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PeterPoddy may not express it in a very sensible way but he has got a point.
Unionisation is obviously a good thing for workers rights. They keep a check on the excesses of unrestricted capitalism (which is a good thing) and the threat of strike is obviously their ultimate bargaining chip.
But I think where this becomes dangerous, if left to flourish unchecked, is when it relates to essential services. A strike here is not only holding the employer to ransom but the general public as well.
So when we get a bit pissed off at the tanker drivers (or the teachers, train drivers, fire brigade etc) its not because we favour BP and Shell getting richer but because we are angry that we have been sucked into the unions games and have become collateral damage.
This anger will be magnified when we see what the union is asking for is out of whack with what is happening to everyone else. It makes it look like they are using their strong bargaining power of a strike threat (only available to them due to their position of providing essential services) to get over the odds, more than the worker in another sector can get when they don't have the general public by the balls.
Unite, Bob Crow and all their other despicable cronies would do well to recogise this.
Massed muppetry? Bradford West yesterday!
This anger will be magnified when we see what the union is asking for is out of whack with what is happening to everyone else. It makes it look like they are using their strong bargaining power of a strike threat (only available to them due to their position of providing essential services) to get over the odds, more than the worker in another sector can get when they don't have the general public by the balls
Big companies use their strong bargaining power to make profits that are 'out of whack with what is happening to everyone else' all the time, and no-one bats an eyelid.
DezB: do you have any unemployed teenagers locally you would trust with your car ? Send them to queue, for an hourly rate. Get them to wash it too.
In fact if they had any sense local entrepreneurs would going up and down the queue offering to wash cars. Not to mention the local hookers and drug dealers. So I won't.
Loving this on the metro news website .. ahem.
Number of filling stations affected by panic buying….. 8,000+
Rise in sales of jerry cans at Halfords…………………… 500%
Rise in sales of petrol since fuel farce began………….. 81%
Extra fuel duty collected on Wednesday alone………… £32m
Number of fuel delivery strikes announced…………….. 0
Big companies use their strong bargaining power to make profits that are 'out of whack with what is happening to everyone else' all the time, and no-one bats an eyelid.
Partly true, but this is usually because the big companies normally get rich by providing something that lots of people want. (e.g. Tesco may be big and horrible, closing high streets, making huge profits and avoiding tax but it turns out that people do actually want cheap and available crappy food)
And when they abuse this power people tend to either exert political pressure (see windfall taxes on the banks and oil companies) or vote with their wallets.
We have options, we may not choose to use them, but they exist.
But when providers of a essential service strike we are stuck, we have no option but to become collateral damage in their games.
I've just had an email from toolshop direct telling me about their fantastic range of Jerry Cans.....They're on the ball
The unions actions ultimatley lead to their their own downfall - in a dispute between employer and employee, the threat to hold the public to ransom is the nuclear button.
we saw it in '79 - people were sick of being held to ransom, the unions had no interest in the wellbeing of the public, it was, as always, 'I'm alright Jack' and since then the public, who have to run lives and hold down their own jobs without being able to blackmail the rest of us, have run a mile from the unions, and the left in general.
Thing is, there's also a level of human nature in it - the Tories have proved that if you treat the Sheeple like adults and say "This is the situation, there's a threat to strike, use some common sense, act normally but and fill up when you get the chance" then the arseholes of the world descend into chaos.
woman has suffered 40% burns in york transfering fuel in her kitchen
will Francis maude get sacked now ?
[i]DezB: do you have any unemployed teenagers locally you would trust with your car ? Send them to queue, for an hourly rate. Get them to wash it too.[/i]
*scratches chin*
Seriously considering...
woman has suffered 40% burns in york transfering fuel in her kitchenwill Francis maude get sacked now ?
I must have missed the bit where he recommended decanting petrol in your kitchen with the cooker on.
A fire service spokesman said: "Her daughter asked her mum for petrol because she had run out. The cooker was on and the fumes ignited."
From the BBC website about the poor lady that set herself alight. Why would you think about transferring petrol with a cooker that was on
I've just had an email from toolshop direct telling me about their fantastic range of Jerry Cans.....They're on the ball
When will they be delivered? 😆
it was, as always, 'I'm alright Jack'
You've got a bit confused, that's the mantra of the Tories not the unions. HTH.
Extra fuel duty collected on Wednesday alone………… £32m
A few people have mentioned this but (unless people really are stockpiling jerry cans full of fuel) it's not really "extra" fuel duty is it?
It's just being collected slightly earlier than usual and will be followed by a bit of a dip.
If anything the overall fuel duty collected should go down as people decide to drive more conservatively to preserve fuel.
No, you're absolutley right - this is clearly a dispute about health and safety
[i]'The management is wilfully jeropardizing the safety of it's employees'[/i]
It's just being collected slightly earlier than usual and will be followed by a bit of a dip.
Well, just before the end of the financial year so this years figures don't look quite so disastrous? Not sure I buy this part of the conspiracy theory tbh.
It's just being collected slightly earlier than usual and will be followed by a bit of a dip.
Yeah - but it's also been mentioned that the dip will appear in next quarter's figures...
