Categories
Workers of the UK, unite! – politicalbetting.com
Workers of the UK, unite! – politicalbetting.com
Generally speaking, do you think trade unions play a positive or negative role in Britain today?Positive role: 35% (+3 since June)Negative role: 34% (+8)Neither: 15% (-6)https://t.co/7Yg2pxzUUg pic.twitter.com/X9NWJBrURY
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
(My reasoning being that if the workers can't do their jobs, or the management don't understand business then there's no hope.)
This is a more black and white view than I actually hold, but it's the gist of it.
Sadly I have taken a big step back and have had to re-admit myself to therapy.
(Yes, I have in my time working with the Union had to deal with a private school that did all of that and far more.)
https://www.gbnews.uk/politics/exclusive-immigration-minister-admits-border-chaos-could-last-decades-weve-got-very-liberal-rules/400581
I’m surprised how poor the unions have been in communicating this basic fact.
Sunak and Hunt should have uprated benefits and pensions AND the entire public sector wage bill by the same amount (average earnings), at the same time and then held a firm line on strikes. They would have taken the country with them.
Instead, they messed it up.
Wishing you all the best.
Both the same. Rammed with customers trying to spend for Christmas.
And utterly inadequately staffed. Only 4 tills open at a massive ASDA. One person on the kiosk to do tabs, lottery, parcels, returns and enquiries at the same time.
The queue for the self scan stretched half the length of the store. Only two people to do the age restrictions on the alcohol.
(I will say that the very worst of the unions is usually in situations where management has failed entirely, and middle management is non existant, and thus the workers become pretty useless - e.g. Miners in the 70/80s)
At least you were able to realise and ask for help.
Of course we all suspect you of chicanery. I'd imagine you'd hope for no less.
Cf German workers on boards, for how it should work.
If that or the next Labour government can't get a grip on strikes expect a further swing to the right as to Thatcher in 1979 after the Heath 1970-74 and Wilson and Callaghan 1974-79 governments failed to control the unions
If anyone is not happy with their pay rise or other terms and conditions, then their options are:
- Suck it up
- Become demotivated and put less effort in
- Mutter about it to family, friends and colleagues
- Complain to their boss in a toothless way
- Threaten to leave
- Leave
This leads to a situation where disloyal employees who are good at their job do better than those who stay loyal and committed to the business.
Hope you get well soon.
As one of many steps to tackling your demons, can I propose that you go out for a brisk walk or a run? A run works better for ke, since it is quicker to get the blood flowing, but we're all different. It'sdifficult to shift yourself when you're feeling melancholy, but it's worth doing.
Iran's morality police, which is tasked with enforcing the country's Islamic dress code, is being disbanded, the country's attorney general says.
Mohammad Jafar Montazeri's comments, yet to be confirmed by other agencies, were made at an event on Sunday.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-63850656
One of the issues (I'm told) with creating larger numbers of self-service checkouts is it increases the amount of shoplifting (our local Lidl permanently closed a third of its self-service checkouts because of unsupportable levels of shoplifting which, like fare evasion, is endemic).
Too many settlements have already been reached I think.
I'm interested by the numbers of people answering "XYZ should be allowed to go on strike", and the half the population for some of those who don't agree.
AFAIK the only ones not allowed to go on strike are the Armed Forces and the Police, so all the rest *are* allowed to go on strike.
Late to the previous thread but another fine example of the old adage the Devil can quote the scriptures to make a point.
Anyone can point to a poll (or part of a poll) and use that to form an argument. The Opinium poll is an example of that - we were told last night a 14-point lead for Labour was a good poll for the Conservatives because every Reform supporter will run back to the Conservatives at the first hint of a real election.
Apparently, not a single LD or Green voter will head to Labour but what do I know?
We have low unemployment, a lot of people who are medically unfit to work and a lot of people who have essentially opted for very early retirement.
We also have a government that really really doesn't want to pay whatever the going rate is for the staff it employs.
The government can seek to restrict the effectiveness of public sector strikes, but it can't force people to work for them.
So how does the government control public sector workers, exactly?
And they have not gone bust. They're still out there. And several of the non-union staff are trapped because nobody will accept references from them. Without the union none of them would have been able to escape or get compensation for the forged references, or the threats of violence.
I think you have a very strange idea of employment situations, bluntly.
Unions provide real help to individuals in dispute with their employers whether it's through the correct application of legislation, the correct protocol for dispute resolution or simply moral support.
