Re: "go on strike until you get a cut."
the unions got too powerful and influential in the uk to the detriment of this country. you had people in the unions using the workers as pawns for there own political gain over what was best for the workers.
take the miner strike in the 80's. Scargill was opposed to the closure of mines, because of the loss of the jobs, and that whole communities relied on that pit, and without a national ballot of all members, he had them on strike for nearly a year. His thinking in some respects was right., some miners broke away, formed their own union and went back to work, hoping that the government would look favourably on them and save their pit. It didn't work, the pit was no longer economically viable to run so it had to close. But at least those workers had a ballot. Eventually when the NUM balloted the workers, they voted to go back to work...
forget the reasons for why and if they should have closed the pits or not, the fact that one man brought a national workforce out on strike for a year, without a ballot of those workers, the fact that other union workforces came out on strike in sympathy, just on the say so of the union, there was no way the government was going to allow that sort of power to continue. they shot themselves in the foot.
many years ago, in my younger days, I had a council owned flat, the hot water tank sprung a leak and needed to be replaced. first of all, the plumber came, switched it off, drained it, and went. he had to wait for the electrician to come and disconnect the electric supply. after that was done, the plumber came back, installed the new tank, connected everything up, then called the electrician back to connect it back up... the electrician came, connected up a couple of wires, woohoo, 4 days later I had hot water again. It should have taken one day, but because the unions wouldn't let a plumber do an electricians job it took 4.
across the river from me was a shipyard. Cammell Laird, one of the biggest names in ship building. Every time they got a new ship to build, the workers would go out on strike to renegotiate the wages. every time this happened, it would inevitably delay the ship, costing the company millions in late fees. but that's ok, the union workers didn't loose out. until the orders for ships went to the far east where they were built and delivered on time, for less money.
before the bin collection service was put out to tender, I used to live next door to a bin man, 2 days per week, he would be dropped off at home in the morning and picked back up again as the truck was on its ay back to the depot. they had more workers than they needed, but they could not shed any workers. instead, Liverpool had one of the most expensive rates of council tax.
I could go through all of the big manufacturers in Liverpool from the 60's and 70's, all gone now, and the main reason they closed down was rising costs and poor workmanship.there was massive differences in quality to cars built on different days of the week, you didn't want a Friday car, but a Monday car would have served you well... , all in all, the common point is the unions and workers wanting more and more for less and less... it made manufacturing in the far east a really good proposition.
but yeah, blame the greedy business owners and bankers for wanting to keep a roof over their heads...
Biting the hand that feeds IT
