back to article BT workers to ballot for strike

The Communication Workers Union, representing 55,000 BT workers, is to ballot staff on strike action against a perceived pay cut in the face of company profits and management bonuses. BT has offered workers a 2 per cent pay rise, but the union argues that given an inflation rate of 4.4 per cent that actually means cutting …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Boffin

    Sorry to be pedantic

    But the last BT strike was at the start of 1987. Three weeks unpaid leave followed by a load of overtime to make up for the lost three weeks :)

  2. Plankhead

    It's good to talk...

    .... just not to every employee in BT to get things sorted.

    I wouldn't be surprised if the union is still being passed from pillar to post in BT's call centre phone system with staff dodging responsibility at every turn and transfering your call into the next randomly chosen queuing system.

    Or is it just me they do that to?

  3. Jared Hunt
    Paris Hilton

    I'm surprised

    That it's taken the media this long to catch on to this story. The dispute has been going on for months and bulletins mentioning the upcoming strike ballot have been going up on the CWU website for several weeks now.

    Paris - because it'd take her that long to catch on to anything.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Go ahead, Strike.

    I don't think I'd notice.

    An absent workforce won't make of a dent in BT's quality of service.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How would we tell the difference?

    The last BT engineer at my house spent an hour putting off 10 minutes work. He then damaged my house wall (for the 3rd time in 10 years by BT!) before dropping a heavy cordless drill from the top of his unsecured ladder, narrowly missing me and leading to his forcible ejection from my property.

    Given all that, and the fact it took 3 weeks for him to appear in the first place, I think the BT unions may be missing a vital point - when you strike, it has to make enough difference for anyone to notice.

    1. wayfarer
      Happy

      You must have met my Dad... LOL

      My late Dad was a union member and shop steward most of his working life. He never backed down from a conflict, but I lost count of the times I heard him caution workers, "Going on strike only works if people can tell the bloody difference!"

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Dear union

    Ballot everyone entitled to vote. Don't ballot anyone not entitled to vote. Email and post the results to everyone once you've done that. It's not exactly rocket science I know, but given recent events making an extra special effort to get things right would doubtless be appreciated by your members!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Middle management? On the tools? LOL!

    This should be interesting...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    End of year bonus targets...

    Just to clarify on the end of year targets, to qualify for the second half of the £500 "bonus" BT workers need to meet criteria that will never be revealed to the workforce.

    Engineers often get many mailings telling them how BT are making better profits than ever, but they can not afford to reward the people who made this happen.

    Hell I think the idea of management on the tools would probably get most of the strike votes on its own, never mind the pay :)

  9. Darkwolf

    "is polling its middle management ....

    ....." to see what skills they might have that can be applied to the front line if the strike goes ahead."

    So, if they find middle management has no skills, will they trim those who cant tell the difference between a modem and a dried turd?

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Middle management?

    Hmm so does BT have middle management that could do the drones' work? The high tech blue chip I work for has spent the last 10 years purging every bit of technical know how from its management and indeed its non-technical staff.

    Good luck to the workers in their negotiations. Its a shame their board don't realise that great companies are mostly the ones where everyone shares the gains as well as the pains.

  11. Francis Offord
    Megaphone

    Unions Political? Never!!!

    The thought that union bosses are ever interested enough to make a weighted judgement makes me cringe. I have never, in my 75 years, seen such stupidity as putting their members jobs at risk and blaming "the conservatives" for their plight. Could it possibly be that the union is to blame for reckless behaviour? After all, the union executives with their gold plated, if not solid gold, remuneration and pensions have no thought for anyone but themselves. It is time to reflect on the utterances made by the "Adolph" tribe in order to justify the claims made by them and the wicked repression of free speech practised by them. I understand the reason for unionisation (horrible word) but not the manner in which it is practised. The odd union member who makes any contraversial comment is treated to a bullying tirade by the very members who should be helping them.

    FGrancis Offord.

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