Union power

[slimwilly]

I see them union leaders leading their members into strikes, so that you , the general public will love them more.


It's odd how the employees seem to know how to run the companys.


If they are not careful it will be like the car manufacturers and miners, all go tits up.


There is always the risk the employers will replace the unions with foreign workers who say "thanks for the job"


Hope thet get it sorted, seems to be fucking up London,and all those workers who need to be places.

[goldfazer]

Totally agree.

[fazersharp]

Funny those union bosses earning £250k working for the hard pressed working man.
900 odd are needed to loose their jobs and over 1000 have said they would take volentry redundency. = no need to strike

[VNA - BMW Wank]

I see them union leaders leading their members into strikes

Union leaders cannot lead their members into a strike. 

Unions represent their members.  Members are balloted for industrial action if or when negotiations fail.  There is an extremely difficult lengthy process to go through before you can call an official 'legal' strike.   Which in turn is why more and more good old fashioned 'illegal' wild cat strikes are sadly becoming more common.

Funny those union bosses earning £250k working for the hard pressed working man.

Firstly who is this man or woman.  Secondly why is it OK for Maggie Thatcher to grow up as a Grocers daughter but spend her last years living at the Ritz, but if a working man or a union boss gets a decent rate of pay certain stupid idiots want to piss all over them.  So fuck off!

If they are not careful it will be like the car manufacturers and miners, all go tits up.

Who was that fella that ran ICI years ago, in his later years he had a TV show called The Trouble Shooter or something, anyway he said "there is such thing as bad industrial relations, only bad management"

Germany has a far far higher of union membership than the UK, but in Germany businesses value their workers (better rates of pay, terms, conditions and pensions) and see unions as their partners. 

I'm told the problem doon in London is London Underground want the majority of stations to run without ticket offices?  Never mind the jobs, but really how dumb can you get, or perhaps how stupidly greedy.

That's another thing that England is crap at (rather than the UK cos I think we're trying to learn that one in Scotland) - service. 

I know it's a pain for those who rely on the London tube to get to work, but for focs sake try and blame the right people.  It's about time somebody asked the bosses - why are your trains not running - why are you trying to wreck the service - get it fixed!

[fazersharp]

May be if the union bosses also lost a days pay they wont be so interested in strikes
And why do we even need ticket offices
I bet youve got a red fazer

[goldfazer]

Someone privately paid for Maggie to live at the Ritz, so you can scrub that one off the hate list. And she got to that stage by working, not striking. So fuck off.

Hopefully the tube will go driverless soon anyway, DLR runs just fine driverless. All striking does is give more strength to bringing in technology that works 24/7 without going sick or striking.

And TfL want the ticket office staff to move out onto the 'shop floor' - where they can help people, so all this 'there won't be anyone to help' is bollocks.

Who knows, it might keep them awake so they can actually do what they're paid for 

[VNA - BMW Wank]

Someone privately paid for Maggie to live at the Ritz, so you can scrub that one off the hate list. And she got to that stage by working, not striking. So fuck off.

That private somebody would be Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, owners of the Daily and Sunday Telegraph, err who also happen to own the Ritz I do believe.  I guess part of her reward for keeping the 'scum' under control for the toffs.

The rest of us, our good jobs gone, our pensions stuffed will probably end up lying in our own piss in some shitty minimum wage staffed crappy private care home, that every few years has to be bailed out by the state (tax payer).  Not that that will worry the rich as they don't pay tax anymore.

Hopefully the tube will go driverless soon anyway, DLR runs just fine driverless.

Yup just great till something goes wrong and there's no human to override it.  It's common sense to run a train with a human on board to oversee the immediate system.

And if it was your job?  goldfazer = fuck you I'm all right Jack?

And TfL want the ticket office staff to move out onto the 'shop floor' - where they can help people, so all this 'there won't be anyone to help' is bollocks.

Yeah right.  It's just a step to getting rid of em.  I guess it's up to folks in London, but ah ken if they proposed removing the ticket offices from The Clockwork Orange, I'd be happy to show support for the workers. 

And of course London will just become a joke in Europe without ticket offices.  I mean the English train services are already a joke, so why not turn the your London tube service into a joke.

[goldfazer]

'And if it was your job?  goldfazer = fuck you I'm all right Jack?'

I've been made redundant. And guess what, I got me arse into gear and found something else. And I pay for my own pension.

Trouble is VNA, folks like you hate success and actually want to end up 'lying in our own piss in some shitty minimum wage staffed crappy private care home' just so you can keep feeling bitter.

[VNA - BMW Wank]

Trouble is VNA, folks like you hate success and actually want to end up 'lying in our own piss in some shitty minimum wage staffed crappy private care home' just so you can keep feeling bitter.

