What are your feelings about the proposed strike Guys?
What are your feelings about the proposed strike Guys?
The union leaders are all inbred from the 70's and have no idea of the real world living in nice little cocoons while collecting top pay and pensions
Did you know that the union can call for a vote on strike action, get only 3 votes, and if 2 say yes they have the majority for strike action .... they should require at least a 50% turnout. I see this article agrees with me http://www.social-statistics.org/?p=315
Keith - Administrator
strike, who's going to look after me 2 kids while the teachers go on strike, my little girl just had 2 days off school as they closed the school for teacher training, why the can't they do the training in the 13wks a year the school is shut
oh my misses will have to take the day off, probably like many others who work for the NHS will also have to
this day and age most are lucky to have work
I am tired of these people screwing up my boy's education.
For most of my working life I have been self-employed, meaning....no do some work = no eat.
I wish some of these over-paid over-zealous union stirrers would go and try planting rice in a 3rd world country for a few weeks, and find out what real work and poverty is, or graft on construction sites for 12 hour shifts in 30C+ as I used to do....same for the spoiled brat workers like teachers, most of whom have never tasted life and work outside of a classroom in their whole lives.
This country feather-beds too many people as it is, and nobody has the right to a job at the expense of others.
Bloody idiots half of them don't even know what they are striking for I bet
You want to make the country a worse state than it already is then go-ahead
I can't believe that the unions are proposing a strike during these difficult times. They should be ashamed of themselves.
The public sector already have generous pension terms. Even with the proposed reforms, their pensions will still be much better than those in the private sector.
If these people don't like their pay and conditions, they should quit their jobs and face reality of the private sector like the rest of us.
MOREOVER ... speaking in my capacity as a retired public sector worker, I can VOUCH for the fact that they have less justification for taking strike action than MOST!
Too true Arthur.
My early career was spent as a civil servant.
The higher the promotion, the longer the tea breaks.
Retired public sector worker Arthur you must be loaded with cash.? Graham is well off too. Nice pensions guys?
Hardly! ... after practically a quarter of a century in the lower echelons of public service - 6 years with the former National Coal Board ... then 19 as a local authority employee - my gross occupational pension currently lies midway between the two average annual amounts Terpe quotes in #20. ...
Nope.
I left the Civil Service when I was 26 and went into self-employment....probably one of the original 'Yuppys' then for a few years, living the high life and not worrying about tomorrow.
I have since been through a divorce....nuff said.
Im only joking Graham I just posted this for the reaction. Its putting our borders at big risk though.
I've few regrets, except not buying more property when I could have afforded it, and not keeping this particular car, one of the two that I owned. (Lotus 7).
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As much as I hate the way unions seem to lose the concept of reality at times, they do have a serious place in the British workforce and ensure that the terms and conditions that previous generations worked hard for aren't eroded away.
As for teachers; my Mum is a Head Teacher of a Primary School in a deprived area (most children are social services watchlist etc etc), and I know the amount of work she does, and the demands placed on her. I wouldn't get out of bed for her salary, and think that if they want to attract educated people to the career, they need to have realistic salaries. What gets published in the papers is usually the very top end of the scale. I also would probably get arrested for grevious bodily harm or murder within a few hours of becoming a teacher with the behaviour and attitude of some of the kids, hence why I'm not a teacher and why I'm pretty much putting every penny I've got into putting my kids through private school.
Good post
I agree wholeheartedly. If it weren't for the union on the site I work we'd all be working night and day for peanuts....we are still working night and day, though.
Even In this day and age health and safety issues still arise, if my employer can save a penny at our expense, they will.
The Unions are not all from the same mold as Robinson and Scargill although, the press would dearly love the British public to believe it does.
My union has saved my bacon on a couple of occasions, for that, for as long as im working here they can rely on my monthly subscriptions.
You wouldnt get out of bed for what I do too Ricky but someones got to do it. We all have regrets of one sort or another Graham. Nice car though.
I spent nearly 10 years working in the Public Sector.
Most of the people working in the public are not looking forward to those so called gold-plated pensions that the media are so fond of misleading people with.
I agree that these big unions often do not act in the 'public interest'. But lets understand just why unions are calling for industrial action.
It's because the government proposals on lower indexation, higher pension age, career salary averaging and accrual could very easily reduce the value of future pension benefits earned by between a third and a half. That's a really big impact.