My recollection is no one strikes as a first resort but as a last resort. After all, strikers lose a day's pay too.
It all comes back to what did for Truss/Kwarteng (remember them?) and that's fairness. People will support a strike if they think those doing the striking have a legitimate grievance and I'm afraid Zahawi's condescension only irritates people more. I'm afraid his whole demeanour this morning was profoundly adversarial - strikers are not pro-Putin or want to ruin Christmas and no one should take that nonsense seriously.
https://twitter.com/Wass2020/status/1599325694462345217
It's more enthusiasm for ChatGPT
These things will become firm friends. If you put them in an Alexa, or Siri, fucking hell. They will make you laugh or cry, they will know everything, they will be consoling or encouraging. ChatGPT has just told me exactly what to make with the spare ingredients in my fridge and how to cook it (a chowder, and it sounds delicious)
ChatGPT instantly scaled it down to a meal for one or two, from 4-6, and then turned it from imperial to metric in a split second
If Amazon are worried about Alexa, they should quit worrying and buy OpenAI (tho it is probably worth a trillion dollars now). Here it is. The perfect marriage of software and hardware
Wages are the same old issue of supply and demand. It's been exacerbated by the pandemic and other issues.
Anecdotally, we are struggling to find tradespeople (plumbers, locksmiths etc). It seems the solo traders couldn't survive Covid and either packed up, retired or joined the big firms. The amount of work for each professional is terrifying - we had an appointment with a plumber booked for 10-12 last Thursday, he arrived at 4.30 after calls to properties where the first bit of cold had led to them discovering the boiler wasn't working and they suddenly had no heat.
The number of plumbers has fallen drastically - have they all gone back to Poland as the Mail would have us believe ?
People who go to a disciplinary meeting without a Trade Union rep are lambs to the slaughter. Simply having one there makes management much more wary.
Think Union dues are expensive? The cost of going without is far more expensive when things turn serious.
Employment law now is heavily towards the worker, but companies know that they really have little chance of being challenged.
It is classic horrible British winter weather here. Cold, dank, depressing, getting notably dark at 3pm. UGH
Professor Arif Ahmed, a philosophy lecturer at Gonville and Caius College, will be among experts charged with enforcing equalities legislation.
He rose to prominence for his opposition to Cambridge students who attempted to shut down a talk he organised with Helen Joyce, a gender critical feminist.
Ms Joyce has argued that men and women have been “redefined” by trans activists, with laws and policies “reshaped to privilege self-identified gender identity over biological sex”.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/12/03/cambridge-academic-who-sparked-student-protests-appointed-governments/
Attitudes towards Unions seem ingrained around this notion of hostility, strikes and anti-public sector attitudes (usually starting with the pensions). There seems little similar resentment or challenge toward senior management - why, for example, aren't those running the rail network, the NHS, the Post Office and other sectors affected by strike action pilloried for their inability to resolve this?
A strike is always the fault of the Union, never the management.
I also wonder why those who ran Woolworth's, Curry's, BHS and all those other organisations which went bust costing thousands of jobs were never put on trial or named, blamed and shamed for running their businesses into the ground.
For me it’s a case of do as I say, not as I do, as I’m struggling at the moment (including issues with my appearance) so know running would help all round.
But despite knowing this, can I make myself do it, and can I stop eating and drinking too much? Nope…
Always the PB way.
A meme I got good use out of during lockdown(s)...
ChatGPT is keeping distracted from the worst of the weather. But I have a flight to the sun booked for New Year's Eve, and - family circs permitting - off I go
Ins'allah
*settles down with pre-dinner hot buttered crumpet and hot chocolate...*
"Privileged information" ... which was about to be announced.
And I like seeing all the lights, from houses and streets, on a cold dark London evening: the gold and crimson pooling in the puddles. The last of the russet autumn leaves pasted on a pavement
And then went to Salisburys Christmas Market and it was virtually non-existent. Very sad.
We are on the brink of a pretty cold spell of weather, and some will get snow. It’ll certainly feel a bit more like a Dickensian Christmas. I just hope people can stay warm. We are lucky, not everyone is.
The consequence of the failure of these companies isn't just the failure of successive layers of senior management but the fact thousands of hard working employees found themselves out of work with little or no compensation.
It's different in the public sector though I suspect many Councils are close to being financially insolvent.