STRIKE - Scab bastards

[felix]

Oops! Sorry!

I assumed your use of the word "we" meant you were already getting your pension. My mistake. :D

 

[BecomingJulie]

The whole point of a strike is to draw attention to how much more your employer needs the labour you give them than you need the wages they give you. And yes, that means people probably will be inconvenienced, otherwise, it's a monumentally pointless exercise.

I think some people nowadays are too selfish to see the bigger picture; which is, if one worker is replaceable by somebody cheaper, they all are (including you). Which is why it's such weapons-grade hypocrisy when millionaires talk of leaving the country when anyone mentions raising high-rate income tax.

When essential workers go on strike, you have to grin and bear it. It's called "bleeding when your neighbour is cut," and it seemed to go out of fashion during the Thatcher years. If you must blame somebody, blame the management that drove them to it, not the workers who are standing up for their rights. And remember, you could well be next.

 

[StoneHappyMonday]

The only way to change things is to shoot those who arrange things

- There there my dear - Dexy's Midnight Runners

 

[parttime crackhead]

I'm in the union. I'm also employed through an agency as my company (and it's a MASSIVE company making huge profits atm) are too cheap to employ me directly. If I went on strike I'd be marked down as AWOL and told my contract had finished. I'm not against the strikes, all for them, but if I went on strike I'd be without a job.

If your union went on strike & told you to go on strike you would not be sacked.

as a constantly outraged tax payer who pays your wages and is therefore practically your BOSS

....

i was under the impression that the Police couldn't go on strike

I hope you're at it with the "I pay your wages" pish.

The police can go on strike. The army can't.

 

[B9]

44 countries at risk of "severe social unrest" apparently - that means social revolution - we aren't included on that list.

The police can go on strike.

I thought they could "take industrial action" BUT could not strike

 

[TheSpade]

one that you're committed to stay in for longer than it takes to earn enough to go travelling. training means on the job training, the sort that effectively shows your employer you can actually do stuff and hence consider you for promotion etc. if employers think you're gonna fuck off soon, which will be clear on your cv, they wont invest in you, and why should they? i don't actually think this is in any way right, but its how its been since i graduated in 2007 so its not like you couldn't have known it would be like this before you set off.

lol you wont see me whinging about the consequences of my life choices and then blaming them on my employer. as you even find your own decisions wearing, i'm not remotely surprised that you find things other people do, whether reasonable or not. maybe i'd rethink my posting style but since its from you, its just to be expected. at least its not hurtful this time, unlike when i've tried to offer you support and sympathy in the past.

i might get screwed in my job then die, but i'll have learned some truly wonderful things about the world in the process, been paid to travel to awesome places (loooooaddds of 'proper jobs' offer this perk), and had the opportunity to work with some of the most wonderful minds i've ever come across.

Working is boring, the less I need to do of it the better, so I have no interest of getting a job that I need to devote years of my life to any time soon.You whinge on here all the time. I mostly skip your posts, as they are so annoying, so I can't actually be sure what it is you whinge about.

Me going off travelling makes no difference to the fact that company I work for is too cheap to hire it's staff directly and prefers to save a few quid (but piss off the workers in the process) by using agencies. That is my employers fault, there's nothing I could do to change that.

If your union went on strike & told you to go on strike you would not be sacked.

I'm not so sure. I'm employed by an agency so techinically not on a permanent contract. Might just find that they no longer require me if I started striking.

 

[Jabberwocky]

no. if you don't read my posts you can't be sure i whinge, not you can't be sure what i whinge about. at least tell a consistent story spade.

when i do whinge, i then don't throw abuse at people who offer support.

44 countries at risk of "severe social unrest" apparently - that means social revolution - we aren't included on that list.

not surprising but very interesting. do you have any more info? i.e. how are they geographically dispersed, and is all the social unrest related to debt etc?

 

[parttime crackhead]

Spade, you're probably right on the "no longer require me" part. Although your travelling/constant changing of job is the reason that you can only get a shitty job through an agency working for a shite employer. Think about it, you are no doubt better qualified than me (even if your degree isn't real) yet I have got a better job than you (albeit still a shite one) & could get another job which is better than yours fairly easily.

 

[charlie clean]

The only way to change things is to shoot those who arrange things

- There there my dear - Dexy's Midnight Runners

Unfortunately, you'd most likely be caught and be dispatched to gaol as a 'lone nutter'. Revolutionary groups have a poor record in the UK, the only homegrown one since the war was the Angry Brigade and they've been airbrushed out of history and quite forgotten. 'Intellectual' thinkers and philosophers are noticeably less in evidence here and lack the influence they exert elsewhere in Europe. Perhaps the two are connected. Without the idea, revolt turns into looting TopShop.