From the BBC website about the poor lady that set herself alight. Why would you think about transferring petrol with a cooker that was on
Probably some folk fully understand the volatile nature of petrol the liquid but don't understand just how dangerous the vapour is.
As I noted earlier- I wouldn't take a petrol/petrol filled container anywhere near my property. To have it inside your house and be pouring etc?
Vapour- the ****ing smell alone. Jesus wept.
This government is screwed up, it knows the public can't be trusted to look after themselves so they bang more tax on pasties booze and fags but then say "panic buy and keep loads volatile fuel in your home".Just been on the news some poor woman set herself on fire while transferring petrol between containers in her kitchen
*ing *tards
TBH the woman is probably a walking timebomb to herself.
Theres probably NO risk re mobiles etc on forecourts but I was watching one girl holding the mobile in one hand chatting whilst bending over filling up with......a big mobile/crossed out symbol behind her on the pump.
This is the Self-obsessed, selfish, celebrity culture that we are moving towards.
She should sue someone.
That's what the people that natural selection can no longer kill do isn't it.
Bet it's a slow day for petrol station employees. They'll just be selling jerry cans and rizlas because there's no fuel left round here.
From the BBC website about the poor lady that set herself alight. Why would you think about transferring petrol with a cooker that was on
Horribly tragic accident. Must have been utterly terrifying.
Stupidity of the highest order though, splashing petrol around indoors, especially a kitchen with the oven on ...
Theres probably NO risk re mobiles etc on forecourts
Agreed. I strongly suspect that the main reason for the ban is to ensure people pay attention whilst they're pumping fuel. Give many people a phone and they can't walk in a straight line, never mind pour volatile liquids.
Same with bans in hospitals and aeroplanes. It's not that they'll affect equipment, it's that people on phones are a bloody nuisance.
Theres probably NO risk re mobiles etc on forecourts
I've been told off, via the forecourt tannoy, for using my mobile whilst sat inside the car while the missus was in paying.
Somehow I think the risk was just a little overstated. 😯
This is the Self-obsessed, selfish, ... culture that we are moving towards
Moving towards? Why the future tense?
We're already there aren't we?
I'd say we've been there for quite a while too ...
Yes, I mean current and future generations of children. The instant now/gratification culture where they see idiots getting rich from not having any skill but having fake tits or 'doing someone' etc...
I've been told off, via the forecourt tannoy, for using my mobile whilst sat inside the car while the missus was in paying.
It was on mythbusters. I think they had a mobile phone in a container full of Petrol vapour and Oxygen at exactly the right ratio to cause an explosion and nothing happened at all.
Theres probably NO risk re mobiles etc on forecourts
I've been told off, via the forecourt tannoy, for using my mobile whilst sat inside the car while the missus was in paying.Somehow I think the risk was just a little overstated.
Didn't one of those daft science programmes hosted by Richard Hammond do a test where they doused the interior of a caravan in petrol etc and then called a load of mobile phones they'd left inside ... unsurprisingly, nothing exploded
EDIT : beaten to it ^
It was on mythbusters. I think they had a mobile phone in a container full of Petrol vapour and Oxygen at exactly the right ratio to cause an explosion and nothing happened at all.
Yep.
If it was really that risky then they'd need to make you switch off your mobile completely before even entering the forecourt.
And you'd have to push your car in too. With the radio off. Wearing anti-static shoes.
Theres probably NO risk re mobiles etc on forecourts
http://atexphones.com/Ecom_Xcom_200-Ex.php
That will be how my work spends about £600 buying one of these to use in the refinery.
When I worked at a petrol station, we were told that the risk wasn't from the signal or owt, but the risk that
a)someone might drop their mobile on the forecourt and the battery might fall out and spark.
b)if the person is filling up and on the phone, they might not be concentrating and end up spilling fuel everywhere.
That will be how my work spends about £600 buying one of these to use in the refinery.
How do you think that thing works? Magic?
How do you think that thing works? Magic?
Its pretty much all double sealed (keyboard sealed, battery sealed and screwed in place etc) we would be able to use it in an emergency situation, gas leak etc
Oh look!Was it all for nothing...
Well they've not actually ruled out strikes have they? Anybody with any sense knew already that strikes were at least 7 days away - it's not the people with sense who are the problem.
As I noted earlier- I wouldn't take a petrol/petrol filled container anywhere near my property.
How do you mow the lawn then? With a Flymo?
Awful things.
Electric.
Coyote - Member
Oh look!Was it all for nothing...
Cool! So I won't have to queue? Or hire teenagers?
Electric
You're missing out on a world of noisy fun. Petrol powered chainsaws are great. And electric strimmers - also awful.
Although I must confess, I do use an electric mower (but I hate it).
Its pretty much all double sealed (keyboard sealed, battery sealed and screwed in place etc) we would be able to use it in an emergency situation, gas leak etc
Yep - But its still a mobile phone with a mobile phone signal. Which kind of proves the point that the forecourt ban on phones is nothing to do with them being phones.
Fuel strike??? WHAT fuel strike!?
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mrs just phoned she's gone for petrol as she's running on empty, still queues everywhere and several garages closed, despite the fact that there's NO STRIKE!
Artificial fuel shortage, well done DC