Why do we hate Unions? Look at BA...

donaldtramp

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/news/article6956208.ece

Have a look at how much misery Unite are going to cause hundreds of thousands of people over Christmas.
They are already the best paid in the industry and the company that puts food on their table needs to restructure to compete. Another fine example of unions "protecting" their members out of jobs....by attempting to bankrupt the parent company.

Cabin crew are in dispute with the airline over 18 issues including staff cuts and pay squeezes. They are some of the best paid staff in the sector earning an average salary of £29,000 compared with £14,000 at Virgin Atlantic.

They are an absolute disgrace. My company has just let hundreds of people go. Did they try to bankrupt the company in a left wing militant way?
No they just went and got another job as normal people have to.
And some people wonder why people hate unions!!!!!

ThrowingStonesAtYou

Every member of the union should lose their pension when BA go bust.

Graham_Devon

Some people just don't know when they have it good.

However, I have to say, the comparison to virgin atlantic makes it look worse than it is.

Virgin atlantic are the very lowest paid, by quite a margin I believe?

nearlynew

Everyone should have the freedom to withdraw their labour if they think they are being treated unfairly by their employers.

abaxas

nearlynew wrote: »

Everyone has a right to withdraw their labour if they think they are being treated unfairly by their employers.

So why cant the employer remove the job, when they do.

Cleaver

nearlynew wrote: »

Everyone should have the freedom to withdraw their labour if they think they are being treated unfairly by their employers.

That comment makes you sound even more like a teenager that your normal sound bites do.

According to the press release the long haul basic cabin crew earn £35k a year and one of the main issues of the union was that the staffing has been reduced from 16 to 15 on each flight. A lot of people on here talk about non-jobs in the public sector, but here's an example in the private sector. I imagine if you asked people whether they would be happy with a staff of about 4 who did the safety basics and dealt with emergencies and odd questions, with the addition of vending machines for food and drink, with your ticket being 20% less, most would say that this would be fine.

I believe they also had a payrise this year. Keeping in mind the current financial climate, the situation their business is in and the fact that this will cause misery to lots of people who can't see their family at Christmas, this strike is really un-called for. And in the long term it will probably cost them their job (if it actually goes ahead).

Cleaver

Afriend wrote: »

I think Unions in general are a good thing. It's when they wield too much power that they're counter productive.

The RMT for example.

Completely agree. If you're being completely screwed over then it's great to have a union, and more power to you. From what I've seen most staff at BA are doing their best to keep the company together, it's just the cabin crew that aren't.

And I don't want to say this because it sounds ignorant... but... £35k to give out sandwiches and point at some exits?! I'd keep my trap shut, get on with it and hope no one noticed my payslip.

RobertoMoir

Cleaver wrote: »

And I don't want to say this because it sounds ignorant... but... £35k to give out sandwiches and point at some exits?! I'd keep my trap shut, get on with it and hope no one noticed my payslip.

I'm sure there's more to it than that, to be fair... but still it's not exactly mining with your bare hands or being shot at in a warzone.

boomerangs

Cleaver wrote: »

And I don't want to say this because it sounds ignorant... but... £35k to give out sandwiches and point at some exits?! I'd keep my trap shut, get on with it and hope no one noticed my payslip.

You've changed your tune cleaver. Only the other day you were defending useless tube drivers who do even less the BA cabin staff and get paid alot more.

ThrowingStonesAtYou

Hopefully BA will have some way of suing the lot of these workshy wastes of space to recoup the losses, assuming these people live on the planet earth the only logical conclusion is that the union want BA to go bust, and as such BA should have a legal remedy available if their company is deliberately destroyed.

Cleaver

nearlynew wrote: »

Doesn't make it any less true though.

So my boss asks me to do something that benefits the company and is perfectly reasonable, but because I think I'm being treated unfairly I can "withdraw my labour". You think this is okay?

nearlynew wrote: »

And I don't give a f*ck for anyone who is inconvenienced by a cancelled flight.

I can imagine from the tone of most of your posts that you wouldn't. I do give a f*ck. Hundreds of thousands of people have forked out thousands to book flights, organise time off work, book hotels and arrange transport to go and spend Christmas with family only to be told 8 days in advance that they now cannot go because someone who earns £35k to give out a sandwich doesn't want to work. Apologies for the emotive language but they deserve a lot of sympathy.

nearlynew wrote: »

But I do give a f*ck out people's right to strike. And on that point I support what they're doing.

Supporting people's right to strike in general and supporting this particular strike are two completely different issues. You understand that, right?