Oh Len you really are the Tories friend arent you.
Industrial action against government cuts could be timed to disrupt the London 2012 Olympics, the leader of Britain's largest union has suggested.Len McCluskey, of Unite, also called for civil disobedience in defence of public services during the Games, in an interview with the Guardian.
Mr McCluskey told the Guardian: "If the Olympics provide us with an opportunity, then that's exactly one that we should be looking at.
"The attacks that are being launched on public sector workers at the moment are so deep and ideological that the idea the world should arrive in London and have these wonderful Olympic Games as though everything is nice and rosy in the garden is unthinkable.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17200835
yeah, stinks of opportunism
... a bit like dressing up pension cuts as necessary because of the credit shizzle
So you reckon they ought to do a 'miners' and strike at a time management/government don't care?
I Can't see why anyone would want to go on strike.
As you're on the third year of a pay freeze, due to 'cuts, while at the same time watching the same government gleefully spunking billions and billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of taxpayers money on a fancy sports day
Yes thats going to make our country look really great isn't it. FFS. First its the tube drivers and now this.
Where do I volunteer as strike cover?
Well if making the country look great is the all-important objective, maybe the government needs to take a more Chinese approach to anyone who might jepordise this?
Certainly worked in Beijing 😉
Self sabotage is the only way people can think of to protest something? This countrys like one of them monks that sits and sets himslef on fire, or cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Everybody is in the shit nowadays so rather than booing about it and making the country look like a bunch of un-united idiots (Unite- i'll Unite my head with his bleeding nose) lets just get on with it FFS. Its all money grabbing anyway, can't people just get along!?! 😉
Why cant we operate on a "have your strike, have your P45 the next day" policy. Im sure there are millions who would jump at the opportunity to get into some of those jobs, what with the awesome pay (tube drivers for example)
SSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHH. FFS! You'll upset Bob
[img] 
[/img]
😯
Why not strike? and why not demonstrate to the world that the olympic w@nkfest doesn't represent the state of the nation. There won't be a better opportunity...
Why cant we operate on a "have your strike, have your P45 the next day" policy. Im sure there are millions who would jump at the opportunity to get into some of those jobs, what with the awesome pay (tube drivers for example)
THIS, unemployment is so high in this country people would (or should) jump at the oppurtunity to work.
Why cant we operate on a "have your strike, have your P45 the next day" policy. Im sure there are millions who would jump at the opportunity to get into some of those jobs, what with the awesome pay (tube drivers for example)
You are a Victorian mill owner and I claim my 5 shiny shillings.
Everybody is in the shit nowadays
No there not, the "were all in it together" line was just a pr soundbite, some people are doing very nicely indeed.
No there not, the "were all in it together" line was just a pr soundbite, some people are doing very nicely indeed.
And some people are in the shit, but we all have to live and get along in this country together regardless of how much you've got. Crying about things and waving placards will do nothing to change that. Look at occupylsx.
Where do I volunteer as [s]scab[/s] strike cover?
Try the TA if you like. You'll be needed in the Middle East when this Government brings the army back to run the tubes.
Apparently the great American writer jack London had this to say on the matter of strikebreakers:
After God had finished the rattlesnake, the toad, and the vampire, he had some awful substance left with which he made a scab. A scab is a two-legged animal with a corkscrew soul, a water brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles. When a scab comes down the street, men turn their backs and Angels weep in Heaven, and the Devil shuts the gates of hell to keep him out....
The Guardian - "Unite General Secretary Len McClusky cannot truly exist. He has been invented by the Daily Mail newsroom to keep Paul Dacre in clover."
And some people are in the shit, but we all have to live and get along in this country together regardless of how much you've got. Crying about things and waving placards will do nothing to change that. Look at occupylsx.
Well you can sit there quietly while your earnings are lowered your rights are eroded and your life is wiped from the shoes DC and his mates like dogshit. I would rather speak out.
But the chances are that you won't get the chance to do so 'legitimately'. I suspect there will be a ban on 'free speech' for the duration of the olympics. Not that it will stop the inevitable...
