Is anyone on here on strike today, if so are you in agreement with the action? But what is the general opinion of everyone else over the strike, are the teachers, firefighters etc doing the right thing, and do they have your support? Certainly some of them deserve higher salaries, but that could also be said of others, none more so than nurses. Or are the unions leaders going about it all wrong, but what other options are there? ........................................................................................... Up to two million public sector workers may strike today, threatening major disruption to schools and other services, according to union leaders. Teachers, refuse collectors, firefighters, home helps and librarians are all expected to walk out over pay, pensions and spending cuts, unions say. Also expected to strike are dinner ladies, parks attendants, council road safety officers, caretakers and cleaners, as well as civil servants. The walkout threatens major disruption at schools and other council buildings, including courts and leisure centres. Household bins may also remain unemptied. According to the NUT, more than 200,000 teachers could take part in the action. Picket lines will be mounted outside courts, council offices, Jobcentres, fire stations and Parliament in outpourings of anger over the coalition's public sector policies. The TUC said public sector workers are £2,200 worse off under the Government, while half a million council employees earn less than the living wage. But the strike has sparked another pledge by David Cameron to change employment laws after it emerged the NUT strike ballot saw just 27% of members taking part. http://news.sky.com/story/1298248/public-sector-strike-will-achieve-nothing
Less then 25% voted in favour of strike action. That's democracy for you. The Marxists their agenda onto everybody else. There should be a law that more then 50% should be in favour and a minimum 80% turnout. I'm sick of these back door communists telling everybody what to do and if they don't labelling them with an -ist! What about the 75%+ that didn't want to strike? is there decision not important? Why can't they go to work? The unions since the 70's have fked everything that the UK was ever great for.
Probably because they didn't want to. Let's look at the figures... NUT... 23% in favour Unison...12%, Unite 14%, GMB 18%, FBU 43% (nearly), PCS 18% If it was such an important issue then i'm sure that out of 1.2 million workers that more then 240,000 would have voted! I have always worked in the private sector and have agreed to take pay decreases to assist the company through the hard times. We have just come out of a world wide recession and the country is leaking bundles of cash that will have to be paid for sometime in the future. The fkin marxist pigs in their big houses are trying to take the UK into the dark ages. I'm sick to death of all of this 'workers rights rubbish' and constant blaming of the banks. But people on here who probably vote Liebour and have asisted in the billions that the local councils debt will probably disagree with me...they can because unlike their marxist brothers in the unions i still believe in democracy!. My dad worked in factories and used to go on about how the 'brothers' would get free all expenses paid for holidays to Russia and the Crimea in the 70's. When the factory was closed and relocated to Peterborough (Baker Perkins) the unions did squit. My mother was a SRN and had to join a union. rant over.
The labour market is in a terrible state, if you have any member of your family out of work or working part time you will know this and it is not the sole responsibility of the union movement. The labour party has let the workingman down, and it is not them that is paying for it, no way, it is the forgotten and abandoned working class who are being undercut and over-run from all sides.
The unions (as well as bad management) can be blamed for the decimation of British manufacturing. They can't do it with private industry now so use the Public sector to play their Marxist games. Your right about the Liebour party problem is that idiots (especially in the North East)will keep voting for them thinking that they are for the working class. Liebour are for the Bone-Idle class and the middle class. It turns my stomach to see these career politicians from god knows where planted in a safe North East seat.
But it's OK that we are ruled by a government who could only muster 25 percent of the votes in the General Election. Is that democracy then?
I'm all for PR. It's a more effective form of government and keeps MPS on their toes. The problem with PR though is that it can cause unstable government something which we don't get in the UK. Your argument about the government being voted in by 25% is incorrect they got 36% of the vote and the Lib Dems 23%, so overall 57% (65.1% turnout). Which is a hell of a lot more Democratic then any of the firebrand marxist cockney-scouse unions mustered whilst ruining your kids education. Compare the current governments 57% to the previous Liebour governments 35% on a 61.4% turnout (2005), 43% on a 59% turnout (2001) and 43% on a 71.3% turnout (1997) and you'll see that Liebour governed with less votes. In fact Labour did nothing apart from take us deeper into the Marxist hole that is Europe and give up more powers. And take us into a deeply unpopular and illegal war. And it was Gordon Brown's f-up that allowed the banks to run amok. I'm no Tory but I hope to God that the Guardian reading, Islington living, Marxist idealist, PIE loving, career politicians of Liebour never get back into power. I remember me and my late Dad smiling as 'things can only get better' played on the telly as Tony Blair walked down Downing street thinking it would be better.... It didn't get better.
The vast majority of those who voted backed the strike action, so all this crap about those not voting is irrelevant as they had their chance. If it's good enough for general elections it should be good enough for unions.. I'm not involved directly in this strike action, but like most people I'm affected indirectly. For the record I support their cause whole heartedly..
