tartanraider:
No, not under ANY circumstances. For people to decide on strike action things must be pretty bad. Currently Iceland drivers are being asked to take a £100 a week pay cut and you’re going to help Iceland achieve that? It’s Iceland today and your job tomorrow lads just remember that when you’re looking for support in future. I’ve heard plenty of [zb] on here about drivers sticking together but when the chips are down it’s all fanny about “I’ve got a mortgage tp pay” well hold the front page , SO HAVE I.
There was always the threat of another British driver taking your job and doing it for less money but now we are part of the E.U. theres many more from A LOT more countries who will do your job for a lot less so either we stick together or we dont .
Hauliers and their slaves (the drivers) have never had that ability and they never will as long as Jack is allright, the others dont matter, it would be nice to stick together and refuse to cross a picket line but if you dont take a pay cut and thet Asda drivers dont theres a Polish millionare who will do it.
We will ALL sit back and welcome the new millionares to our country and say “racism is so bad” let them have our jobs…
Asdas game is the thin end of the wedge. They have something like 50 million new EEC workers to choose from. When Blair allowed these new countries full access to ournew labour market it was to hold wages down. But Asda is testing the water by cutting rates. Every Multi-national firms dream. But once Ireland & UK signed that EEC agreement it cannot be reversed. They told the public to expect about 13000 a year. I think the last count it was 350,00 a year. Thats without the illegals. If this post has a racist flavour then France ,Germany ,Italy ,Spain, Benelux ,ect are racist countries.
Not wanting to sound Thick / Stupid here but 2 things grabbed my attention with this post
Firstly, Whats the point of crossing the Asda picket line if they are all out on strike, who’s going to unload you
Secondly, if fellow workers of Asda staff have crossed the picket line to Unload / Load Vehicles, why the hell should we support them if their own workmates dont support them
Davey Driver:
Not wanting to sound Thick / Stupid here but 2 things grabbed my attention with this post
Firstly, Whats the point of crossing the Asda picket line if they are all out on strike, who’s going to unload you
Secondly, if fellow workers of Asda staff have crossed the picket line to Unload / Load Vehicles, why the hell should we support them if their own workmates dont support them
Management and the usual motley complement of scabs no doubt! But maybe not, much that goes on is purely psychological designed to mentally undermine the other sides position so that means breaking the line at every opportunity as far as the management are concerned. Under these circumstances practicalities go out the window. Can I assume you’re in favour of these pay cuts then Davey?
Davey Driver:
Not wanting to sound Thick / Stupid here but 2 things grabbed my attention with this post
Firstly, Whats the point of crossing the Asda picket line if they are all out on strike, who’s going to unload you
Secondly, if fellow workers of Asda staff have crossed the picket line to Unload / Load Vehicles, why the hell should we support them if their own workmates dont support them
I think you missed the point of my question.
The way I meant it was, would you cross a picket line to drive an Asda unit as an agency driver or drive through one as an owner driver to collect one of there trailers for a store delivery?
Edit. Or prehaps if you drive for a general haulier & your boss asked you to go to an Asda RDC to collect a load for store delivery.
As for crossing Picket lines, to DRIVE or DELIVER for Asda, no I would not
Its time though that this industries abnormal pay system is sorted out once and for all, if that means Nationalisation then so be it.
How can it be seen to be fair for Drivers in one company to be paid say £10 ph and yet at another company doing identical work for identical companies the drivers are paid minimum wage?
Southern Drivers are paid a higher basic and night out payment for overnight stays up North, yet Northern Drivers are Paid less for their more expensive overnight stays down South
Having spent my early working years as a Miner and coming from a mining family going back generations,I am no stranger to trade unions or strikes.
If I were to post my strike scores using a boxing analogy it would be
Fought two ,Lost two (…I was and still am a firm believer in trade unions having a place at the negotiating table otherwise there would be no uniformity in rates from one worker to the next. health and safety would be overlooked and yes I know it has gone too far at times .