I'm a union member, I've been a union member all my life working in unionised workplaces, so I do very well thank-you very much. 

Sorry to hear about your redundancy, but I hope your new career is to your liking and yer earning some good doh.

Success, envy?  Not me, I'm all for it (um the success, not the envy ), but not at other folks expense.

I mean take poor Bob, the boss of a big union which campaigns for the future of our transport system and with some success defends the pay terms and conditions of it's workers, well poor Bob takes a holiday and he gets it in the neck.  The Daily Mail is up in arms cos he took a wee break advertised in it's pages.  I winder who the Daily Mail thinks such holidays are for?

Talking of success, you know what gets me, it's hard working people not sharing in success.  Should not everybody doing their job and working full time not be able to share some success.  But no, a whole host of massive companies in the UK get away with paying their workforce the minimum wage, a wage that lies below the living wage - ie what you need to earn to be able to comfortably support ones self.  These are the very same companies that are very often dodging billions in corporation tax (legally allowed to do so by our Westminster government), which is why so many of us are focced.

So people like (you maybe) and I, earning good money and paying our taxes have to subsidise these big rich companies, their greedy fat cat directors and shareholders by putting our taxes towards benefits for their hard working employees.  If that is the politics of envy (not), then like a great many others I'm guilty as charged.

But the popular media, such as the Sun, the Mail, the Telegraph and so forth are successfully pulling the wool over the eyes of the masses getting them fighting each other over 'benefits' and good old Bob Crow sipping a cocktail on a beach in Brazil.  How dare Bob have a holiday!

God help good old Bob Crow if he even as much as spends one nigh in the Ritz! 

[esetest]

I remember during the miners strike Scargill being called a militant by the Sun while at the same time calling the Polish electrician Lech ( can't remember his surname a freedom fighter for wanting to form a union , so go figure .

[mtread]

Funny those union bosses earning £250k working for the hard pressed working man.

Bob Crow is paid £135K for leading a union of 80,000 members. Seems about right to me. He's just doing his job. I think you only get paid £250K if you are a banker, or a CEO whose job it is making thousands redundant.

900 odd are needed to loose their jobs and over 1000 have said they would take volentry redundency. = no need to strike

So what if they have enough applications for voluntary redundancy ? That's 950 fewer jobs for the jobless. Anyway, if you read TFL's proposals this is about much wider issues than just those jobs.
O and BTW that photo has been proven to be faked.

[Grahamm]

The Daily Mail is up in arms cos he took a wee break advertised in it's pages.  I winder who the Daily Mail thinks such holidays are for?

I've no love for Bob Crow (nor Boris!) but when the Daily Fail came out with this crap about him having a holiday drinking in "sun-kissed Brazil" he a) asked them what they expected him to do: Read Karl Marx all day? and b) pointed out (as you mention) that he actually got the holiday deal *FROM* the pages of the Daily Heil!!

[midden]

It's a shame Maggie didn't have the balls to do what was needed to make BT profitable instead of passing the blame and wealth to the private sector. 

[mtread]

[midden]

Its bad enough having self service checkouts in supermarkets

[BBROWN1664]

I cant stand those self service checkouts and would rather queue up at a normal till than go to an empty self service one.

Regarding the unions though, WANKERS. The lot of them and Bob Crow is amongst the worst.

I do think that stations should be manned though. Get rid of the drivers instead and bring in more DLR type driverless trains.

[fazed]

Strange that Boris Johnson said that he would not close any ticket stations in 2010 because it was popular with electors and travellers.......and helped to get him elected so perhaps those who decide things might try consulting their customers - or is that too inconvenient for British management s usual.  Strange that japanese car companies can set up & work well here - perhaps they just have better management than the rank amateurs often at thee head of british 'old boy network' run companies......just an alternative view

[locksmith]

Not sure Id feel comfortable without a driver on a London tube train but it's easy enough using the ticket machines, easier than queuing at the ticket office!

I expect next weeks strike will go ahead as Arsenal are at home to Man utd so the union is bound to foc that up.

[Hedgetrimmer]

Never been a member of a union myself, but I do think sometimes they are necessary to stop employers taking the piss. It's sad to have to say that, but we see it often enough. It's about balance. Employers should look after their employees, and unions & employees should not feel the need to go all militant in their methods to get what they are entitled to. But unfortunately, we have this thing called human nature...

[VNA - BMW Wank]

Strange that japanese car companies can set up & work well here - perhaps they just have better management than the rank amateurs often at thee head of british 'old boy network' run companies......just an alternative view

That is about it.  When certain Japanese companies were considering and negotiating to open car plants in the UK, a few things they were clear about was, 1. They were happy to have a unionised workforce but they insisted on a single union deal (ie they didn't want to have to sit down with 6,7 or 8 unions), 2. they sought assurances from the government that the UK was in the EU common market for good.  They needed car plants in Europe to get round EU import restrictions.

