Winter of discontent approaching fast

So the Royal Mail workers are going out strike, even though theyve just been bribed given shares in what was our company.

Oil refinery workers where due to strike in Scotland, but called it off, so management still close down the refinery for a while,possibly to make sure they show who is in charge,

Firemen having a 5 hour strike, Sunday.

teachers to strike along with univercity staff,

Great western train drivers are to strike , and contract cleaners are striking.

Roll on the demise of the condems,
roll on the strikes, power to the people.

Get to **** work and be happy you’ve got a job is what I say!

Disconsent? Does that mean it’s going to be forced upon us?

It could snowball out of control and things could get a bit flaky.

now I’m not being funny but I couldn’t see who posted this but I somehow guessed it was you project. seriously are you genuinely this negative about things? it’s just that many of the posts I see you on you are hardly a ray of light. i’m generally very positive about life and find your general view a bit depressing. don’t get me wrong, I’m not questioning your views because fair enough and all that but really? do you consider the world in general to be that bad?.

disconsent

univercity staff

Nice work 😉

Marcus, just pointing out the failures of the con dem government,and if you read all my posts like i do, youll find i offer a lot of help,advice, ad usually a hint of humour.

The only ray of light is that the con dems will loosee the next election,look forward to that…..

Well RM going on strike will hardly bring the country to its knees, just speed up replacing more of them with machines / outsourcing.

As for the Grangemouth refinery, it’s making such large losses that it is pretty inevitable it will be shut down, unless the Unions concede something significant. There was an article in the Sunday Times basically saying the Unions tried to shaft the owner when he was in severe financial trouble a few years back and this is pay back for that (not withstanding it’s also a loss making site). You reap what you sow etc…

In fact none of the strikes will have any real affect on the country….

if you read all my posts like i do, youll find i offer a lot of help,advice, ad usually a hint of humour.

now that’s funny!
ahha hahhhahhhaa hahahhah hahhha 😀

I think it’s only a matter of time til there’s more dancing in the streets tbh but it won’t be to do with royal mail and ineos strikes.

yeah I get that but I just find it hard work, like the Chester thread where you made some negative remarks at first then some good advice!. I just hate the idea of a fella that lives relatively close not being able to see the good stuff in life!. I can’t honestly say I’ve read all your posts so maybe I’m just picking up on certain ones!. just had to say something really! 🙂

Both negatives and positives in Chester, i was just pointing out both sides of the city.

The whole point of a forum discussion is you get to put your point accross, some agree some disagree, its not a yes man state run forum, where people are affraid to say something a bit different and get others minds working.

Now back to strikes.

well I’ve seen my fair share of strikes since the 70’s and all that seems to have happened is the unions have become weaker… infact I can’t honestly remember when they have helped. if you want me to be honest IME most people just don’t care and be that due to media reports or apathy people have become or maybe always were not generally interested in things outside their immediate worlds. STW appear to be far more interested in such matters and I sometime think that they are often in the minority of the population. Ive seen it on here where peoples interest in a teachers struck doesn’t go beyond the personal inconvenience it causes. Any and all strikes will I reckon be essentially be ignored by the majority as it will not affect them in any significant way and life will carry on. the unions are so restricted now and the media no longer supports them ( not that they did) that the impact can at best be minimal. IME you have to go way into the past to get to a time when the unions had a real voice and one that was to be reckoned with which even though I’d never join a union is a shame.

marcus7 – just think how even more ineffectual the unions would be if the Labour governments hadn’t used their 13 years in power to roll back all that Tory anti-union legislation.

Oh… hang on.

the british trades unions are there own worst enemies.. why on earth dont they keep there members contributions till the elections are over then roll up with a brown paper bag to the desk of the winner.. then they d have influence no matter which party was in power..

what on earth have they to strike about..

a country where more people than ever are in work where the number of claimants for benifits fell at its sharpest for 16 years where inflation is amongst the lowest in the developed world where the income tax bill for your first 10 grand is NOWT… did all this happen under ed millimuppet or the condems.. look at what a mess nice but dim gordon left us in.. was that soooooo much better..

In fact none of the strikes will have any real affect on the country….

come back tomorrow!

a country where more people than ever are in work where the number of claimants for benifits fell at its sharpest for 16 years where inflation is amongst the lowest in the developed world where the income tax bill for your first 10 grand is NOWT.

Wow, that’s a rather romantic view of this country. Having “one of the lowest inflation rates in the developed world” and ” more people in work than ever” etc, are not a lot to shout about when you dig a little deeper.

Have you seen what postal workers are demanding, legally binding guarantees of job security and conditions into the future to avoid joining the so called race to the bottom for wages etc. The only race they’ll be joining will be for the job centre, why do they think the condems were so keen to get shot?

Don’t be so sure you’ll get shot of the dems at the next election, there’s a fair chance they’ll be forming the liblab flip flop coalition with Ed Millmutt.

And what difference will it make? What did gorgeous George call them – 3 cheeks of the same arse?

