There has been much media coverage of the planned BA strikes by greedy and selfish unions planning to hold the country to ransom again; shamelessly ruining people’s holidays in the process.
The reasons for their strike I feel are petty and trivial. They are moaning about staffing numbers because staff on long-haul flights is being ‘drastically’ reduced from 15 cabin crew to a meagre 14. They should be grateful to have so many staff. In my job a ward of 30 sick people can sometimes only have 2 qualified nurses, try that for size. They are also moaning about pay which quite frankly I am infuriated by. They are paid £29k a year (basic salary) which is way more than I earn after 3 hard years of training in a much more demanding job. They should be grateful to earn so much because for such an easy job (their effectively waitresses really) they are grossly overpaid in my view especially when compared to other airlines.
All this coming at a time when following the worst recession for decades BA is very fragile and the last thing it needs is greedy and selfish staff striking. This is proof enough for me that unions have far too much power. People in well paid manual jobs like train drivers, cabin crew etc can just hold the country to ransom anytime the union feels like a bit more.
The fact we have a Labour Government is great for unions because they fund the Labour Party and in return have influence over policy and running the country. Under a Conservative Government their powers will be much less and that is no bad thing.
The way things are going we are heading for a repeat of the 70s when unions brought the country to its knees. I think it is high time we curbed the excessive powers of these organisations.
But personally I would scrap unions and replace them with neutral representation bodies banning any links to political parties.
It is time we took power back off the unions.
loading…
The BA unions are a disgrace.The trouble with unions is that they are corrupted by communist/trostykist turds who want to impose their PC culture instead of sticking to the real issue,representing the interets of workers.TB I believe there are conservative trade unions in the UK?
loading...
For You TB:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservative_Trade_Unionists
loading...
Well said Harold, thanks for the link very interesting I never there was such thing, I always thought Conservatives and trade unions go together like fish and ice cream.
loading...
Just for you TB, Simon Heffer is the man!
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/columnists/simonheffer/7301676/Life-is-never-fair.-So-why-does-Labour-pretend-it-can-be.html
loading...
Absolutely fantastic article, Simon Heffer is one of my favourite columnists, I wish he’d been on QT the other night.
loading...
I know this is unrelated but I can’t help but want to share it with everyone http://www.lep.co.uk/news/Landlord-is-jailed-over-smoking.6109400.jp I’ve got no sympathy for him because he has brought in himself by openly disobeying the law I am glad this smug arrogant man has got his comeuppance.
loading...
Thanks for that this guy is the official spokesman for UKIP on pubs and Leisure and a close friend of our beloved Hamish Howitt and the official UKIP PPC for Chorley.
I think he deserves all he gets!! He has about 30 convictions
loading...
Well said Bruiser the only thing to blame is his own arrogance. This guy went around putting posters up in his pub telling people to feel free to smoke and then when the enforcement officers came after him he claimed he didn’t know anything about it.
loading...
http://www.blackpoolgazette.co.uk/blackpoolnews/Hamish-blasts-jailing-of-smoke.6110172.jp
More bloody free publicity for Hamish, I can’t wait until the election and watch Hamish get humiliated.
loading...
There was an absolutely ridiculous comment from Hogan’s wife in the Mail yesterday, she said I think it is wrong my husband will be banged up with rapists and murderers. So now you have to be a rapist or murderer to go to prison. He will most probably be sent somewhere like HMP Kirkham with ‘low level’ offenders like shoplifters and joyriders. The came the biggest laugh of the week she then followed ‘Bad people who have done wrong go to prison not law abiding businessmen’. What planet is this woman on? He is not law-abiding he has committed a criminal offence whether she agrees with the law or not. He ignored and blatantly refused to pay £10,000 worth of fines and he had 30 convictions to his name, he can’t say he wasn’t warned. You can’t choose which laws to obey, I don’t drive my car down Highfield Rd at 60mph and say to the police I think the 30mph speed limit is wrong so I have committed no offence. Law-abiding people obey the law its simple enough. He has only himself to blame as far as I am concerned.
loading...
well at least he can now smoke in prison and everyone is happy! lol
loading...
Lol, Very good point
loading...
A return to the dark days of the 70s will be all the more inevitable if – as some polls are scarily predicting – Labour will hold all the aces in a hung parliament.
How bad do things have to be for the country before the electorate wake up and realise that another 5 years of this corrput, rudderless rabble will do terminal damage to this, already very sick, nation.
Sadly once again as a Scot I have to hang my head in shame as it looks like it’s the Scots who are going to save them as they’re romping ahead in polls up here.
Idiots.
loading...
Very well said Dr Bunsen, that’s the trouble because of this ridiculous system Labour can get battered by every other party in England and then Scotland and Wales will religiously vote Labour and save their skin. The only good thing that could come out of Labour hanging on is that for once they can clear up their own mess instead of passing it on and blaming the next Government.
loading...
labour out!
marsden out!
loading...
Hi Dr, I thought the SNP were doing well in Scotlnad?
loading...
FYI
Joan Humble is to stand down at the Election
loading...
Its true http://www.fleetwoodtoday.co.uk/latest/Labour-MP-Humble-announces-plan.6110860.jp I am sure Harold will be glad to hear.
loading...
He fuckin sure is!
loading...
