were actually paying more than the price that foreign imported coal was dumped here at a loss to take over the British market to make it dependent on imports.
The NUM actually failed because it didn’t get the help it needed from the TUC by calling a general strike to defeat Maggie while the UDM membership were a gutless joke.As for Blair he was just another Tory in a red suit like Callaghan and a supporter of Maggie’s policies not the real Labour Party leader that Shore would have been.
While now of course it’s all about the bs ‘climate change’ issue to make sure that British coal stays underground to keep the imports ( and the kickbacks to the bankers ) flowing.
Juddian:
Sidevalve:
Juddian:
If closing nearly all of the pits was such a political move, why is it that Blair din’t re-open even one, given the overwhelming strength of the 1997 victory? Simple; because he knew ■■■■ well that deep-mined coal is not the cheap fuel that we were led to believe it is.
NO he was simply another tory who went for his own agenda and called his faction of the Three Cheeks Of The Same Arse party NuLabour, his agenda? to destroy what was left of this country and its (to him and his kind) hideous traditions and culture by an open door policy of unlimited immigration, designed to turn the country into a haven of multiculturalism…at the same time bombing three sheets out of millions of our recent immigrants family’s relations at home to hell and then wondering why we might have a terrorist threat, i bloody give up.
Well it worked, he turned it into a hell hole and there’s no going back, he and his kind shafted every working person in the country by undermining their working potential by providing a source of increasingly cheaper labour to replace them.
His son good old Cast Iron Dave continues the good works to date.
Watch it continue and weep.
^ This.
Carryfast:
While now of course it’s all about the bs ‘climate change’ issue to make sure that British coal stays underground to keep the imports ( and the kickbacks to the bankers ) flowing.
Ah, the good old conspiracy theory. The true socialist delusionist’s ace in the hole. 
Coal, as a fuel, is basically finished. It might be plentiful but believe it or not it’s bloody dirty; round here it wasn’t so much “How Green was my Valley” as “How Black…” and if you want to go back to that sort of environment go live in Port Talbot for a few weeks , you’ll soon change your mind.
So why didn’t the unions stop Blair?
They are after all bankrolling Labour be it old or new.
Millband and the rest of the clowns he’s surrounded with won’t be any better.
It’s convienient for everybody to blame Thatcher but nobody has reversed a single thing she’s done.
Truth be told Labour and the tories would kill for a leader like her again.
That’s why Blair and his crew proposed a state funeral for her - she did their job for them and they carried it on.
Instead Labour flooded the market with cheap foreign labour whilst paying British wasters more money to sit at home than the working man.
Funny how all these union men forget their principles when they are offered a safe seat or a seat in the house of lords.
Lord Prescott was all for blowing it up until he was offered a place in it at £300 a day.
We all point the fingers at bankers and tax payers bailout remember who it was who sent that money over to them?
dle1uk:
I used to be a rep for unison where i used to work, after totally being screwed over by them I believe its not so much the membership but the guys at the top who cause the problems, lining their own pockets…
was that at tesco in doncaster
i heard that the hgv drivers there were in the unite union
tesco gave the contract to eddie stobarts
who almost immediately sacked all the drivers who were in the union
and who had worked out of tesco /doncaster for years