Fuel Strike?

[Grahamm]

price risen from yesterday 136,7 to 137,7 profitering gits

Count yourself lucky! Down here in Portsmouth, even before the stupid comments by Cameron and Mause, we were paying 139.9

Now, because I have to go to London tomorrow, I've just had to pay 146.9 at a BP station!

Foccing rip-off merchants 

[Sunny Intervals]

For those thinking the panic buy thing is a government conspiracy to up tax income,
Here's another theory on it 

Did Tories spur petrol panic to avoid recession?

by Sunny Hundal   

Some people on Twitter believe almost every government action is a conspiracy to hide something else. I don’t always buy that, but the latest theory doing the rounds has some merit.

At midnight tonight, the First Quarter of the year ends. The UK is already in danger of falling into recession and the OECD is predicting it.

UK GDP fell by 0.3% in the fourth quarter of last year. Technically, two quarters of contraction in a row means a recession.

We already know the UK economy is stagnant and sick. We know that Osborne’s “most pro-growth budget ever” didn’t work. So a technical recession will make little material difference. But the political implications will be huge.

So could the government prevent a recession in such a way? I suppose that will require finding out how much extra money people have spent in panic-buying, and determining whether it will be significant enough to make a significant difference.

Full article here

http://liberalconspiracy.org/2012/03/29/did-tories-spur-petrol-panic-to-avoid-recession/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+liberalconspiracy+%28Liberal+Conspiracy%29&utm_content=Google+Feedfetcher

[pete786.u]

Went to my local BP garage yesterday, no busier than normal, drove straight in filled up and was gone in about 5Min's but it did cost £60 for just over 40 litres of Unleaded 

[Robbie8666]

i'm fed up with been accused of Panic buying!
I fill up twice a week for my Cage & my Bike when I need it , and as the sun has been out that was on red too!
I travel over 1000 miles a week to and from work and travel home to Cornwall to my family at weekends.
Morrisons queue last night they had to have security directing traffic around the car park and this morning the queue was nearly completly round the car park!
 
as its been stated on here the drivers have to give 7 days notice!
and the reason for a strike is Health & safety issues not pay or anything not serious!

[alan sherman]

Just had to buy some petrol to get to work (could have cycled, but hey I recently got the moto back on the road).  Expensive and the place was out of diesel.

[goldfazer]

'the reason for a strike is Health & safety issues not pay or anything not serious!'

Allegedly...

And the irony is that the Gov have just announced the drivers can do an extra 2hrs on the road to keep the pumps topped up, so a bit of an own goal by the drivers

[BBROWN1664]

Not an own goal GF, a win. For them, it's not about hours it is more about elf and safety and pay/perks. Doing an extra few hours of OT wont do them (or us) any harm as they are limited on the hours they can drive normally. also, if there is a strike, they will get the same gain after they have had a few days off so they cover their losses. Bastids.

On top of all that, they have said there will be no strike over Easter. Why? Becasue if they did they would lose all the time & half and double time payments for working. They win all round.

Now, £45K per year for a relatively (compared to my job) stress free job working restricted hours. Think I might have to go and do my C+E and ADR course!
Alternatively, I hear they are runnning out of train and Tube drivers, another easy job

[richfzs]

Just been to my local asda to fill up, as I have to go to Edinburgh tmw. Its all pay at pump, so normally no staff present - today there's security wallers there, and queues - never have queues (well beyond 1 car waiting). No problem actually getting fuel though, what is wrong with these tossers?

[goldfazer]

Not sure I agree Bobster - part of the Elf and safety was the number of hours they had to work which they said was too high. Well they're now allowed to do 2 more per day!

[VNA - BMW Wank]

On top of all that, they have said there will be no strike over Easter. Why? Becasue if they did they would lose all the time & half and double time payments for working. They win all round.

No becuase UNITE is sitting down with ACASS on Monday.  In other words negotiations are ongoing.  As such it's no longer legally possible to call an official strike over Easter due to the 7 days notice legal requirement.

Well they're now allowed to do 2 more per day!

Because otherwise the country would grind to a halt  thanks to the governments rather silly advice.  But I still think the crazy Tories would rather look like goons over this than discuss their budget.

[BBROWN1664]

VNA, they could still have announced a strike to start in 7 days and do the negotiations in teh interveneing time

It's all about overtime!

[Grahamm]

a bit of an own goal by the drivers

Nope, the own goal was on the Government's side (or, rather, the Tories, I don't doubt). They tried to make the unions look bad, created a phoney crisis, created a whole bunch of unnecessary hassle for everyone and the drivers are now saying "Well we want to be reasonable, so we're willing to go back to the negotiating table" leaving Cameron and co looking really stupid for causing a situation they could have avoided.

[richfzs]

That's one way of looking at it Grahamm, a load of my mates reckon its not an own goal by the Tories at all, but a deliberate ploy to get people attention away from the budget.

I dunno which it is, but if my mates are right, its worked pretty well...

[VNA - BMW Wank]

VNA, they could still have announced a strike to start in 7 days and do the negotiations in teh interveneing time

It's all about overtime!

Strike action is not called until negotiations have failed.  Strike action is a last resort, and frankly nobody wants to go out on strike.  But sure, if Monday's negotiations break down with no hope of a settlement , then yes a strike will be called, but that means due to anti-union strike laws that there is still time left for employers to come back to the table (or 7 days to put in place contingency plans).

Trust me, the last thing you want to do is strike, if you do strike you certainly don't want to have to give 7 days notice of doing so.

As for OT, yes the government is doing an absolutely brilliant job of creating overtime for the drivers.

a load of my mates reckon its not an own goal by the Tories at all, but a deliberate ploy to get people attention away from the budget.

You could be right.  Even making a total James Hunt of yourself is preferable to talking about that budget.   However I'm not sure how long the Tories will want to play this one out for.  Play with petrol and well, lets not go there just now, but a settlement sometime next week and some new news stories would be perfect for the Tories.  I'm sure Tory spin doctors will doing even more OT than the drivers.