Ditto ,
If Mr Higginbottom gets elected which I can not see happening I will be seriously considering my membership with the URTU, there is only one man for the job and that is Bob Monks simple , end of story.
and why is bob monks the best man for the job?
whats he done for the members?
whats he done for the industry?
whats he done?
made urtu into a nice carpet for james irlam to walk over.
raked in thousands of pounds for a few members in legal claims against employers.
we are still paying too much to park at motorway service areas, msa’s are now wheel clamping trucks that haven’t paid for overnight parking because of the inaction of the unions, drivers are being gassed and robbed while they sleep and the union haven’t done anything to promote security for us, instead of funding speeding fines for members they could be asking operators to supply gas alarms or protekdor locks and organising night trunkers into watchers as they drive at night, they haven’t achieved anything for us in years.
david higginbottom did a lot for us when he was Gen Sec, he put himself out for all drivers and not just urtu members, wheels magazine used to be full of information about what the union had done and will do but now it’s a bare skeleton of it’s former self, even the website has little about it.
it’s time for a change and if david gets in then i will certainly think hard about joining urtu once again.
well said Johnny. if Bob gets elected, i wont be joining but if Davad gets elected, i will watch how things progress and may join. again, i dont know the history so i can only judge on what i have read both online and offline and its true that only one party has been represented within our debate but at the end of the day, the other party has been repeatedly invited but has not even had the courtesy of responding. that says a lot to me and none of it is good
Its good to see that T/N members are talking and debating this subject as well
Pressure groups are OK, and I campaign for as much as is possible, but we “Need” a strong union that is going to stand up and fight our corner.
Only by talking and making the G/S realise that we are interested and directing them to these forums to see our comments will things change
I will stay on the fence about which candidate is best for the job, what I want to know is why should I pay over my hard earned cash. what are they going to do if elected.
It has got to be a good start if they are wiling to listen to whatwe want, instead of doing it behind closed doors
Write about something you understand because its blatantly obvious you know nothing about the miners strike or miners.Scargill was right,and the destruction of our communitys is living proof.We came out on strike to protect our jobs and communitys and were more than happy to stand and fight (some of us did more fighting than standing).
You are right, I know nothing about miners, but thanks to Mr Scargill and his lemmings I no longer live in a council house. I still have the steel windscreen protector from my truck hung up in the garage (sort of a trophy) - thank you welsh miners and of course Mr Scargill
johnny:
and organising night trunkers into watchers as they drive at night
What
I’ve done night trunking. You want me to, slow down to 5 mph, while I drive through the lorry parking area of an MWSA. Hopefully, I will be able to drive through. At the same time, you want me to check that no low-life is trying to cut your curtains/ gas you/ break into your cab.
You want me to do this at every MWSA between my depot and change over point.
You want every night trunker to do this.
Obviously you do, because for us not to do this means there will be times when there is no night trunker driving through, so times when the low-life has free access.
Night trunking is done for several reasons. One of which is - clear roads, so I can cover a long distance in my shift.
Not if I have to drive into every MWSA I can’t.
Most people park up at night so they can sleep.
They won’t be getting that much sleep if every few minutes, a night trunker is driving through the parking area.
Write about something you understand because its blatantly obvious you know nothing about the miners strike or miners.Scargill was right,and the destruction of our communitys is living proof.We came out on strike to protect our jobs and communitys and were more than happy to stand and fight (some of us did more fighting than standing).
You are right, I know nothing about miners, but thanks to Mr Scargill and his lemmings I no longer live in a council house. I still have the steel windscreen protector from my truck hung up in the garage (sort of a trophy) - thank you welsh miners and of course Mr Scargill
whatever the various rights and wrongs, thatcher lied bare faced on telly, the union took the bait, and a lot of folk suffereder for this ■■■■■■■■. just like the coppers waving their massive overtime cheques about, the hauliers got blank checks for running the coal, it cost ALL of us taxpayers money, trhe only real winners were the tory govt and trophys like that reminding of a desperate time in a shamefull chapter of tory greed and score settling certainly aint anything to be proud of ollie, imho!
My posting is definately ‘tongue in cheek’ stuff, and I know a lot of hardship was inflicted on a lot of people during the strikes of 72, 74 and 84-85.
But, as you say Mel, there were a lot of ‘blank cheques’ to be had there were a lot of business opportunites. I personaly know of guys that started in haulage by default of the miners strike, they are still in business today and are of course employers.
I was offered a job on wages that even by todays standards were good, I bought a truck, and the money was even better. Everyone (excluding the miners) made a mint from the strikes, the outcome for the miners was sealed in 1972 when they succeeded in becoming the highest paid industrial workers, the rest, as they say is history.
