UK Protests against foreign workers to spread

[ricklinc]

I think we're looking at the beginning of the big union comeback. Is there an Arthur Scargill in the house?

British workers in industry who want to be slack but still get paid mostly become union reps or safety arseholes. The workers on industrial plants have nothing but contempt for them.

[bertrus2]

Our fellow European citizens are not foreign workers. They have exactly the same rights as British workers. You have to be living in a crazy, insular timewarp to deny that.

[ricklinc]

That would be great, wouldn't it? But it's not like that. Each country has different rules and if the French haven't got the best of them for French workers yet I expect they will have soon. All that demonstrating they're doing isn't for the benefit of Britain.

Best wishes from the crazy, insular timewarp.

[saddamy]

Honda jobs for Japanese workers!!

[radge]

bert: fair play!

[minge tightly]

Jan 30, 2009 16:02:44 GMT bertrus2 said:

Our fellow European citizens are not foreign workers. They have exactly the same rights as British workers. You have to be living in a crazy, insular timewarp to deny that.

Ah.

Now, while Bert is undoubtably correct in the above, the crazy insular timewarp is alive and kicking within British hearts and certainly among the British press when it comes to Europe.

So correct it may be, but it won't carry any weight to those protesting, those whipping them up and those who will, in the near future, find themselves in a similar boat

[norfolkdumpling]

It seems to me that the British have never really accepted the fact that they are now part of Europe and free to work in Europe if they choose.
What does bug me is the need for passports to go to Europe. Americans don't need passports to travel between States.

[yord]

you shouldnt need a passport to go to any country, only the means to support yourself

[saddamy]

Though you could use a passport to show you have sufficient means to support youself. A type of financial ID.

[norfolkdumpling]

Jan 30, 2009 15:55:16 GMT ricklinc said:

I think we're looking at the beginning of the big union comeback. Is there an Arthur Scargill in the house?

British workers in industry who want to be slack but still get paid mostly become union reps or safety arseholes. The workers on industrial plants have nothing but contempt for them.

That is unfair ricklinc, not all unions are like that.

I was Womens rep for the NGA once and got called Mrs Scargill by the management because I asked for a seat. The men had seats.

In those days there was excessive male chauvinism and harrassment, no law then to protect people, male or female.

Looking back, I wish I had stuck with nursing. The nursing profession are much more tolerent.

[yord]

its only one stage removed from having a number tattooed on your forehead

[ricklinc]

Sorry if I've offended you, Miss Dumpling. But I've seen some workshy horrors as union reps. Including one of the most treacherous bastards I've met. How he didn't have a bit of an accident I can't imagine. There was talk of a lynching after one of his negotiating sessions. He did all right out of it in a way that got him what he wanted but cost the engineering shift teams of at least two entire plants several percent in wages. And nobody ever saw him work too hard.

Safety tossers are worse. HSE has implemented so much rubbish that it's easy to jump onto the safety bandwagon and live the easy life forwarding the odd safety awareness bulletin and strolling around looking for any minor infraction that justifies the day. And there is a small army of the fcukers getting on everyone's nerves.

[Brittles]

Notice how this debate died a death a couple of hours after - 'office hours' - i.e. after much of the NEWS membership shipped off from the workplace to their wee cosy hooses?

[norfolkdumpling]

Jan 30, 2009 18:39:39 GMT ricklinc said:

Sorry if I've offended you, Miss Dumpling. But I've seen some workshy horrors as union reps. Including one of the most treacherous bastards I've met. How he didn't have a bit of an accident I can't imagine. There was talk of a lynching after one of his negotiating sessions. He did all right out of it in a way that got him what he wanted but cost the engineering shift teams of at least two entire plants several percent in wages. And nobody ever saw him work too hard.

Safety tossers are worse. HSE has implemented so much rubbish that it's easy to jump onto the safety bandwagon and live the easy life forwarding the odd safety awareness bulletin and strolling around looking for any minor infraction that justifies the day. And there is a small army of the fcukers getting on everyone's nerves.

I am not offended, to be honest there are plenty of Union shop stewards who are downright b*st*rds. Also a great many Communists, WRP and Trots as I discovered when I went to a conference. I was shocked to find out how many were more interested in creating unrest than looking after their members properly. I left within a year.
The Health and Safety Nazis hadn't really got a foothold then.

[ricklinc]

The steel industry remembers a mid seventies strike that lasted 13 weeks. Management tabled an insultingly low pay offer, the unions bit and at a time when the steel industry wasn't doing much the wages bill dropped to vitually nothing. Handy, that. Steelworkers and their familes got naff all from the unions in the way of financial support for the 13 weeks but insisted on a card-check when everyone returned to work. The old guys who were there spit real venom when you ask about it.

Quite a few senior union reps have gotten jobs in HR which is a complete sell-out. One particular piece of filth hates me because I scuppered a stitchup operation he had going. There was a medium awful mistake made that cost quite a bit of time and money. And the hunt was on for someone to blame. No.1 candidate ignored the union in favour of taking me to the " informal incident " interview. Shortly thereafter a document appeared under a title that suggested thatit was a true and faithful account of the meeting. Must have been a different meeting and I pointed this out really hard along with a hint that I'd done my own investigating and KNEW what had happened, who did it, who should have checked it and who generated the procedure that failed to catch it. It was actually the guy who instigated the witch hunt and was also present. So this git moved on to someone else. And I unexpectedly turned up at that interview as well. Game over, swept under the carpet. And some time thereafter I was gigged for a minor safety violation that also went nowhere but somebody tried a bit harder than average.

Lots of scum in unions, HR and safety.

[Muz]

They aren't excluded. Total tendered for bids from various companies, and the one that offered the best deal and product turned out to be one that only employs Italians. If someone who employed Brits had offered a competetive bid, I'm sure Total would have taken it.

Brits are being excluded. The company that won the tender won't employ them. Someone on this thread asked if ss thought that the company should sack its skilled workforce and employ Brits? One of the articles mentions the Italian labourers. How skilled are labourers? Can Brits not carry stuff?

The Total spokesman was squirming for answers on Jeremy Vine's show on R2 yesterday.

Also to Joyce...

The protestors aren't unemployed. They're employed and on strike, supporting British workers. Try to keep up.