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Post by Billy on Oct 21, 2009 6:18:07 GMT -5
I used to work for Royal Mail. The union are a complete bunch of whinging wankers, and the posties are whinging about actually having to work the hours they're paid for! Pathetic!
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Post by Beatende on Oct 21, 2009 7:19:31 GMT -5
I've listened to the debates on Talk Sport a fair bit and I'm not convinced it's as cut and dried as that. There's a lot of posties phoning in, not all of them support the union or the strike but still think the Pegasus system is inaccurate in calculating routes properly.
Tbh though, There's elements of that in every job. BT was full of inaccurate stat requirements, but people still dealt with it.
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Post by Wayne on Oct 21, 2009 8:26:27 GMT -5
Unions are whinging wankers in general. That's why I never joined ours in my old job, because I didn't want to be dragged down to their level of constantly moaning about fucking EVERYTHING.
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Post by Evilluke on Oct 21, 2009 10:10:26 GMT -5
I'm very pro-union. Without one your boss, who pretty much doesn't care if you live or die so long as you continue to line his pockets, can treat you however he wishes. I wouldn't claim that without them we'd all be in sweatshops but we'd all certainly be a lot worse off in terms of wage and working conditions.
Currently a lot of unions suck. To have a strong union you need solidarity, which means as many people as possible belonging to one and all of those people being prepared to stick by and support each other. Too often members of unions are happy to have the union represent them when they are in need of a bit of help but aren't willing to put their necks on the line to help others, which makes the union weak. In the case of The Royal Mail, if the government break this strike through the use of temporary staff then other public service unions should in my opinion strike also. Otherwise who is next? Combine this weakness with the insidious bad press they've had since the 80s turning people against them, and the unions are a long way from what they were and not in the right direction. However i think its revolting that the very people who would benefit from them are often too stupid or lazy to support them.
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Post by Evilluke on Oct 21, 2009 10:11:20 GMT -5
On a lighter note, i just recieved two new backpatches for a new denim i got for my Birthday.
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Post by Evilluke on Oct 21, 2009 11:54:39 GMT -5
Bang on, especially the bits about the reducing full time wage and the NHS. The eductaion system is undergoing something similar - the outlook is pretty bleak.
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Post by ad on Oct 21, 2009 12:26:27 GMT -5
Oi oi, the textbooks are out again. Striking doesn't solve anything, we don't want to to become like the French and strike every bloody five seconds!
Got Xvart-Skeletal Knight demo recently, pretty decent doomy death from the states.
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Post by Beatende on Oct 21, 2009 14:00:08 GMT -5
Well, whilst I agree that there are occasions in the past where unionists have struck purely to increase pay when they didn't really need it, some under the old labour government for example, I don't think it follows that striking doesn't solve anything. Granted, It causes disruption and inconvenience to the public. The strikes don't really happen all that often anyway these days, so it's not likely that we'll end up like France.
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Post by ad on Oct 21, 2009 15:39:39 GMT -5
It was merely a flippant remark...
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Post by Beatende on Oct 21, 2009 18:08:05 GMT -5
Well, whilst I agree that there are occasions in the past where unionists have struck purely to increase pay when they didn't really need it, some under the old labour government for example, I don't think it follows that striking doesn't solve anything. Granted, It causes disruption and inconvenience to the public. The strikes don't really happen all that often anyway these days, so it's not likely that we'll end up like France. Lead me not into the temptation of continuing the textbook war.... So much I could say... About both Adam's post and the Old Labour comment.... Must resist urge to argue.... >Ad... Oh balls. Walked right into that one. >Schadelreich... Actually I'm quoting anecdotes from my mother there, which thinking about it is a pretty poor source, even if she's been pro-labour most her life (til this gov. anyway). I don't even have the textbooks to consult!!
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Post by Billy on Oct 22, 2009 0:20:58 GMT -5
I don't want to get drawn into the union debate too much, so I just have two points:
1. A greater wage is needed to 'support' the average household, because people relentlessly consume so much (and ok, that is somewhat the capitalist trap). 2. In my brief experience of unions, Royal Mail treated their workers very well, with decent benefits, above average pay and excellent overtime rates, yet the workers still were not satisfied. People are never satisfied, but need to realise that the companies are doing THEM favours by employing them in the majority of situations, given that most of them are incompetant and stupid.
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Post by Nickyboi on Oct 22, 2009 1:44:10 GMT -5
I disagree with the last bit there entirely mate.
Unions, in my opinion, should rarely fight over pay - the economic system we live in means that pay rises are inflationary - since business owners don't want to see a drop in profit as the cost of production increases, they pass that cost on to consumers - meaning that their pay rise is, in effect, nullified.
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Post by ed on Oct 22, 2009 2:43:15 GMT -5
I recently acquired a hole in my kitchen ceiling. Not ideal.
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Post by Dan on Oct 22, 2009 6:39:42 GMT -5
I have to say that I agree with Billy, having also worked for Royal Mail, I do concur that generally the workforce are very well looked after, and a lot of the posties are incompetent morons. There's proof in that of the amount of parcels I've had recently either arriving ruined by weather, sent back to the sender, or returned to myself. The pay is pretty good, and aside from the usual corporate bullshit that all companies suffer, the workforce is pretty well looked after. Their treatment of the customers however is less than ideal.
I'm sure that there's economic problems that also play a part in this, but frankly I've better things to do than bother learning about them.
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Post by Wayne on Oct 22, 2009 7:55:43 GMT -5
I'm sure that there's economic problems that also play a part in this, but frankly I've better things to do than bother learning about them. A man after my own heart! I got an album in the post today (fuck your strikes!); Portal - Swarth So far it's sounding mind-bending, typical Portal then. The sound seems to hark back to the first album which pleases me as the production on Outre' lost me a little bit.
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