[/QUOTE spade] work is boring [/QUOTE]

Jobs are often boring; work has a broader definition, it's what you make.

No worries, Felix; in cyberspace I'm 21. Put the wrinkles down to a tough paper round.

 

[Mr Smokes Blunts.]

Working is boring, the less I need to do of it the better, so I have no interest of getting a job that I need to devote years of my life to any time soon.You whinge on here all the time. I mostly skip your posts, as they are so annoying, so I can't actually be sure what it is you whinge about.

Me going off travelling makes no difference to the fact that company I work for is too cheap to hire it's staff directly and prefers to save a few quid (but piss off the workers in the process) by using agencies. That is my employers fault, there's nothing I could do to change that.



I'm not so sure. I'm employed by an agency so techinically not on a permanent contract. Might just find that they no longer require me if I started striking.

Doesn't your employer use an agency because they have a high staff turn over, because as you say it is a shit job that primarily attracts fly-by-night workers who want to travel etc? To employ you and your co-workers directly they'd have to run an entire H&R department and pay you £9 p/h, as well as give you more rights? Instead they pay you say £7 and the extra pay you'd get gets sucked up by recruitment agencies.

I am totally in tune with your work is bullshit philosophy, and the less I do the better. But as for whinging, most of us here are whingers aren't we? Don't you post a few times a week saying what a shit day you've had and that you're cracking a bottle of wine?

 

[Mr Smokes Blunts.]

The economy wasn't in recession when the Tories inherited it. If you don't think they've made major mistakes since taking office then please explain why they're U-turning everywhere. Please tell me why Osbourne said pre-election that QE was a tactic implemented by those who have failed, only to go and do the very same thing himself a few weeks back now. Please tell me why growth has been revised down from 4%, to 2% to 1% to stagnant since the Tories took office?

Labour are equally bad, if not worse, pretending to be on the side of the people when they, like their Tory counterparts are merely at the hands of the rich puppet master. Both sides don't give a jot about you. You think pension reform in the public sector will improve your life? You think backdoor privatisation of the NHS will improve your care? You think the introduction of fees, top up fees and top up fees x2 makes for a more progressive system? Blue, Red and Yellow couldn't give one single flying fuck about you.

Whoops, seems I've gone off on one! TLDR: 99% of Government policies are enacted for corporation. The remaining 1% of policies are to ensure the peasants don't revolt.

Only one quarter during the Tory government has seen the UK economy contracting, and that was by only 0.5%. Growth has been revised down because of the wholly unpredictable nature of debt ridden countries in Europe, who are our primary trading partners. If you want to see examples of what happens when you undertake Labouresque plans for a country in a deep recession one only has to look at Spain and Italy, who have done almost nothing but borrow more and more without challenging their deficit. If you want to see an example of a country who has gotten to the bottom of the rope through a failure to tackle their deficit, thereby losing all their traction in the money markets, then all you have to do is look at Greece. As far as things go, the only country who is really doing any better than us in Western Europe is Germany. Germany's strong position is almost wholly down to the fact they didn't deliberately throw fuel on the financial market fire to pay for an ever expanding and grotesque social care bill.

I am hardly a massive conservative supporter, or any party for that matter, I just prefer some of their policies slightly more than the ones Labour implements. I would suggest the government U-turns could quite easily be put down to the fact they don't hold a majority, and they are constantly having to pander to the fact they are in a coalition. I think public sector reform is the only way we can ever hope to get this deficit down. I think that the throw money at problems philosophy has taken us as far as it can, and it doesn't hurt to tinker with social services using methods based on the success of the dozens of other countries who have done so. I do not in any way support the hike in tuition fees, I would have prefered that all the institutions providing worthless degrees had their funding cut off so that those at the top end of the educational spectrum found no hinderance to their education due to a lack of money. I think that tuition fees are just a disgusting way of passing on our current debt to our children; Much like not tackling the deficit. I think that cutting and reforming will be painful, but it is the only way that our children will ever have a life at all. Instead of complaining my plan is to join the top end of society, because beating them is never going to work.

 

[TheSpade]

Spade, you're probably right on the "no longer require me" part. Although your travelling/constant changing of job is the reason that you can only get a shitty job through an agency working for a shite employer. Think about it, you are no doubt better qualified than me (even if your degree isn't real) yet I have got a better job than you (albeit still a shite one) & could get another job which is better than yours fairly easily.