Had I been a miner, things would have been different. As it happened, I was a lorry driver in the right place at the right time - it happens.
well, it was a long time ago now, and all i hope ollie is that things like that dont happen again, there might be winners mostly among the fat cats and politicians, and even a few amongst the working class, but theres allways too many losers, and mostly all of them from the working class.
Ditto ,
If Mr Higginbottom gets elected which I can not see happening I will be seriously considering my membership with the URTU, there is only one man for the job and that is Bob Monks simple , end of story.
and why is bob monks the best man for the job?
whats he done for the members?
whats he done for the industry?
whats he done?
made urtu into a nice carpet for james irlam to walk over.
raked in thousands of pounds for a few members in legal claims against employers.
we are still paying too much to park at motorway service areas, msa’s are now wheel clamping trucks that haven’t paid for overnight parking because of the inaction of the unions, drivers are being gassed and robbed while they sleep and the union haven’t done anything to promote security for us, instead of funding speeding fines for members they could be asking operators to supply gas alarms or protekdor locks and organising night trunkers into watchers as they drive at night, they haven’t achieved anything for us in years.
david higginbottom did a lot for us when he was Gen Sec, he put himself out for all drivers and not just urtu members, wheels magazine used to be full of information about what the union had done and will do but now it’s a bare skeleton of it’s former self, even the website has little about it.
it’s time for a change and if david gets in then i will certainly think hard about joining urtu once again.
well said Johnny. if Bob gets elected, i wont be joining but if Davad gets elected, i will watch how things progress and may join. again, i dont know the history so i can only judge on what i have read both online and offline and its true that only one party has been represented within our debate but at the end of the day, the other party has been repeatedly invited but has not even had the courtesy of responding. that says a lot to me and none of it is good
So why not join the union now, then you will have the chance to vote, if Mr Higginbottom does not get elected you can always cancel your subs , I am sure your vote would be appreciated.
Write about something you understand because its blatantly obvious you know nothing about the miners strike or miners.Scargill was right,and the destruction of our communitys is living proof.We came out on strike to protect our jobs and communitys and were more than happy to stand and fight (some of us did more fighting than standing).
You are right, I know nothing about miners, but thanks to Mr Scargill and his lemmings I no longer live in a council house. I still have the steel windscreen protector from my truck hung up in the garage (sort of a trophy) - thank you welsh miners and of course Mr Scargill
Scargill isnt why you dont live in a council house , its because Thatcher sold them all
I would love to take you to some places I tip round Wales and see you “thank the Welsh Miners” proud men whose only available work in some areas is working on a poxy line in a factory, but not to worry hey, I am sure they will be glad to know you have managed to buy a house
Some areas have never recovered , this wasnt all about uneconomic pits it was about the witch Thatcher taking on the unions and proving a point , at the expense of the local communities, but not to worry, where the mines once stood there is now a Mcdonalds /Morrisions/Tesco where grown men can work and try and support the family on minimum wage
If I had been a driver at the time of the strike I would never have crossed a picket line , I would have changed jobs rather then dump on another working man standing up for his rights.
Ditto ,
If Mr Higginbottom gets elected which I can not see happening I will be seriously considering my membership with the URTU, there is only one man for the job and that is Bob Monks simple , end of story.
and why is bob monks the best man for the job?
whats he done for the members?
whats he done for the industry?
whats he done?
made urtu into a nice carpet for james irlam to walk over.
raked in thousands of pounds for a few members in legal claims against employers.
we are still paying too much to park at motorway service areas, msa’s are now wheel clamping trucks that haven’t paid for overnight parking because of the inaction of the unions, drivers are being gassed and robbed while they sleep and the union haven’t done anything to promote security for us, instead of funding speeding fines for members they could be asking operators to supply gas alarms or protekdor locks and organising night trunkers into watchers as they drive at night, they haven’t achieved anything for us in years.
david higginbottom did a lot for us when he was Gen Sec, he put himself out for all drivers and not just urtu members, wheels magazine used to be full of information about what the union had done and will do but now it’s a bare skeleton of it’s former self, even the website has little about it.
it’s time for a change and if david gets in then i will certainly think hard about joining urtu once again.
well said Johnny. if Bob gets elected, i wont be joining but if Davad gets elected, i will watch how things progress and may join. again, i dont know the history so i can only judge on what i have read both online and offline and its true that only one party has been represented within our debate but at the end of the day, the other party has been repeatedly invited but has not even had the courtesy of responding. that says a lot to me and none of it is good
So why not join the union now, then you will have the chance to vote, if Mr Higginbottom does not get elected you can always cancel your subs , I am sure your vote would be appreciated.
although David has earned my support, that does not mean i support the union or believe in it. as it stands right now, the URTU has nothing to interest me. i dont know if this is down to Bob Monks or the management as a team or whatever but somewhere along the lines, the URTU seems to have lost touch with the needs of the modern professional driver and until they actually know what we want them fighting for, i will not hand over my cash. i would rather spend it on something more worthy like coffee
Thacher is guilty of much more than just closing the pits down,sorry but if the pits where losing money they should of been closed down,a truck company makes a loss it goes bump,Scargill was right she was going to close the pits down anyway at least the miners went down fighting,and the ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■ known as the boys in blue should of been hung for the way they went about earning the blood money.The thing that is even more sickening is the fact that energy prices are going up and coal could make a difference but the mad cow just let them go to ruin instead of putting them in to "moth balls"not many union leaders today would stand up for their members,to scared of not being able to pay the mortgague on some big fancy house or the kids school fees.