If that would happen to your pension how would you feel?
The government has already agreed and accepted that the overwhelming majority of public sector pensions are neither gold-plated nor unsustainable.Not like private sector.
Average public service pensions in the main schemes vary between £4,000 and £9,000 per annum because of the differing pay levels of staff. Most people are on very mediocre salaries with a big percentage being part time workers.
Another aspect is that the government is very well placed to provide pensions for its employees at a lower cost than private sector employers because it does not need to be protected against volatile investment markets. Also because of the economies of scale.
There's really no reason nor sense why the government should cost public service pensions in the same way as a private employer would. Furthermore there's no reason to use its advantage to maintain a benefit crucial to recruiting and retaining staff in the public services.
Private sector employers, have significantly cut back on pension benefits so many times over the years and in so many of their own schemes. Private sector employers have often acting irresponsibly by misusing the pension pots of their employees. So much so that quite simply many schemes became unsustainable for the rank & file members. Now there is pressure on the government to reduce
public sector schemes jusy as they needed to do as well.
But look, if costs are firmly under control and the pension pots are sustainable, why should public sector pensions be reduced even further. Why reduce them below levels that were established many years ago?
Why should tomorrow's public service pensioners be so much worse off than today? Why??
These people see themselves as ordinary employees paying for their pension from their own salaries.
Yes, it's true that the government is the employer and is paying the salary and making a pension contribution, but why should that contribution be reduced just because the private sector took decisions on private pensions that resulted in poor outcomes?
Where was the media reaction on that? Where was the public outcry on the private sector who actually stole from those pension pots.
And who is paying for the Pension Protection Scheme? Yes the taxpayer, but no-one is shouting for that scheme to be devalued.
No-one really wants to go on strike. Many union members will be on strike for fear of peer pressure. Have you been in that situation?
This strike shouldn't happen, we all know that. There should be calm negotiation, but that's not how it sits right now.
Just putting another view that at least deserves intelligent consideration.
Yes, to be fair it does depend on what work you do, but there is still far too much interference from the EU in my opinion, and that has probably done as much to screw up the prospects of companies and their workers in this country as any union actions.
Terpe I agree 100% mate. I think we still live in a country of (Im alright jack). Thats what thatcher has bred into people. Sorry if I offend anybody.
I haven't read all the comments, apologies if I repeat what anyone else has said.
The unions are scum and should be ashamed of themselves What planet are they on? Britain is broke, the old people are living longer and drawing their pensions for longer, the pot is empty and their pension rights have to change. Public sector workers really pee me off, they have the best pensions and they are heavily subsidized by me, the taxpayer. I don't have a taxpayer funded superannuation scheme, I have to make my own retirement provision, only I can't afford to pay much into it because I'm paying too much in tax to support the pensions of the lazy, public service, militant scum
If they go on strike they should all be sacked and replaced by one of the 2.6 million people on the dole
I'm sure you were having a bad day Ian.
But, sorry to say, even though I do not believe that this kind of strike is either needed or wanted at this time. I certainly cannot agree with the sweeping statements you made there about public sector workers.
Working in the public sector means working for the government.
Jobs in the public sector include:-
The Armed Forces (Army, Air Force, Navy)
The Emergency Services (Ambulance, Fire, Police)
Teaching and Education
NHS (doctors, nurses and medical staff etc)
Her Majesty's Prison Service
Civil Service
Public sector employment totals just over 6 million. More than 20% of the total UK workforce.
You know that it's just not possible to 'pick and choose' which areas we want to support with our taxes and which areas we do not want to support with our taxes.
The idea is that the pot of money is there for ALL.
How many billions of our taxes are being stolen by fraud and deception.
As I say, I'm not supporting this specific industrial action, but I can understand the root causes.
I don't accept the view that public sector workers should be disparaged for doing the jobs that are wanted, needed and highly valued simply because they are funded by government.
Governments don't have any income other than from taxes.
probably not any more as the family sliver had been sold off long ago under thatcher,
maybe its time the gov did find other ways, if the co op bank can makes £100s of millions of profit, why cant one owned the tax payer? what about the big banks, Barclay made a profit of £5 billion in the first 9 months of this year. use that money to build 100,000s of houses that working people can afford to rent.
Wow.
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