None probably, or about as much difference as the strikes are likely to make, ie those involved will become even more disliked.

Are they not just maintaining the same strike rate as under a labour government?

If there’s a 3 way split next election it’s more likely to be Tory/UKIP/Lab than Tory/LibDem/Lab. I suspect one party will have an overall majority though, that’s the usual outcome – whatever happened in 2010.

The super unions of the 70,s and 80,s those that had real power who could slow the country down, like the power workers, the coal miners,local authority workers .bin men etc and firemen, followed by the bus workers and car plants, all split up or paid off.

The strikes that are going to happen will just inconvenience a lot of people but have little effect on con dem plc, the strikers will just be split up, made redundant or sacked replaced by those hungry for a job,thosdse that are curently branded scroungers,workshy etc.

Do you remember the seventies or the early eighties? Have you ever had mortgage rates at 17%? In comparison this is a soft prosperous time. And things are getting better – slowly and not equally every where, but definitely on the up. I feel the next thing is more likely to be “loads a money” rather than “winter of discontent”.
Hurrmph!

But in the 70`s a lot of us didnt have mortgages we rented off the council, or private landlords, savings rates where high for those who saved, people seemed happier and there was freindship and comaraderie in work places, now its all back biting and bitching in a lot of places,petty minded management imposing daft rules just to find ways of sacking people.

There will and always will be loads of money for those who start off with loads of money,for a lot of us its a struggle.

Was the 70’s not also the time where if you disagreed with the unions you would be better off leaving anyway, striking in support of people you had never met or had no view on their issues but you were told to strike.

It seems like your memories are rose tinted…

I’m pissed off because we had a big massive LCD TV when I was a kid and now I can’t afford one.

When you say saving rates were high, you’re really saying inflation rates were high, which ultimately robbed savers of their savings. I live in a in a very mixed community with a high level of minorities and disadvantage. Its as happy now if not happier than anywhere I lived in the seventies (which were generally more advantages communities – rural and city – than where I live now).
Are you really old enough to compare?

striking in support of people you had never met

You mean there was a time when people weren’t just motivated by personal greed ?

legally binding guarantees of job security and conditions into the future to avoid joining the so called race to the bottom for wages etc

would you like to take a bet with me about what will happen to postal workers terms and conditions over the next 10 years ?
Better or worse than current and especially for new joiners.
Would you?

It seems like your memories are rose tinted..

Seems like yours are false

Gowrie – Member

In comparison this is a soft prosperous time. And things are getting better – slowly and not equally every where, but definitely on the up. I feel the next thing is more likely to be “loads a money”….

Now there’s one very happy and satisfied voter.

There’s not many of those about.

Roll on the demise of the condems

Is that a good idea, given the likelihood of power cuts and that we’ve already got a rising population?

To anyone who thinks the UK’s rubbish, why don’t you spend some time out of your first world bubble and get a bit of perspective on how it is for the rest of the world?
Try popping across to one of these places and complain about how crap your first world life is:
China, Russia, Argentina, Cuba, Venezuela, South Africa (most of Africa tbh) India, Japan, Zimbabwe, Portugal, Spain, Greece, Italy, Bulgaria, Somalia, North Korea…
All of these places are either massively poorer, much higher unemployment, corruption, lack of democracy or basic freedoms, lack of proper healthcare, basic infrastructure etc etc

So Broken Britain was a Tory lie then ?

Or are you saying that they’ve already fixed it ?

brooess – Member

To anyone who thinks the UK’s rubbish, why don’t you spend some time out of your first world bubble and get a bit of perspective on how it is for the rest of the world?

Nah, how about we look at it on its own merits? You don’t have to give up all ambition for a better and fairer nation for your kids just because somewhere else has it worse, especially when the things we can (should) do won’t negatively impact those less fortunate.

strikes my ass. when people get seriously fecked off enough with socio-economic inequality they just start burning their High Streets to the ground and raiding footlocker and PCworld for what they percieve to be materialistic answers. What needs changing is the whole idea system of value.

Meanwhile we are told that unemployment has hit the lowest level since 1997. If that’s to be believed, something is going right. Export is what is driving employment, my own company near Bury is breaking records almost every month and building a £5m new factory to cope with the work. In that kind of environment unions are an irrelevance and strikes are a symptom of workers’ own exaggerated feeling of self-importance.

What’s the breakdown of that employment?

Does that include part time and zero hours? What’s happened to disposable income levels? What’s going on with those in employment that claim benefits?

Not rhetorical, btw.

Well I’m on strike.

Meanwhile we are told that unemployment has hit the lowest level since 1997.

Unemployment is at its highest level since 1997 would be a tad more truthful.

Look at the unemployment graph at the bottom of this page :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10604117

In that kind of environment unions are an irrelevance….

What sort of environment is that, one of rising wages and standards of living ?

There’s some Tory spin at its finest on this thread.

And even if you are in work, you might still be in poverty.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-24553611