My travelling has nothing to do with getting a job. My employers know nothing of my travels they think I was working abroad for 2 years when in fact I was either travelling or making money from gambling. I don't tell potential employers anything about it. If you mean 'better' as in you get paid more then OK but in no other sense would I think your job is better, we both just work in call centres. It's a dead end, going nowhere, job. How exactly are you so sure you could get a better job than mines fairly easy (it's not hard to get a better job than mines tbf) and what type of job would this be?

Doesn't your employer use an agency because they have a high staff turn over, because as you say it is a shit job that primarily attracts fly-by-night workers who want to travel etc? To employ you and your co-workers directly they'd have to run an entire H&R department and pay you £9 p/h, as well as give you more rights? Instead they pay you say £7 and the extra pay you'd get gets sucked up by recruitment agencies.

I am totally in tune with your work is bullshit philosophy, and the less I do the better. But as for whinging, most of us here are whingers aren't we? Don't you post a few times a week saying what a shit day you've had and that you're cracking a bottle of wine?

The company doesn't really have a high turnover of staff, most of the employees have been there for years and years (anything up to 15) but they are employed directly through the company and get good pay and lots of benefits. Those who don't hang around long are all employed through the agency and don't think the bullshit you have to put up with is worth the dismal rates of pay and non existant benefits. I don't think it's a coincodence. Pay people well, give them equal rights and the benefits then they won't mind so much about doing a shit job and will stick it out but if you're not paid well and treated like shit you're hardly going to want to hang around either.

As for posting a few times a week that work is shite, possibly. On the wine bit, nope. It's rare for me to drink midweek, I did it this Thursday because my manager gave me a bottle of wine for being awesome but it's not the norm.

 

[parttime crackhead]

You've practically answered your own points. My job is better because it pays more, it's more secure & it comes with better benefits. Your job is utter shite & through an agency who pay you a shady rate compared to your colleagues & they could sack you at the drop of a hat.

"How exactly are you so sure you could get a better job than mines fairly easy (it's not hard to get a better job than mines tbf) and what type of job would this be?" Because "it's not hard to get a better job" & it would be the same type of job but better paid with better benefits/job security.

 

[TheSpade]

Paying more doesn't neccessarily make it a 'better' job but I see your point. It can still be a shit job but just well paid. You didn't answer my question about how you would find it easier to get a better job than I would though?

 

[parttime crackhead]

Well I appear to have already done so. Plus I could pretty much walk in to any call centre job I want (not that I want to right enough, but still, I wouldn't need to go through an agency & get shite pay & conditions).

Aye, I know it's still pish but it is clearly better. The work is just as pish for more reward.

 

[JB]

pffffttt. if your job is covered by UNISON, you pretty much ARE "The Man". or at least one of his stormtroopers who are only following his orders.

Ha ha, Felix, even the cleaners at work are in Unison. You could hardly call them "the man" despite how essential they are to us.

 

[TheSpade]

Well I appear to have already done so. Plus I could pretty much walk in to any call centre job I want (not that I want to right enough, but still, I wouldn't need to go through an agency & get shite pay & conditions).

Aye, I know it's still pish but it is clearly better. The work is just as pish for more reward.

Why do you think you could walk into an call centre job you want whilst avoiding agencies. Many companies don't employ directly anymore, especially call centres, they use agencies to take on all of their staff and it's absolutely no relevence as to whether you've worked in a call centre for ten years already, been away travelling or anything else. There is no chance of being employed unless you go through the agency which they use. Agencies used to be for part time temp workers, now companies use them to employ full time permanent workers to avoid paying them the full wage and benefits.

 

[parttime crackhead]

There's a good few call centre jobs I could get round here direct with the companies, I know lots of people that have recently. That's all anycunt does round here is work in a fucking call centre. I know I could pass the interviews no bother & I've worked in call centres for ages (too fucking long!) so I know how to do the job, I wouldn't need call handling training etc. Quite a few are through agencies but you don't work for the agency, you just get the job through them & then you are a proper employee of the company the same as everyone else. I got my old job at HSBC through an agency but once I'd passed the interview I was just a standard HSBC employee, I had nothing more to do with the agency.

Practically all of them would involve some sort of sales though, which I can't fucking stand.

 

[felix]

I hope you're at it with the "I pay your wages" pish.

The police can go on strike. The army can't.

read the last line of my post ye muppet.

if the police go on strike, would they send the SAS in to sort it out? EPIC.


but seriously, will all you Unison folks join all us regular people when we storm parliament protesting about our fucked state pensions?

 

[parttime crackhead]

Lol, I never clicked on to that.

I'm not a member of Unison so fuck yer state pension auld yin.