who's marching on Wednesday?

[daveid]

Just wondering if any one is going on a march or demo or picketing on Wednesday. Any one striking?

[Undertaker]

Who is going on strike now? Sackings need to start being dished out. Striking is all anyone does these days. I suppose the shopping centre's are too packed at a weekend, so a day off on Wednesday for some Xmas shopping, obviously.

[Flaffer]

Imagine if every private sector worker who has lost out on pay and had pension rights changed went on strike, the country would grind to a halt

[Patrick Bateman]

Whilst I sympathise with certain public sector workers, there are an awful lot of f*** who work in it too. If one is unemployed, the thick can-barely-get-five-GCSEs fascist giving you a hard time for claiming £60-odd a week is a public sector worker. They don't quite get my sympathy in the same way that a nurse does.

Everybody should receive a decent pension, whether they work in the public sector or not. What makes me laugh is how they make out they're sacrificing something by working in it. In my experience most of them would be lucky to get work as guinea pigs in scientific experiments if they didn't work in the public sector.

Why don't the public sector workers on big salaries take pay cuts if they're so bothered about people losing jobs and services? Or the union leaders? Thought not; just like the wankers in the private sector, it's because they're worth it.

And New New Labour can f*** off too.

[daveid]

Whilst I sympathise with certain public sector workers, there are an awful lot of f*** who work in it too. If one is unemployed the thick can-barely-get-5GCSEs fascist giving you a hard time for claiming £60-odd a week is a public sector worker. They don't quite get my sympathy in the same way that a nurse does.

Everybody should receive a decent pension, whether they work in the public sector or not. What makes me laugh is how they make out they're sacrificing something by working in it. In my experience most of them would be lucky to get work as guinea pigs in scientific experiments if they didn't work in the public sector.

Nurses are public sector workers by and large.

Ridiculous generalizations aside, the point is that there is plenty of money in the fund and the money they're threatening to take out is being used to pay off a deficit that is not of our making.

[Patrick Bateman]

Nurses are public sector workers by and large.

Ridiculous generalizations aside, the point is that there is plenty of money in the fund and the money they're threatening to take out is being used to pay off a deficit that is not of our making.

Yes, I know. That's why I said that I sympathise with certain public sector workers.

It's not of the majority of the country's making! That's why non-public sector workers' sympathy is rather limited, particularly when many of them have crap pensions, if they are fortunate to have one at all. And it's even more galling to see the idiots (i.e. the Labour Party) who mishandled the economy hectoring everybody else about it.

Labour are only concerned about the workers in this country who are public sector union members because the unions fund them. Their thirteen years in power did nothing for workers who weren't part of the public sector, or even for young prospective workers because they preferred to import cheap labour from abroad. The crocodile tears of those Oxbridge PPE wankers on the shadow bench like Balls gesturing about a flatlining economy are sickening. Orwell had it right about people like them: all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

[daveid]

Nurses are public sector workers by and large.

Ridiculous generalizations aside, the point is that there is plenty of money in the fund and the money they're threatening to take out is being used to pay off a deficit that is not of our making.

Yes, I know. That's why I said that I sympathise with certain public sector workers.

It's not of the majority of the country's making! That's why non-public sector workers' sympathy is rather limited, particularly when many of them have crap pensions, if they are fortunate to have one at all. And it's even more galling to see the idiots (i.e. the Labour Party) who mishandled the economy hectoring everybody else about it.

Labour are only concerned about the workers in this country who are public sector union members because the unions fund them. Their thirteen years in power did nothing for workers who weren't part of the public sector, or even for young prospective workers because they preferred to import cheap labour from abroad. The crocodile tears of those Oxbridge PPE wankers on the shadow bench like Balls gesturing about a flatlining economy are sickening. Orwell had it right about people like them: all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

Sorry, I slightly misread you there. Blame the alcohol. I generally agree with your point.

[raggatwin]

I am out and organising. It's not a race to the bottom Flaffer. I want private secotr employees to have the same rights as public sector employees. The division of working people is what those in power want. We, as inthe workers, are all in it together.

[daveid]

And I've just discovered I've been made redundant from one of my jobs (18hrs pw). Makes me even more determined to make a noise. f*** George Osborne and his Fisher Price economics degree. Tory t***!

[Patrick Bateman]

Gideon's got a history degree. His vast economic knowledge was garnered doing data entry for the NHS and folding towels in Selfridges.

[Drico One]

I am out and organising. It's not a race to the bottom Flaffer. I want private secotr employees to have the same rights as public sector employees. The division of working people is what those in power want. We, as inthe workers, are all in it together.

You might want both sectors to have that, Ragga (and I believe that you are genuine about that), but I'll bet there's a substantial percentage of those striking tomorrow who hide behind their union, routinely vote Tory, and visit the full horror of free market capitalism on those in the unprotected private sector via the safety of the ballot box.

Essentially, the "I'm-all-right, Jack" brigade.

I see it here in Ireland all the time. The unions are prepared to throw low-paid new entrants in the public service under a bus to protect their higher-paid existing members' "entitlements". Those same union members repeatedly voted en masse for Fianna Fail and the right-wing Progressive Democrats and their selfish "greed is good" policies of individualism and avarice. In essence, the trade union became a tool of vested interests and right-wing Trojan horses who saw nothing wrong with undermining the working conditions of those not protected by a union as long as their own beds were feathered. Union leaders even became directors in privatised national utilities, going native as they cashed their massive fees whilst claiming to represent the ordinary working man and woman.

There's no point decrying the divide and conquer policy of both the Tories and New Labour. Thatcher won that battle - and many who now hide behind the union blanket are cuckoos in the nest who helped give her three terms. People had the chance to vote for old Labour, but decreed that they were unelectable. The race to the bottom was won by 1992.

I hope the low paid union members win their battle. The right to strike is sacrosanct for vulnerable workers. Anyone on over £50,000 a year shouldn't be left near a union membership card.

Drico.

[billiejo]

The self employed don't go on strike

[Drico One]

Cross-dressing chimpanzees don't go on strike.

I thought I'd mention that as relevance doesn't seem to be a prerequisite for contributing to this discussion strand.

Drico.

[raggatwin]

ha ha

[Danny C]

Anyone on over £50,000 a year shouldn't be left near a union membership card.

If that rule was implemented, you would exclude just about every single union leader from their own union.