The years of discontent, 2022/23

[Sergeant Wilson]

1 minute ago, Gaz said:

I've been borrowing my mum's car (vroom vroom!) the past couple of days so been listening to Five Live on my morning commute rather than my usual podcasts.

The presenters are really not even hiding their anti-union stance.

Did she not show you how to work the radio?

[Dawson Park Boy]

20 minutes ago, Gaz said:

I've been borrowing my mum's car (vroom vroom!) the past couple of days so been listening to Five Live on my morning commute rather than my usual podcasts.

The presenters are really not even hiding their anti-union stance.

Just shows what a bubble you’ve been living in.

At least your mum seems to have some sense.

[Cosmic Joe]

12 minutes ago, Dawson Park Boy said:

Just shows what a bubble you’ve been living in.

At least your mum seems to have some sense.

I couldn't be certain, but his mum probably isn't a presenter on 5 live. 

[Clown Job]

Some quality journalism right here 

 

[Gaz]

1 hour ago, Cosmic Joe said:

I couldn't be certain, but his mum probably isn't a presenter on 5 live. 

My mum is Chris Sutton

[vikingTON]

2 hours ago, carpetmonster said:

Rest of the deal looks brilliant as well

 

Which parts of the changes to the terms do you disagree with and why?

Edited December 14, 2022 by vikingTON

[carpetmonster]

2 minutes ago, virginton said:

Which parts of the changes to the terms do you disagree with and why?

I’d imagine if my union weren’t pushing back against 2 and 7 in particular I’d be strongly questioning the point of my union. 

[vikingTON]

15 minutes ago, carpetmonster said:

I’d imagine if my union weren’t pushing back against 2 and 7 in particular I’d be strongly questioning the point of my union. 

Which would be (mostly) reasonable. Although it's notable that the RMT do not actually mention these outrageous points in their statement about why they rejected:

https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/no-to-network-rail-offer/

I'd suggest that Taj Ali is being as economical with the truth about the literal terms of an agreement as the government.

[SweeperDee]

pretty much sums it all up. Anyone against the strikes are either zipped up at the back, Tory boot lickers, or just well off enough not to care. Country is run by, and full of despicable c***s; hate them all. 

[101]

6 hours ago, Scotty Tunbridge said:

I dunno, a 9% offer really isn’t that bad tbh (it’s not still a pay cut so don’t wheel that line out).

If it was on its own then yes, I would agree. But it's clearly not, therefore the package on the table is not one they are willing to accept.

[coprolite]

4 hours ago, SweeperDee said:

pretty much sums it all up. Anyone against the strikes are either zipped up at the back, Tory boot lickers, or just well off enough not to care. Country is run by, and full of despicable c***s; hate them all. 

I think that’s overly simplistic.

Personally I support all of those that have downed tools so far and think that they all have good reasons for going out. 
There are good arguments against some of the action as well.

Not all the strikes have the same context. 

The Scottish teachers’ strike was different from the English one because of the budget constraints on Holyrood. There were reasonable arguments put forward about the distributional impacts of that claim on lower paid staff. Of course, it’s P&B so there was some knee jerk reactionary Ill thought out shit too, but there was at least a point to make. We had a teacher on here saying he’d voted against action (in England) because he’d prefer funds to go to lower paid assistants. That doesn’t fit your categories at all.

There’s also a moral hazard problem. In my Union days (in a small Union) we balloted on and went on strike against the committee’s advice. Their view was that there was no appetite in the membership for prolonged action (true) and any effort would be tokenism. We had such low density in the workplace that no one really noticed we were out for a day and the employer pushed through the changes anyway. 
 

Obviously it’s not exactly the same for the bigger unions with higher membership densities but showing your hand can be a bad idea and let the employer know just how weak your resolve is. 
 

Then there’s the problem of the occasional grandstanding egomaniac who likes calling strikes to get on the telly and be all Scargilly without any care for their members long term best interests and the sustainability of their position. I don’t think there’s as many of these as there used to be, but there’s a couple.

[vikingTON]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2022/dec/15/tssa-network-rail-accept-improved-pay-deal-train-strikes

Quote

 

The offer, a two-year deal covering the missed January 2022 pay rise and 2023, was rejected last week by the RMT, which is pressing ahead with a second 48-hour strike on Thursday.

The TSSA said the vote was on a 70% turnout of 2,500 union members in its lower-paid grades at Network Rail, mainly in safety, maintenance and track control roles. 

 

 

[carpetmonster]

 

[ICTChris]

On 01/12/2022 at 13:46, ICTChris said:

 

I’ve got the feeling we’ll be hearing from her again, a new Scottish media character is born, ala Jane Park.

Yep.

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/glasgow-only-fans-teacher-banned-25794445?fbclid=IwAR2OU_Gfm5Ibx_Mza7CU8XRhPOW6XZ1srll21JXzYwyUA-JwtFnhRwC_9Uk

 

[Lofarl]

21 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

Yep.

https://www.glasgowlive.co.uk/news/glasgow-news/glasgow-only-fans-teacher-banned-25794445?fbclid=IwAR2OU_Gfm5Ibx_Mza7CU8XRhPOW6XZ1srll21JXzYwyUA-JwtFnhRwC_9Uk

 

Had a quick look at some of her OF content on a gentlemans pictorial website.  Bless those loyal perverts.

[ICTChris]

Quote

 

NHS England medical director Prof Stephen Powis has advised the public: "Don't get so drunk that you end up with an unnecessary visit to A&E".

Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he asked the public to be sensible during the season of parties before Christmas, and said that "today is not the best of days to end up in an A&E department if you don't need to be there".

 

I mean, you probably shouldn't get so drunk you have to go to A&E ever rather than just when there's a strike on.  

[Billy Jean King]

Scottish NHS overwhelmingly rejected the latest 7.2% offer and look set to join the rest of the UK striking in January. 

[beefybake]

On 14/12/2022 at 18:04, coprolite said:

I think that’s overly simplistic.

Personally I support all of those that have downed tools so far and think that they all have good reasons for going out. 
There are good arguments against some of the action as well.

Not all the strikes have the same context. 

The Scottish teachers’ strike was different from the English one because of the budget constraints on Holyrood. There were reasonable arguments put forward about the distributional impacts of that claim on lower paid staff. Of course, it’s P&B so there was some knee jerk reactionary Ill thought out shit too, but there was at least a point to make. We had a teacher on here saying he’d voted against action (in England) because he’d prefer funds to go to lower paid assistants. That doesn’t fit your categories at all.

There’s also a moral hazard problem. In my Union days (in a small Union) we balloted on and went on strike against the committee’s advice. Their view was that there was no appetite in the membership for prolonged action (true) and any effort would be tokenism. We had such low density in the workplace that no one really noticed we were out for a day and the employer pushed through the changes anyway. 
 

Obviously it’s not exactly the same for the bigger unions with higher membership densities but showing your hand can be a bad idea and let the employer know just how weak your resolve is. 
 

Then there’s the problem of the occasional grandstanding egomaniac who likes calling strikes to get on the telly and be all Scargilly without any care for their members long term best interests and the sustainability of their position. I don’t think there’s as many of these as there used to be, but there’s a couple.

I seem to recall that just about everything Scargill said about the then government, their intentions for his industry, and his predictions for the future ..., were  accurate, and came true. 

[coprolite]

27 minutes ago, beefybake said:

I seem to recall that just about everything Scargill said about the then government, their intentions for his industry, and his predictions for the future ..., were  accurate, and came true. 

And pulling everyone out on strike hastened the process.

[Clown Job]

It’s funny the only thing that doesn’t seem to do up when inflation hits is working class wages