The Japanese value and respect their workers and do much business on the basis of trust.  Change at work in a Japanese plant is through negotiation. 

Talking of British car makers, Triumph Rover in I think the late 80's was in partnership with Honda and both were starting to make some half decent cars sharing technology and common platforms.  Thatcher (or was it Major) arrogantly sold Rover to BMW without consulting Honda.  Part of the reason BMW wanted to get it's hands on Rover was to get it hands on the new technology that the Japanese were coming up with.  If it wasn't for the shear stupidity of certain Tory ministers Rover would still be in partnership with Honda today.  A total foc up.

Employers should look after their employees, and unions & employees should not feel the need to go all militant in their methods to get what they are entitled to.

I can tell you, no employee, no union member ever wants to go on strike.  Industrial action can also cement resentment and bitterness in a business.  There's no need for industrial action, but when you have dumb macho managers it's inevitable.

A rail service with no ticket offices, I mean what a joke.  Surely it's taking the piss out of London Undergrounds customers too.

Anyway polls are showing a strong majority of Londoners supporting the strike despite the inconvenience they are suffering.  Maybe Londoners ain't such a bad lot after all

[VNA - BMW Wank]

Regarding the unions though, WANKERS. The lot of them and Bob Crow is amongst the worst.

8 million wankers.  Nice one.  Ya fud.

[Phil]

Never been a member of a union myself, but I do think sometimes they are necessary to stop employers taking the piss. It's sad to have to say that, but we see it often enough. It's about balance. Employers should look after their employees, and unions & employees should not feel the need to go all militant in their methods to get what they are entitled to. But unfortunately, we have this thing called human nature...

I agree. I've been in a Union all my working career. They handled our outsourcing/insourcing well where we could have lost out even more than we did. I've been on strike twice in 29 years, the last time was 1992 or thereabouts. The last ballot for industrial action 2 or 3 years ago about cuts/pensions got a resounding no.

Dont forget, its the workers that have to vote for a strike, not just the Union leaders saying lets strike.

Do other European cities have ticket offices for all stations on their underground/trams? I cant recall seeing an office in Koln or Vienna, you just stick your money in the machine. A simplified pricing structure would help. Vienna has 1 city zone for the majority of the city.

[Hamos]

I thought they were closing the offices and putting some of those people in the stations to assist on the shop floor?  Can't see a problem with just using ticket machines.  And if there is a handy high vis clad "travel coordinator manager executive assistant" somewhere to help when I have spent 10 minutes trying to shove my fiver into the credit card slot then that is a bonus.
I've been through London only a handful of times, so not enough to get familiar with the underground system, but I've never had to use a manned ticket counter, or felt the need to, so a big fuss about nothing in my view.  I would have more sympathy if they were just striking about the loss of jobs, but grinding London to a halt because some ticket offices are getting shut, seems OTT to me.

[JoeRock]

The Japanese value and respect their workers and do much business on the basis of trust.  Change at work in a Japanese plant is through negotiation. 

Working at a Japanese bank, that is true. However what it also means is that they are often reluctant to change, particularly where its needed quickly, and often have an unneccesarily complex business structure because of it!

[lew600fazer]

Anyone who believes there is no need for unions is just a fucking idiot,
But fuckit my 2 pence worth move half the fucking jobs out of London to areas were the cost of property is less and labour costs likely less as well. No wonder the Jocks are pushing for Independance, everything in this fucked country seems to be centred in the South East of the country.

As regards Thatcher spending her remaining days at the RITZ even her own children had had enough of the old cunt.
Got herself elected for a second term on the back of a war. Then refused to let the injured and disfigured for life, service men parade through London with the armed forces as part of a victory celebration to saint Pauls.
Yes they were allowed to attend the service but had to quietly file in and sit at the back so as the general public could not see there hideous scars and disfigurement.
That old bitch has split the UK in two as in the North South devide.
She led the charge to destroy our manufacturing base ably assisted I may add by Scargill and co, but at least villian that he was he forecst the damage that that bitch and her cronies would do to the country.
The London underground are wanting to make x amount redundant to save £50 million, will those savings be passed onto the customers in stalling the next price hike in fares, I doubt it. They save £50 million , payout redundancy packages(costs please) the now unemployed have to sign on the dole for benifits, which I assume will be means tested. Who is going to pick up the tab for unemployment benifits? so can some one explain to me were are the actual savings.
One thing I will say is that strikes by public service workers should not be allowed, but if an independent body fines in favour of the work force heads should roll at the very top of management.
Get back to talking about fazers for fucks sake and screw politics.