Out of two very bitter disputes and loosing a good friend on a picket line along with countless friends who were divided in communities through returning to work etc , I learnt one very important lesson and it is this…
JAW JAW IS BETTER THAN WAR WAR
However every situation has to be taken on it’s merits and where the intransigence of either side is stopping those talks taking place then I believe direct action is the correct route…
Not knowing all the facts on this issue I would expect the relevant trade union official on any such picketline to put their case to me as a worker before I took the decision to put my own employment in jepordy.
It is not quite as straight forward as you may think when deciding to move away from your contract of employment your own individual employers etc.
bit of a ramble but thats my ten peneth worth
Youths a mask but it don’t last
live it long and live it Fast!!!
Life’s a Gas:
I think you missed the point of my question.
The way I meant it was, would you cross a picket line to drive an Asda unit as an agency driver
You shouldn’t be asked. Not even obliquely - it’s an offence under the Employment Agencies Act to supply staff to replace people on an official strike. that extends to cover a situation where staff are shifted around too - so using warehouse staff to drive forklifts and replace warehouse staff with agency wouldn’t be allowed. Nor would fetching drivers in from other parts of the country and then using agency there (although that’s a bit harder to monitor).
I’m a half-way house type. No, I wouldn’t cross the line to drive for them - that would be being a “scab” in it’s truest sense. But yes, if my own company asked me to deliver there I would cross the line to do so - my reasoning being that that 1) I would not risk my completely seperate job by refusing, nor would I expect anyone to do that for me - in fact it could be classed as secondary action which is illegal and therefore a sackable offence…and 2) there’d be a whole lot more chaos caused by that warehouse being over-filled than by it being empty.
where was the so called solidarity when the WTD came in,i was driving for wisemans in wolves depot when it came in,and overnight he slashed his wage bill in half,at the depot it was average to work 60 hrs, then all had to do 4 x 12 or at max 5 x 10 and no more.
the drivers was up in arms over the lost £100-160 drop in wages,the union (URTU)was at best F/in useless and he laughed all the way to the bank.
some drivers left,some moaned,some worked the extra hrs regardless,some was happy with forty eight hrs,me being anti union did the same hours as before,but spent less time kipping in laybys,between drops(4),and kept the hours down to 50/55.
all the so called, we will do this/ do that, never got of the ground,but the wagons are still rolling.
mark croft:
where was the so called solidarity when the WTD came in,i was driving for wisemans in wolves depot when it came in,and overnight he slashed his wage bill in half,at the depot it was average to work 60 hrs, then all had to do 4 x 12 or at max 5 x 10 and no more.
the drivers was up in arms over the lost £100-160 drop in wages,the union (URTU)was at best F/in useless and he laughed all the way to the bank.
some drivers left,some moaned,some worked the extra hrs regardless,some was happy with forty eight hrs,me being anti union did the same hours as before,but spent less time kipping in laybys,between drops(4),and kept the hours down to 50/55.
all the so called, we will do this/ do that, never got of the ground,but the wagons are still rolling.
and the depot is still there.
well it would be with such a shower of spineless ■■■■■■
mark croft:
where was the so called solidarity when the WTD came in,i was driving for wisemans in wolves depot when it came in,and overnight he slashed his wage bill in half,at the depot it was average to work 60 hrs, then all had to do 4 x 12 or at max 5 x 10 and no more.
the drivers was up in arms over the lost £100-160 drop in wages,the union (URTU)was at best F/in useless and he laughed all the way to the bank.
some drivers left,some moaned,some worked the extra hrs regardless,some was happy with forty eight hrs,me being anti union did the same hours as before,but spent less time kipping in laybys,between drops(4),and kept the hours down to 50/55.
all the so called, we will do this/ do that, never got of the ground,but the wagons are still rolling.
and the depot is still there.
I don’t understand the maths here - if the drivers were averaging 60 hrs a week and the WTD reduced that to 48 hrs how does that cut the wage bill in half?
If drivers lost £100 - £160 in wages then does that mean they used to work 60hrs a week for £200, or £320?
What relevance has where you sleep got?