Vast majority!! What happens if 2 people vote yes and 1 no out of 1.2million? The other 1,199,998 people have to take time of work because the vast majority have voted? Ok, then give them all a pay rise! What the hell it's only our kids that'll suffer in the long run. Good that a public workers will get a higher pension paid for by the tax payers. After all our kids will have to keep us, them in their old age and their kids... what a great life for my son! N.B. the country is 100's of billions in debt and somebody at sometime will have to pay for it or we will have to see cuts like the 40% pay decreases for public workers like in Greece. It's no good blaming the rich and the banks because Liebour are bed fellows with them as well as the Unions so nothing will change. Unfortunately it's a wasted exercise today and just turns the vast majority more against Liebour and the Marxist unions. The same pairing that got us Thatcher for 3 terms and Major for 1.
A few facts for you: Every member of a union has the opportunity to vote, so if a member can’t be bothered to vote why should that affect the democratic decision making process and the rights of those who bother to participate. I don’t know if your figures are correct because they are meaningless. The decision was a majority decision of the people who cared enough to vote. A small turnout doesn’t mean the process is less democratic, that is a ridiculous argument. Trade Union legislation dictates that all votes must be majority decisions. Public Sector workers, historically, have accepted a proportionately lower pay than their equivalent in the Private Sector because of the promise of better pensions (The main reason for this strike). Apportioning blame to a particular group of people is overly simplistic and masks any real issues, which may well need to be addressed.
I can't find a single flaw in this post. If people can't be arsed to vote, then they can't complain about the way that a vote turns out.
75% didn't want to go on strike really? so surely all they had to do was put a little cross in the "I don't want to go on strike" box (or may even be a NO box) and anyway what are those nasty marxists doing actually having a democratic ballot - tut tut they'll give communism a bad name. Personnally I would stop paying all Public sector works money and give them a weekly s**t sandwich and a clip round the ear for having the affrontery to expect payment and for not being grateful that the country employs them. - there you go sorted for you
Who's masking the issues? Who's being simplistic? Bit of a Liebour retort that mate! The Unions are renown for vote rigging to get what they want. Unless you have a minimum turnout figure the result is effectively meaningless and if the vote is less then 20% how can you say that this is fair and democratic to the rest of us? How many parents will lose a days pay today to take time of to look after kids? Not many teachers, union leaders etc will be effected i bet! private companies who are competing on a world stage for business will lose out and jobs may be lost. So public sector workers who have traditionally had more secure jobs, better working conditions and better pensions now want the rest of us to pay (with debt) for an increase in wages when a good few private workers are going without a pay rise again for another year. Let them have a pay rise and then watch them cry when we are in the same situation as Greece. I am 43 now and was 33 before I worked for a company which paid sickness, for the first 8-9 years I was in jobs that paid less then a fiver an hour and I changed jobs and bettered myself to improve my lot. I now live as an expat in a foreign company which I had to to secure a contract for my employer. Where is the incentive for anybody to improve if all they have to do is strike for a better deal and hold the rest of the population to ransom every so often? If I were to strike the company wouldn't make money and eventually i will lose my job, the lucky few dummy-spitting marxists don't have to face this fact like we do in the real world. As i said before we (the rest of us) will have to pay for any increase in wages for public sector workers whether we like it or not. Each person (man, woman and child) in the UK now owe's over 20,000 pounds in the UK in national debt and rising. I for one like the majority have had enough of being held for ransom. As I said before the Unions now do nothing in the UK but re-elect a more right wing Tory Party. If you wan't to support the Unions then 'you reap what you sow'
So effectively your argument is that if you don't vote then you agree with it? If that was the case then why didn't they put the cross in the 'for' box if it was such an important issue? Your argument is like saying that the 29% of the population who didn't vote in the German Election in 1933 were all Nazi's. Touche!
Voting prior to legislation voting used to be by a show of hands at a mass meeting organized by the unions. This was changed to a secret ballot by a Tory government. The ballot could be held in the workplace and the vote percentage was high. This was changed to a postal ballot by Thatcher presumably because she didn't like the outcome of most of the ballots. Electronic voting is not allowed so presumably most people discard their election papers as junk mail but the opportunity to vote is still there. It's called democracy.
Look mate i'm far from a Thatcherite. How on earth you can say that the current system is democratic when 200,000 people can hold a country to ransom is beyond me. If you've ever been stuck in London when Bob Crow was using a yes vote from less then 25% of his members you'll see how 'democratic' it is. If the Marxists get their way you won't even have 'Democracy' just Gulags and Siberia. Mark my words that the Conservatives will eventually force a minimum vote, will use this as an excuse to privatise more services and will eventually make draconian cuts on the workforce. But the union bigwigs will still get their big wages. Surely, Unions should have comrades on the shop floor? Who apart from taking trips to North Korea for a free holiday should be massing the troops and getting them to vote yes? If not, why not? Have the working class learned nothing from the past 30 years?
