C**t of the day

Tubby Isaacs · **Posted:** Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:21 pm

"Industrial muscle" does indeed yield some high salaries for some people- tube drivers, for example. Perhaps you could make a "minimum service" mandatory, as in Italy, for public service.

This is the private sector though, isn't it? The means by which tanker drivers do well are the same other workers need to do half-decently. You can't really establish a principle whereby other workers can strike and tanker drivers can't.

oboogie · **Posted:** Mon Mar 26, 2012 11:53 pm

Gourami wrote:

I don't dispute that the work needs to be done properly. However, I could name dozens of people with PhDs and various postgraduate qualifications who work with very violent and dangerous people, day in and day out, for under £30k, in some cases under £20k. £45k is a lot for what the job entails. A lot of people are paid a lot less for taking comparable, or greater, risks. Firemen start on £21k and I'm willing to wager their training is at least as rigorous.

Sounds alarmingly like a race to the bottom to me. I'm sure it wasn't supposed to.
Tanker drivers get a decent wage - good.
I think the people you refer to should get a decent wage too.

Big Rob · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:03 am

I can remember the fuel protests in 2000. I have limited sympathy.

Big Rob · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:40 am

Tory backs fuel protests....

Howard renews fuel protests backing

Daily Mail on potential fuel supplies disruption....

£1 litre drives protesters back to the fuel blockades

When the lefties want to protest...

Held to ransom by 1,000 tanker drivers: Petrol stations face closure as less than half union's members vote for strike

Seriously....

Tubby Isaacs · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:45 am

Dead right, Rob. See here too:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-sout ... s-12932066

Quote:

Long serving assembly member for North Wales Brynle Williams has died at the age of 62.

Mr Williams came to public prominence as the farmer who led the fuel protests in September 2000.

He had been a Conservative AM since 2003 and rural affairs spokesman.

David Cameron described him as a "straight talker and a great loss to the assembly and to Wales". First Minister Carwyn Jones said he was "colourful" and a "tough battler".

Gourami · **Joined:** Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:51 pm **Posts:** 2005

oboogie wrote:

Gourami wrote:

I don't dispute that the work needs to be done properly. However, I could name dozens of people with PhDs and various postgraduate qualifications who work with very violent and dangerous people, day in and day out, for under £30k, in some cases under £20k. £45k is a lot for what the job entails. A lot of people are paid a lot less for taking comparable, or greater, risks. Firemen start on £21k and I'm willing to wager their training is at least as rigorous.

Sounds alarmingly like a race to the bottom to me. I'm sure it wasn't supposed to.
Tanker drivers get a decent wage - good.
I think the people you refer to should get a decent wage too.

It wasn't intended as a race to the bottom and yes, they are all in the public sector. They do work which they believe in and for which there is much competition. So they get paid poorly. The exact same work pays a hell of a lot more in the private and third sectors - and comes with proper contracts, pensions, etc.

Tubby Isaacs · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:52 am

It's worth remembering that the "ridiculous" pay "demands" firemen had in the national strike was for £30k. It was only an opening negotiating position, of course, but it was a bit high.

Unless you compare it with £250k to have lunch with Cameron. Or even with the £50k limit (per year) which the Tories say "take the big money out of politics".

Big Rob · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:53 am

And they have the nerve to wag their fingers at Miliband....

Pieces of shit....

Big Rob · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:56 am

Of course when the fuel protesters blockaded supplies in 2000 that had nothing to do with looking after their own interests.

Tubby Isaacs · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2012 1:00 am

It's a complete red herring anyway.

Milliband hasn't changed anything so that the drivers benefit. There'd be a strike if they'd given money to the Natural Law Party.

oboogie · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:49 pm

Gourami wrote:

oboogie wrote:

Gourami wrote:

I don't dispute that the work needs to be done properly. However, I could name dozens of people with PhDs and various postgraduate qualifications who work with very violent and dangerous people, day in and day out, for under £30k, in some cases under £20k. £45k is a lot for what the job entails. A lot of people are paid a lot less for taking comparable, or greater, risks. Firemen start on £21k and I'm willing to wager their training is at least as rigorous.

Sounds alarmingly like a race to the bottom to me. I'm sure it wasn't supposed to.
Tanker drivers get a decent wage - good.
I think the people you refer to should get a decent wage too.

It wasn't intended as a race to the bottom and yes, they are all in the public sector. They do work which they believe in and for which there is much competition. So they get paid poorly. The exact same work pays a hell of a lot more in the private and third sectors - and comes with proper contracts, pensions, etc.

And that is unfair and wrong.
I'm suggesting that the way to tackle that unfairness is to bring their terms and conditions up to the level of the private sector.
The problem, as I see it, isn't that private sector salaries are too high, rather that public sector salaries are too low.

Althea · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2012 12:55 pm

oboogie wrote:

And that is unfair and wrong.
I'm suggesting that the way to tackle that unfairness is to bring their terms and conditions up to the level of the private sector.
The problem, as I see it, isn't that private sector salaries are too high, rather that public sector salaries are too low.

That's how I see it too. A doctor being paid not a lot isn't the fault of, say, the trucking industry - it's a problem within the medical industry.

Paul · **Posted:** Tue Mar 27, 2012 1:02 pm

Quote:

Less than half of voters wanted Cameron, but we have still had him and his Tory elite dumped on us. High unemployment, riots, tax cuts for the rich, strikes, it sounds familiar.

- Anne, West Midlands EU, 27/3/2012 4:08
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sporran · **Joined:** Tue Nov 09, 2010 2:10 pm **Posts:** 1692

Quote:

Osborne knows full well that the number of people who eat takeaways more often than home-cooked meals is increasing, simply because a lot of people are too busy to cook at home. Only the rich, who have someone to cook for them, or where the woman doesn't work , have the time, and that includes all the TV chefs and their producers.
- Tom, West Sussex, 28/3/2012 13:13

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... t-VAT.html

Gourami · **Joined:** Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:51 pm **Posts:** 2005

Yeah, because I don't know fuckloads of poor working people, some with penises, who cook from scratch.

On a side note when I glanced at the title of this thread I read it as 'Tebbitt of the day'. Sincerely. I looked again and even clicked the back button and can not see the name 'Tebbitt' anywhere. Isn't the mind a funny thing?

C**t of the day

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