Unions don’t create employment they only create misery and unemployment.Unions and governments have lost sight of what really matters in this country today look at what a MP gets paid then look at what a union leader gets paid,obviously the union leader thinks he’s a wealth creator,I think they are corrupt.
loading...
Union leaders are self invested. It’s in their interest to throw spanners in the works, even if it hinders progress.
Case in point is the strike on ScotRail that I mentioned a few days ago, where staff were striking due to driver only trains with automatic doors being implemented, meaning guards could be made redundant. The union leader, Bob Crow, is on a package totalling £130,000.
I don’t know about you but in Phil’s ideal world, mass transit would be automatic and highly efficient, instead of reliant on staff not going on strike and making unreasonable demands all the time.
What I don’t get about the BA strikes is why it’s only ever BA staff that go on strike. Are RyanAir cabin crew, for example, not part of the same union?
loading...
I agree Petrer,some of these union barons should go and live in a marxist state, like North Korea and see how a society works when its done in the name and ‘interest’ of the workers.
loading...
Do you think it would be fair for me to say people on this blog are a bit anti union?
Some points about unions you may ( or more likley may not) be interested in.
Unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation, including both wages and benefits, by about 28%.
Unions reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low- and middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, more for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, and more for workers who do not have a college degree.
Strong unions set a pay standard that nonunion employers follow. For example, a high school graduate whose workplace is not unionized but whose industry is 25% unionized is paid 5% more than similar workers in less unionized industries.
The impact of unions on total nonunion wages is almost as large as the impact on total union wages.
The most sweeping advantage for unionized workers is in fringe benefits. Unionized workers are more likely than their nonunionized counterparts to receive more paid leave, are approximately 18% to 28% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are 23% to 54% more likely to be in employer-provided pension plans.
Unionized workers receive better pension plans. Not only are they more likely to have a guaranteed benefit in retirement, their employers contribute 28% more toward pensions.
Unions play a pivotal role both in securing legislated labor protections and rights such as safety and health, overtime, and family/medical leave and in enforcing those rights on the job. Because unionized workers are more informed, they are more likely to benefit from social insurance programs such as unemployment insurance and workers compensation. Unions are thus an intermediary institution that provides a necessary complement to legislated benefits and protections.
Bollocks to it lets get rid of them all scum that they are.
loading...
I’m sure unions are great if you’re a part of one. The unions that I personally have less than positive thoughts about are infrastructure unions such as the RMT union and the communications workers union.
To me as an outsider, it seems that these unions continually hold the country to ransom.
For instance, look at the postal strikes around Christmas because the post office want to automate a lot of things that are currently done manually. What’re they supposed to do? Keep paying people for the sake of it and in the process drive themselves into financial oblivion?
loading...
You’d have got more credit for your contribution if you’d expressed your own thoughts instead of copying and pasting the text of an American trade union-backed ‘think tank’.
loading...
TB keeps implying because he is a nurse he should be paid more then anyone else after all a freshly qualified nurses wage is absolutely disgrace. Its 0nly £21000 a year basic (as a nurse myself) any freshly qualified nurse who comes out with basic has been of sick for a year. NHS nurses get enhanced rates left, right and centre. They have plenty of opportunity to increase this appallingly low wage, national audit says a freshly qualified nurse average first year pay is £26500. Now if a nurse has anything about them and wants to earn more in three years they should be able to apply for a band 6 job (one promotion just one). This promotion can bring their basic salary up to the heights of £33500. Now if the nurse goes mental and gets two promotions in their career they can top out at £40000 basic I know that’s two whole promotions that’s damn near impossible I here you say but I know people who have done it.
It does have to be said that NHS nurses have one of the best pension schemes in the country and if you try to match this in the private sector you would have to be paying massively into your pension scheme. So you could argue that a freshly qualified nurse (taking into account the pension) £27000 basic a year. Then there is the sickness policy of the NHS 6 months full pay 6 months half pay how many people in the private sector gets that. Lets not forget job security I don’t know any good nurses looking for work is it unreasonable to say this should be reflected in someone’s wage?
I have to admit it does piss me off listening to nurses bitch about their wages I am a nurse manager I have two degrees (I got both of these degrees after I qualified) I work in the private sector and with my bonuses this year I am hitting £100000 it my well be a one off I grant you but fuck off with this nonsense about how badly paid nurses are. If you work hard, apply yourself, put the time in (averaging 65hours a week this year myself) you get your rewards. If you only do 37 hours a week you don’t you get your basic.
loading...
John I am a member of a union and I largley agree, its the abuse of them by ultra left wing barons that concerns me.
loading...
Harold SNP generally are doing OK. Unfortunately though that’s only in polls for the ridiculous Scottish Parliament (I’d flatten it tomorrow !). On the Westminster Polls SNP have the same % of the vote as the Tories (around 21%). Labour are on 37% in the last one.
Speaks volumes about the Scottish mentality !!
So far as I remember Michael Howard’s Tories won the popular vote in England at the last election but the votes of the Scots and the Welsh more or less ensured another massive Labour majority.
I watched Broon’s speech at Swansea today and, honestly, the thought of that anus being our leader for another 5 years is truly truly terrifying.
loading...
I like your way of thinking Dr Bunsen, I would flatten that wasteful costly Scottish Parliament tommorow if someone gave me a bulldozer and the keys.
loading...
here here, and do westminster as well, whilst labour are still in power!
loading...
Impressed about the description of Brown and Brownken Britan, lol, lol……………
loading...