Baroness Thatcher passed away

sheffield_lad

dryhat wrote: »

But the unions were beaten long before privatisation of the electric industry.

They are two completely separate issues.

Although they have been put back in their box unions still dominate ex public sector industries.

Royal Mail, BA, National rail & the train operators, BT all have a strong union presence and still try to disrupt their company's.

I am almost certain a nationalised electric/gas industry would have seen both higher bills and power cuts since privatisation.

ukcarper

howee wrote: »

I disagree, imagine what type of money meter readers would be on in the public sector £30K? and how many days would have been lost to even more strikes. :eek:

As pointed out earlier we have some of the cheapest electric & gas in Europe, (4th cheapest), despite the press (mainly BBC), making out the shareholders are holding the country to ransom.

I worked for a company that was privatised my money stayed the same and those who left and move to newly created competition increased their wages considerably.

ukcarper

howee wrote: »

Although they have been put back in their box unions still dominate ex public sector industries.

Royal Mail, BA, National rail & the train operators, BT all have a strong union presence and still try to disrupt their company's.

I am almost certain a nationalised electric/gas industry would have seen both higher bills and power cuts since privatisation.

Can you give me one instance where BT unions have tried to disrupt company.

the_flying_pig

it's really hard to compare most of the UK utilities pre- and post-privatisation.

most obviously:

1 - technological change [said technology mostly coming from overseas, certainly not unleashed by UK privatization!] means that telecoms equipment [the exceptions being the very low tech stuff like, well, copper] has become vastly cheaper, a kit with a given functionality being vastly smaller & requiring vastly fewer people to keep it ticking over

2 - the rail network now hauls double the number of passengers that it did when the privatisation process started under Major [Thatcher had nowt to do with it, indeed was said to be against it] in the early 90s.


just as importantly it'd be very wrong to see privatisation as totally Thatcher's 'thing'. it hardly got a mention in her late 70s election manifesto, barely a footnote here & there. it was at least partly just a wheeze to raise some cash. and it was totally a global thing, with the UK somewhere fairly close to the forefront but...

PaulF81

dryhat wrote: »

With all due respect, that has got f*ck all to do with privatisation.

With all due respect, it does! How many strikes did the private sector have in the aftermath of the financial crash? Now compare that to the public sector:




MG]






The lot of them should be sacked. I dont know of many private sector companies who have gone on strike since the crash...

PaulF81

howee wrote: »

Although they have been put back in their box unions still dominate ex public sector industries.

Royal Mail, BA, National rail & the train operators, BT all have a strong union presence and still try to disrupt their company's.

I am almost certain a nationalised electric/gas industry would have seen both higher bills and power cuts since privatisation.

BA's strike was broken by workers inside the company, I know a few pilots who came in, for free, to work as trolley dollys.

Being called a scab by a flouncing, mincing bright orange flight attendant doesnt really wash when its aimed at battle hardened ex military aircrew.

sheffield_lad

ukcarper wrote: »

Can you give me one instance where BT unions have tried to disrupt company.

http://www.information-age.com/it-management/outsourcing-and-supplier-management/1266553/bt-strike-cancelled-over-legal-dispute

sheffield_lad

I think Len and the remaining British cancer unite may be a little unnerved over their threat for a national strike given every man & his dog are currently agreeing that unions were out of control back then. Her death may have come at the very worst time for them.

Cheer up Len, better luck next time

grizzly1911

howee wrote: »

Although they have been put back in their box unions still dominate ex public sector industries.

Royal Mail, BA, National rail & the train operators, BT all have a strong union presence and still try to disrupt their company's.

I am almost certain a nationalised electric/gas industry would have seen both higher bills and power cuts since privatisation.

I am almost certain theri would actually haven been little difference. For all the inefficiencies there may have been in the public sector, having six sets of overheads competing against each, constant numbers of customer switching causing wasteful administration costs, cashbacks, bungs to introducers, shareholders don't come cheap.

We as consumers pay for the cost of switching - it must be close to £100 a time, for what purpose?

ukcarper

howee wrote: »

http://www.information-age.com/it-management/outsourcing-and-supplier-management/1266553/bt-strike-cancelled-over-legal-dispute

No strike then just a ballot that was stopped by BT. When was the last time BT workers went on strike.