Suffolk ReeferBoy:
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If I had been a driver at the time of the strike I would never have crossed a picket line , I would have changed jobs rather then dump on another working man standing up for his rights.
The miners on the picket lines that I crossed were not standing up for their rights. They were trying to deny my rights to work normally and help the Notts. and other miners stick up for their rights to a democratic vote.
Whatever my employers got in the way of extra money I don’t know, but personally I got nothing beyond my normal wage and put my own safety on the line every day because it was a cause I believed in.
All you drivers on here who aren’t in the union, how would you like to be forced to join (not even the one of your choice), and then forced to strike without being given the right to vote against, and then when going about your normal job with all your mates be besieged and threatened by 1,000 hysterical morons from another part of the country who had decided that youmust agree with them?
I have been made redundant at short, and long, notice, and each time I got on with the job of moving on, and never once considered that everyone owed me support to the extent of causing their own families suffering. And never, never, would I have joined a screaming horde led by a self-seeking demagogue who cared nothing for his members but merely wanted to ride on their backs to realise his dream of an outdated notion of Stalinist repression. To paraphrase the 1st world war comment about British soldiers and their generals not ‘lions led by donkeys’ but ‘cattle led by a jackal’.
I believe in trade unionism and have been a trade unionist most of my working life, except for a period when I realised that my union (T&G) included members (dockers) who wanted to suppress my rights as an ordinary worker, and supported them not me. I suffered for that hiatus, not having a representative when I needed one, and then found the URTU, a drivers’ union, and have been helped and advised in many ways since.
No one made anyone join a union even in the days of the closed shop,simply if you felt that bad you did not take the job and if you did you knew what you where joining,maggie and her mob where right at the time to shut the pits down they made no money in general and the coal was not needed,it was the way she went about it with the coppers beating ■■■■ out of normal working folk who wanted nothing more than a job to go to.
i never believed that ■■■■■■■■ about the coal not being needed, as heseltine was lying his face inside out on the telly, they were building massive importing terminals for coal, bit bleeding strange for a commodity not needed. all politicians are lying filth whatever party theyre in, in my opinion anyway! some just cause more strife than others, on that score i reckon b-liar is thatchers bar-steward child!
besides which they were cuaght out liars getting that mcgregor to say theywerent closing pits when they were, why the lies? because its their natural way ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■■■ ■■■■■ i hate the lot of them.
froggy:
No one made anyone join a union even in the days of the closed shop,.
If you wanted to work you had to. If you took a load to the docks or to certain factories you had to, or you didn’t get tipped, simple as that. You had to be there in the 60s and 70s to know what it was like, it’s easy to pontificate in ignorance from this distance. Of course, I’m talking about tramping when you didn’t know where you would be going next, if you were on regular non-unionised runs then it didn’t matter. But what does matter is the principle of free choice and not to be subject to dictators.
And Mal, I make no defence of the rights and wrongs of Thatcher, Heseltine or McGregor, but whatever they did to the miners did not justify what the miners did to ordinary working men and women, including thousands of their fellow miners.
Mal:
i never believed that [zb] about the coal not being needed, as heseltine was lying his face inside out on the telly, they were building massive importing terminals for coal, bit bleeding strange for a commodity not needed. .
And look where we are now, Gas supplies running down, the interconnector at Bacton now being used to import Gas, instead of exporting it, And the price dependant on whatever the Russians decide, and the imported coal from Poland aint a lot more stable. Under our feet lie tons upon tons of the black stuff, it will come out of the ground global warming or not, as soon as our energy supplies start to get cut of or priced hiked at regular opportunities. Thatcher and co thought the free market would decide, but the free market dont care if our lights go out, when some will pay more Lets face it last year California had power cuts because the energy suppliers of Texas wnated more money, and the Californians, were’nt prepared to pay, and that is supposed to be country
exactomundo eddie, short term ■■■■■ that we all will pay for in every way imagineable in the long run. those lot needed throwing down the ■■■■■■■ mine shafts before the concrete went in!
Lets face it last year California had power cuts because the energy suppliers of Texas wnated more money, and the Californians, were’nt prepared to pay, and that is supposed to be country 