Guess what?

[gung-hoeddie]

i'd have to agree with ODB on that one, i used to be a union member some years ago, it is a total waste of time you'll have more of a chance setting up a SEF committee and negotiating through that,

[HugeBadWolf]

Have to say that the unions are a bad thing.
Good idea, but not so good in practice.
From my (limited) experience unions are in it for the union.
Subs seem to get spent on a ridiculous amount of paperwork, all designed to scare non-members into joining. More money gets spent on 'meetings' Find me a union rep thats ever paid for a drink, be it at the bar or minibar, and I'll eat my hat.

Rant? Much!

Cheers,
Doug

[SteveD]

It appears that the strikes are over pay, modernization, pensions and jobs. It seems the Unions want the government to bankroll their pension deficit (a big no no as they should then bankroll everyone's) and they don't want to modernize, in fact they have walked away from the talks. Can't say I have a great deal of sympathy the RM has been hopelessly out of touch with modern working practices for years and the unions have ridden roughshod over management for years.

I take some of it back then. Bloody public sector workers. Lucky to have pensions. Lots of us in commercial practice only get as a pension what we put in. And newsflash! There's a recession on. Times are hard. Some of my mates have had a 20% paycut this year. And if they complain they just get told they have to accept it, as it's to avoid the firm going under. Hard times in the commercial world I'm afraid.

[The Baron]

Up the Workers!

[ODB]

It appears that the strikes are over pay, modernization, pensions and jobs. It seems the Unions want the government to bankroll their pension deficit (a big no no as they should then bankroll everyone's) and they don't want to modernize, in fact they have walked away from the talks. Can't say I have a great deal of sympathy the RM has been hopelessly out of touch with modern working practices for years and the unions have ridden roughshod over management for years.

I take some of it back then. Bloody public sector workers. Lucky to have pensions. Lots of us in commercial practice only get as a pension what we put in. And newsflash! There's a recession on. Times are hard. Some of my mates have had a 20% paycut this year. And if they complain they just get told they have to accept it, as it's to avoid the firm going under. Hard times in the commercial world I'm afraid.

I don't mean to be harsh but at least they still have their jobs (never underestimate a regular income), it might suck to have a pay cut but on the brightside if they are good they will be lapped up on when it all rebounds.

[gung-hoeddie]

some years ago now long before i met Annie i was a bit down on my luck and lost everything i owned, but i still had my job which i desperately needed to survive, i went to work we all gathered together i thought we must have won a new contract yippee i needed the money, i was however told that we were being closed altogether and we had 30 minutes to empty our lockers and leave the premises, it was harsh and i was ruined. i think they should value the jobs they have if they don't like it quit!! let someone who wants to work, work.

[SteveD]

I agree ed - harsh, but these days a job is a job. Annoys me at the minute at work, when loads of people have been laid off, and some of them that are left are still moaning that they didn't get the usual m&s vouchers at Xmas!

[gung-hoeddie]

sadly some people are selfish to point of annoyance, i was told once i had to reduce staff levels to bring the costs in line with the budgit, i needed to release 11 staff two weeks before christmas really bad timing, something that upsets me to have to do, i had selected the people based on absence over a 12 month period, one of these was a pregnant woman, after giving her the bad news and she had left in tears one of my colleagues laughed and said at least i'm going to have a good christmas, i wanted to punch her big stupid face in, but sadly i said nothing something i regret to this day,

[Thundershot]

Eddie, you sould of changed your mind & fired the careless bitch who laughed!!

We had a round of redundancies @ our place last year, luckly the couple of girls who got the push managed to find alternative employment before leaving us..

When we had the meeting with the boss,about a month before any rendundancies, it was a private one to one talk explaining the reasons why we would all have to take a reduction in hours or lose even more people..well it was horrible, I've been with the same company for 14 years now & that's the clossest position I've ever been to losing my job.

The worst part was thinking "well I don't want to cut my hours & lose the money (or my job)" but I'd of felt really guilty about keeping my hours & making even more people redundant,but in the end it every body decided to take the reduction in hours..sort of nice to know your work mates would rather loose out some cash personnally than see someone else take the bullitt.