Unions protest because contractors are using foreign workers at power station.

Any

omelette451 wrote: »

And how do you force people to do them? There was a thing on BBC News last year where they tried to get unemployed young lads in Peterborough to agree to work on farms for over 30% more than the minimum wage (£7.50/hr iirc) and they just wouldn't do it.

Thank you, my point exactly!
Some people don't want to work.

However, it all comes back to one thing. Maybe something to do with benefit system?:eek:

zedyy

protectionism will fail, this is a global economy now, you need to be prepared to get onto a plane if you want a job. No job nationally should be guaranteed.

omelette451

zedyy wrote: »

protectionism will fail, this is a global economy now, you need to be prepared to get onto a plane if you want a job. No job nationally should be guaranteed.

Exactly. And that's the reason the car 'bailout' suggested this week won't work. If we say 'buy British', it is perfectly reasonable and fair to expect everyone else to do the same with their own products. But as 78% of cars made here are then exported (source: the times, wednesday this week), any move towards protectionism will kill off the industry completely. Making markets global helped introduce new economies of scale; keeping them global will help everyone's economy as we're all in it together, as well as keeping the export/import and transport jobs that go with them.

MrFonzerelli

zedyy wrote: »

you need to be prepared to get onto a plane if you want a job.

People suffering from aerophobia appear to be in for a surprise at the interview process. :rolleyes:

leveller2911

Any wrote: »

I hope you are also taking all the British from around the world back into Britain then. This is NOT one way street. The opportunities within the countries are equal and a lot of people are taking these opportunities up.

There is a difference, if you go to Australia whether your Polish,English,dutch , black,asian, white or green you earn the same rate as the Aussies, you don't undercut , make money and go home.
The vast majority of people who move to Australia and New zealand stay there for good.

Wookster

dervish wrote: »

The lower classes should be forced to do such menial jobs and that would mean hopefully a stop to immigration.

Once again that's one of the most stupid posts I've read. You should keep your opinions to yourself.

That sort of mentality you should not be getting any state benefits at all.

It also just goes to show an underlying tone of something not far off racism.

leveller2911

zedyy wrote: »

protectionism will fail, this is a global economy now, you need to be prepared to get onto a plane if you want a job. No job nationally should be guaranteed.

Really??? have a real good look at the French fishing industry and agriculture.....remember the UNIONS run France and not the government.

They've practiced it for years and It doesn't seem to have ruined them

omelette451

leveller2911 wrote: »

There is a difference, if you go to Australia whether your Polish,English,dutch , black,asian, white or green you earn the same rate as the Aussies, you don't undercut , make money and go home.
The vast majority of people who move to Australia and New zealand stay there for good.

Not exactly true. The reason Australia opens its borders to so many foreigners is because they realise they're missing skills, especially in certain under-rated towns (such as Adelaide). There are plenty of Australians who could take the jobs; the trouble is that they would need training, which is expensive. The salary may therefore be relatively high (and seem like a good wage in Australian terms) but overall taking on foreign workers is actually a way of saving costs, and is, therefore, another way of undercutting 'native' staff.

shewhoguards

Wookster wrote: »

How about work maintenance work on say our prehistoric rail network?

...because it's not as though THAT'S highly skilled working which requires training and could result in the death of hundreds of people if done wrong or sloppily?

omelette451

leveller2911 wrote: »

Really??? have a real good look at the French fishing industry and agriculture.....remember the UNIONS run France and not the government.

That's not true either. What people in Britain often don't realise is in France it's exclusively public sector workers who go on strike (yesterday excepted - that was different circumstances all round), and that the rest of the country, i.e. those who work in the private sector, are actually very resentful of the benefits attached with public positions and are always very angry at the disruption they cause in their country. This disaffected majority are never heard during the disputes, especially in the British media, but it is they who voted en masse for Nicolas Sarkozy when he stood on a union-modernising platform. Hence why one of his first acts was a Thatcher-style dismantling of certain union privileges and introducing a 'minimum service' of trains, etc., that must run even during strikes, and hence why you can't really say the country is run by the unions, even if it's true they're more powerful (or perhaps that their members are less lazy) than they are here.