Strike!!!

[MrBump]

So - any brothers or sisters of the Revolution out on the picket lines today???

[Twinfan]

Mrs Twinfan is a Deputy Head and is in work today.  You don't want to hear what she has to say about the teachers she's having to plan lessons and cover for.......

[MrBump]

Ha! Yep, my wife has also broken rank and gone to work.

[Dmoney]

scabs



(joke joke joke)

[Philly Q]

I saw a banner-waving group standing outside Brixton Town Hall this morning.

I'm neither sympathetic nor unsympathetic really, but when they started singing "We'll be going to the picket" to the tune of "She'll be coming round the Mountain", I just thought SHUT THE $%&# UP.

[Brow]

Both my girlfriend and her sister work for Derbyshire police. The sister is big into the union side of things and is on strike, whilst my girlfriend has just booked the day off as a holiday as she doesn't know how she feels about it all and didn't want to incur the wrath of her sister if she went to work  :lol:

It makes for extremely boring conversation when we see family at weekends etc  :?

[Roobubba]

Lazy $%&#ers should get back to work. We've not had a pay rise for almost 4 years (not even cost of living allowance), and you don't see me complaining like a bitch about it. Cancer drugs aren't going to make themselves, you know.

[Philly Q]

Wait until nfe gets on this thread.....  :lol:

[FELINEGUITARS]

Wait until nfe gets on this thread.....  :lol:

Oh dear God no - I'm going for a lie down....

[Roobubba]

Wait a minute, someone else's presence on a thread is worse news than my own...? This can't be right, must derail with talk of telecasters, traffic wardens, mashed potato and the four tw4ts!

:D

[MrBump]

I have mixed feelings about the strike. 

I used to be a Unison member, and if I still worked in the public sector I might be tempted to go out.  However, given that I know work for an investment bank (!) strikes aren't something that I can experience any more, not from the interesting end anyway.

Lots of examples of pay reduction/claim and counter-claim in the media over the past few weeks.  Hard to know who to believe.  Public sector pensions do seem to be quite inflated, but the assumption has always been that public sector pay is less that in the private sector, and that "perks" like better pensions, more job security made up for that.  Certainly in my industry I was being paid less than an employee in a similar private company.  And a lot less than someone working in banking/finance.

I guess that the medicine is that we all have to be paid less, and spend less.  Hard for the lowest paid though.

Roo - do you make your Cancer drugs on that science park near Abingdon?  I've got a mate that does similar...

[Muttley]

Speaking as someone who hasn't had a pay rise in 4 years and doesn't get any kind of pension (unless I organise and pay for it completely on my own), I have very little sympathy.  ;)

[mikeluke]

Sympathy for folks at the low end of the pay scale but low pay for middle management upwards in the Public Sector is a myth. If they worked in the private sector they would get paid less/the same and be expected to do more.

[mikeluke]

Forgot to add:

[Lobs in that hand-grenade of the sweeping generalisation and stands by in the anticipation of the nfe flaming.....]

[MisterMuncher]

Regardless of one's own circumstances, wages, earning potential, pension et al:

You can't just expect people to take changes to their contracted terms and conditions on the chin. The demonisation of Public Sector workers for wanting the terms of their contracts to be honoured is a disgrace. In Private Industry, this would be courage in the face of an unreasonable boss.

(PS, I'm private sector, and I've recently taken a pay cut myself, so this is not purely self-interest)