Why cant we operate on a "have your strike, have your P45 the next day" policy
its something to do with human rights iirc and it being enshrined about striking..it is really poor apparently it also means we cannot go round to the bankers houses who get big bonuses and rob them to get our money back and then burn their houses down to teach them a lesson
FFS if you have a strike it is to have an impact in management...clearly this is a great time to do this bit like the credit crunch and a budget issue was a good time to hit the public sector with a massive club motivated by political view whilst turning a blind eye to the excesses your friends in the city
Ah I love another I am left wing I am right wing lets argue thread..I predict lots of people changing their minds and being swayed by others arguments...but that is me, ever the optimist and seeing the good in people...ah well that is the idealistic left for you.
But the chances are that you won't get the chance to do so 'legitimately'. I suspect there will be a ban on 'free speech' for the duration of the olympics. Not that it will stop the inevitable...
Oh do calm down
Apparently the great American writer jack London had this to say on the matter of strikebreakers:
Ah Jack London was one of my favourites at school. I liked his books a lot but I could never figure out if he was a socialist or white supremacist. What do you think?
Everybody is in the shit nowadays
No they're not - just ordinary working people who had **** all to do with causing this mess, but are now paying for it handsomely.
While we pump billions into a massive corporate backslapping exercise in the richest area of the country.
[troll]grum, arguably "ordinary people" had lots to do with the mess as they were the ones that took out credit they couldn't afford and when they defaulted they left the banks in the proverbial[/troll]
Anyway, striking during the Olympics seems like a great way to remove any public support you previously had. A stupid, stupid idea.
How do you know that?
This is not about general conditions in the UK. This is about getting more money for the tube drivers during the Olympics! Currently they are being offered £500 to do their jobs during the Olympics, which brings with it some additional conditions or 'strings' as Len says! I don't know what the conditions are, but I suspect it is stuff like no holidays during the two weeks. Len is doing this to get more money knowing the Tube will have to pay up. It has sod all to do with the NHS changes, etc.
ohnohesback, which bit?
There is plenty of toxic debt that was created by "ordinary people", not to the level of the evil corporate bankers but a significant amount none the less.
Re. public opinion, I think a large part of the country are looking forward to welcoming a huge sporting event to London. I think that these people will be a tad peeved if said event is disrupted by strikes. Just my opinion but an opinion backup be talking to a wide range of people about it.
[i] Why cant we operate on a "have your strike, have your P45 the next day" policy[/i]
Because striking is what makes Britain great. Sod the wording on your contract, sod pride in a job well done. We want a day off and we want it NOW.
[quote=binners]I Can't see why anyone would want to go on strike.
More time to watch the Olympics?
[quote=lunge][troll]grum, arguably "ordinary people" had lots to do with the mess as they were the ones that took out credit they couldn't afford and when they defaulted they left the banks in the proverbial[/troll]
Agree with this to a certain degree.. consumer credit = in fashion, saving (for a rainy day) = out of fashion...
Where do I volunteer as strike cover?
+1
Today's BH-Suck-Pool is brought to you by McDonalds.
These guys are swimming against the tide: one day soon they will all be replaced by robots.
Thank god i'm getting out of london to avoid the sports day.
Are the Olympic games in Britain? Sorry being in Scotland I didn't notice.
lets just get on with it FFS. Its all money grabbing anyway
Let's get on with the money grabbing? 😕
Ah Jack London was one of my favourites at school. I liked his books a lot but I could never figure out if he was a socialist or white supremacist.
Jack London was very widely read in the Soviet Union. Of course, like the USSR, he could have been both socialist [i]and[/i] white supremacist...
so in my situation
*big disclaimer NO STRIKE ACTION PLANNED BY FIRE SERVICE DURING OLYMPICS CURRENTLY OR SUGGESTED ******
it's acceptable to have a pension contract ripped up halfway through your career?
it's acceptable to have your retirement age for the fire service extended to 65 from 55 or 65 if you are on the newer and already inferior nfps?
it's acceptable to be told that your new contribution rate to your 'new' pension is going to be 15% maybe more as opposed to the 11% you already pay?
It's acceptable to have a 3 year pay freeze leading up to this implementation so effectively i will have a 7% pay cut?
its acceptable to be told that we're all in this together but we have the highest contribution rate already in any public sector job and its going up further?
it's acceptable that the end of career communtation you'd based your plans mortgage etc around is now to be reduced and capped.
