Union Strikes

[Koi]

Are we there yet, its late or is that early............

[flounderbout]

It's a disgrace is what it is. The GOVERNMENT and the BANKERS and the MILLIONAIRES take all the money and then claim that the country has a huge deficit and an economy that is failing to meet any of the growth targets, based on some alleged financial collapse, and so can't afford to pay.
The ANSWER is to strike for our RIGHTS at a net cost to the economy of £500m per day of strikes, which will boost the economy err, err.
No sorry the REAL ANSWER is to tax the BANKERS, with a financial transaction tax, which will only really impact on the major investors like err, the pension funds, err...
Oh look the answer to where the money comes from isn't important.
NO IFS NO BUTS NO MORE SPENDING CUTS!!!

[gwh200]

Calm down dear...it's only a strike!

And as for costing the economy £500 million, I reckon a good dose of that was spent in Tesco yesterday.

[Maverick]

The reality is that at our country still has aaa credit rating. This means we are currently paying 2% interest on the loans Labour took out, which equates to 50 billion a day. If the present government did not carry out this unpleasantness then the markets would increase our interest rates (Greace is currently pay 30%).
The Labour spend plan was adopted by America, which has as a result had its credit rating reduced so is now paying more interest.

Like it or not it has to be done.

[BUSHWHACKER]

Mrs B

Oh don't get me on Tesco/supermarkets and how they're monopolising us all Graham, scandal in it's self. E.g. they open a mega store in my local town plus build a store very near to that one in the local high st to bleed that dry too...

Government backhanders, corrupt the lot of them and most of them have early stage alzheimer's let's be fair.. TAX THE RICH and!! my ex bosses (earning @100+K p.a. and paid me peanuts for the ever increasing workload and hours they put on me the B..**..s).

[Apache]

It's a disgrace is what it is. The GOVERNMENT and the BANKERS and the MILLIONAIRES take all the money and then claim that the country has a huge deficit and an economy that is failing to meet any of the growth targets, based on some alleged financial collapse, and so can't afford to pay.
The ANSWER is to strike for our RIGHTS at a net cost to the economy of £500m per day of strikes, which will boost the economy err, err.
No sorry the REAL ANSWER is to tax the BANKERS, with a financial transaction tax, which will only really impact on the major investors like err, the pension funds, err...
Oh look the answer to where the money comes from isn't important.
NO IFS NO BUTS NO MORE SPENDING CUTS!!!

You're richer than Astronauts, lawyer-boy!

We should tax you much higher and give the money to the jobless to fund better tellies!

"I'm out of work and on the dole, so shove your red flag up your hole!"

[John h]

My Wife worked yesterday , She is a Teacher, her Union doesn't believe in strikes (Professional association of teachers) I realy do wish it was a 8 to 3 job Tina leaves home 7am and gets home around 6pm our conservatory is becoming an annexe of her school planning marking coordinator files etc. She started teaching later in life so does not enjoy the Pension benefits the long serving people do, so we have taken out a top up private pension, surprise surprise the private one still performs !!!

[John h]

Oh and Meadowhall did very well yesterday...full of shopping strikers ?

[ninjadave]

I'm just trying to defend something I've paid into and now I'm being told the contracts changed.

I'm afraid you will not get any sympathy from the private sector. When you signed your contract, did it state that your pension is set in stone and not liable for any change and your final pension is guaranteed? No! the same as my private pension. We are all taking hits, why should your pension be any different? One News report had a teacher complaining that he will now have to work longer, Wake up and take a look outside your cosseted world. You can't be propped up by the tax payer when we are taking hits.
Rant over, pass the popcorn

[Predictable Bob]

Sorry for the length of this post but the thing that has hacked me off most today has been the number of people on strike who seem to think that those in the private sector 'don't get it' and that all they are doing is trying to protect the contracts they signed up to. The reality is that they don't get it - the rest of us have been through it all already and they need to wake up and smell the coffee.

Spot on !

The only bit that's likely to be incorrect is around your pension scheme being part of your contract and having it changed.

Once upon a time I took a job with a non contributory FSS pension, after a few years (And a 'merger') the new bosses said teh pension pot was too small and we could either contribute 7.5% or close the scheme - we opted to pay as the scheme was still sound. A few years later they turned round and closed the scheme anyway - the contributions were just about bringing the pot back on track as they'd been taking pension holidays for 2 years ! We now pay 11% for a far inferior scheme ...

A bunch of us looked into the matter at the very start and discovered that we could do NOTHING about it as the pension scheme was part of our terms and conditions but was not part of the contract - I suspect that this is the same across the board.

Anyway to get back on track, the only people that will drag this country out of the mess are those that are working in both the public and private sector - the Government are doing very well at 'Divide and Conquer' cos they've got us arguing amongst ourselves rather than asking why nothing's being done about the massive salaries paid to senior execs and why the banking sector aren't having to contribute significantly to repair the damage they've done to the world economy !

Now will you please shut up about this crap cos I'm not supposed to take this sort of shit seriously ...

[Surf01]

2 Million people on strike today are wrong are they ?

As there are less than 30 million people employed at any given time, 2 million public sector workers on strike is a substantial number which makes you wonder just how many people are working all together in the public sector and will be getting pensions funded by the taxpayer to a large degree.
We all know that the previous government allowed the public sector become over inflated and now the price is being paid.

[sabreuk]

well if you private sector lot think that the strikes were just for public sector i think your blinkered. the government want everyone to work until there 67 years old which means you wont get your state pensions until then so the strikes in my opinion were called for.

this is another reason why nothing changes over here the british people do not stick together, quick enough to spout opinions and gob off about whats right and wrong but when people do fight for something that will effect the whole population you get groups of people saying "pay more in your pot if your not happy" "find another job" "dont sponge off the tax payer" it realy does #### me off.

honestly im happy with my job, not happy with the people that run my job but we have lost 25% of our pension, been on a pay freeze for 3 years so far we have been told that once the pay freeze has finished we are to take another 2 year freeze so that totals 5 years pay freeze but inflation still goes up. overtime in whole has been cut and near impossible to get payed for but still work over contracted hours to get the job done WELL DONE ME no its part of my job so it has to be done, we are also going through redundancies and voulentery redundancies with privatisation looming in the distant future and if you wondering my wage for the year is £23.418 so its not that bad but far from gold plated out of that £23k comes tax etc so i get a lot less than i actualy earn on paper.

so just for a change why doesnt this country stick together and all agree to stop this crap happening and lining the pockets of bankers and mp. grrrrrrrrrrrr rant over now were is my popcorn.

[flounderbout]

What exactly is it that we are supposed to stick together to demand?
There is lots of "no more cuts" shouting but I have to hear a single suggestion of how we are actually supposed to reduce the massive and ever increasing level of debt that we have without making any cuts.
Or are we just supposed to keep spending money that we don't have and leave our kids to worry about that?

[flounderbout]

In the meantime I see the union leaders are all demanding that the police take action because Clarkson's joke wasn't funny. Are these people for real?

[slobodan]

In the meantime I see the union leaders are all demanding that the police take action because Clarkson's joke wasn't funny. Are these people for real?

That shows what sort of people they really are.