For the record i did go out in 2002 in support of an improvement in firefighters basic wage, the previous pay rise scale was linked to 'manual labour' as opposed to 'associate professional and technical' which it now is to recognise our constantly changing and developing role.
I hated every second of being on strike, reading the disinformation in the media made me feel like it was a no win, my friends and family questioned it and morally i was in turmoil.
The strike in 2002 had the effect of a very small increase in wages, no where near what was suggested, it led to the governmant effectively raping the fire service over the following 5 years, we're currently being hammered with ridiculous efficiency savings (as are many other private and public sector services) that are putting both your and our lives at increased risk and reducing the quality of the service provided.
I love my job, i trained bloody hard to get it, i am assessed requarly and it took me 5 years to Qualify. I will fight hard to keep it and maintain the quality of service i/we provide to the public, but why should i accept that in order to do this i have to roll over and sign my future away?
Removing your labour is the FINAL option, if the employer/goverment/authority refuse to continue in meaningfull and productive negotiations (which currently they are) then what other option is there? Other than roll over or quit?
I will finish and say that the fire services negotiations are different to the NHS, to the police and pretty much any other public sector, that said we're all being hammered and the divide and conquer policy is well in effect.
It's acceptable
Mo one says it isn't but if your union is so powerful why does it have to potential resort to striking at the worse time of year?
Are the leadership one dimension, simpletons?
It's acceptable
Mo one says it isn't but if your union is so powerful why does it have to potential resort to striking at the worse time of year?
Are the leadership one dimension, simpletons?
Unions aren't powerful!
where the hell did you get the impression they are?
have any of you lot actually been on a rush hour tube in the summer?
with the olympics bringing an extra 6 million visitors to London
500 quid is **** all considering the chaos thats likely to ensue
STOP! STRIKE! Or should we all rally round the flag and pretend its all nice in "great" Britain, while the government squanders our money and hopes we dont loose face to the rest of the world. (bit late for that).
While our public services are slowly being eroded and turned over to Dave's mates to make massive profits surely the best way of saying F*** ** is to have civil disobedience.
After all no one is listening in govt. to whats really happening in the real world.
Lets just nuke it all n go back to the stoneage. Everyone has nothing, no more arguments. 😈
if your union is so powerful why does it have to potential resort to striking at the worse time of year?
Because we have a government who couldn't give a **** about negotiating, who want to deliberately engineer confrontation with the public sector unions, so as to sway public opinion, along with their attack dogs in the media. Thus providing a cover for a completely ideological agenda to dismantle the welfare state, and privatise the public sector, wholesale
Are the leadership one dimension, simpletons?
No, clearly, that'll be you! 🙄
Are the leadership one dimension, simpletons?
Not very nice of you to call us all simpletons. 🙁
Hora
Anyone who believes Unions are powerfull is in my opinion Niave, they are the only route for a employee to democratically voice their opinion/feelings to an employer.
As for striking, well again i reiterate that there has been no Ballot or insinuation that the fire service is planning industrial action during the olympics or at any point in the future.
However i am aware that there are legal requirements for action to be taken within 28 days of a succesful ballot.
If the fire service negotiations crumble/stall and a succesful ballot is announced then it is a legal requirement for industrial action to be conducted within that time frame or industrial action will need to be cancelled.
There is overwhelming evidence that if the fire service pension scheme continues to up it's contribution rate, more people will be forced withdraw from it, this withdrawel means that there is not enough money going into the pot from employees, therefore the scheme will not make the 'savings' that this is all about, therefore defeating the whole exercise.
It is well documented that the goverment want public services to have decent pensions, but if they price us out of them and then the schemes fail they have publicly failed! Its because of this and the retirement age that i believe a negotiated new scheme will happen and i will be very sad if there is a need for industrial action to achieve this.
Lummox if you arent happy why dont you stop whinging, withdraw your labour permanently and go do something else with your life?
How many applicants per vacancy do the fire service get?
Are the leadership one dimension, simpletons?
No unless they voted you in when I was not looking
Is your argument that this wont be a good time to have/threaten industrial action? Ar eyou really suggesting unions will not be able to exert more levarage/get a better deal this week than the week after
FFS you may not like t but you cannot say it does not make sense.
As for the union sbeing powerful I think you may mistakenly think it is the 70's
