The Big Strike

Tromking

Fella wrote: »

Would that be the same French who think the solution is to take their bosses hostage?

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jan/06/french-workers-bosses-hostage-goodyear-amiens

I think that`s an extreme you`ve cited there.
A sweeping generalisation I know, but I find the British penchant for allying themselves with the bosses/Tory politicians because it somehow elevates them from the 'great unwashed' who might take strike action, a bit sad.
I `m reminded of my dear old Gran, who never had an ha'penny to scratch her backside with, but dined out on the fact that come election time her local Tory MP would pick her up in his posh car to vote for him, he would then go on to ignore her of course for the next 4/5 years.
The French on the other hand I think have a healthy deep mistrust of government and the elites and when an ordinary worker fights for better working conditions, he or she wishes them well.
I know which attitude I prefer.

PasturesNew

I didn't know there had been one ... and still don't know when it was.

CLAPTON

Tromking wrote: »

I think that`s an extreme you`ve cited there.
A sweeping generalisation I know, but I find the British penchant for allying themselves with the bosses/Tory politicians because it somehow elevates them from the 'great unwashed' who might take strike action, a bit sad.
I `m reminded of my dear old Gran, who never had an ha'penny to scratch her backside with, but dined out on the fact that come election time her local Tory MP would pick her up in his posh car to vote for him, he would then go on to ignore her of course for the next 4/5 years.
The French on the other hand I think have a healthy deep mistrust of government and the elites and when an ordinary worker fights for better working conditions, he or she wishes them well.
I know which attitude I prefer.

whilst I think it a little racist to allocate a specific characteristic to the French; but one can just about remember the Terror and all that stuff which certainly showed them government types who was boss.

Tromking

CLAPTON wrote: »

whilst I think it a little racist to allocate a specific characteristic to the French; but one can just about remember the Terror and all that stuff which certainly showed them government types who was boss.

CLAPTON you see rascists everywhere!
I think I read somewhere that the French only loan power to the politicians and reserve the right to rise up and take it back from them when ever they see fit, again a very healthy state of affairs in my view.

antrobus

Tromking wrote: »

....The French on the other hand I think have a healthy deep mistrust of government and the elites... ...

If the French have a "healthy deep mistrust of government" why the $£%* did they vote for Hollande?

I think you've got things the wrong way round. The French have too much faith in government and its ability to fix every problem.

CLAPTON

Tromking wrote: »

CLAPTON you see rascists everywhere!
I think I read somewhere that the French only loan power to the politicians and reserve the right to rise up and take it back from them when ever they see fit, again a very healthy state of affairs in my view.

not sure the people round the period of the terror thought it a healthy state of affairs




and on a more current note, most of the big strikes in France are by heavily vested interested like the farmers or unionised state sector workers with very little support for the other workers

antrobus

CLAPTON wrote: »

not sure the people round the period of the terror thought it a healthy state of affairs....

Well, I suppose you could cite the Revolution of 1789 as an example of when the French people rose up and took power. Although they certainly weren't 'taking it back' at that time; I think you can trace the French monarchy back to the Merovingians, who were knocking around in the 5th Century, which is quite a long time.

Of course the end result of the 1789 revolution was Napoleon. Just like the end result of the 1848 revolution was the Second Empire. I don't think the French had much choice in the matter on either occasion. I'm not that hot on 'modern' history, but I'm not sure that there has been much in the way of rising up by the French since then. In fact, on the contrary, I think the French were more often obliged to surrender power as a result of being defeated by the Germans.

Backbiter

antrobus wrote: »

My bins got emptied irrespective of the strike. One of the advantages of contracting out I expect.



Teachers have one as well. It's the School Teachers’ Review Body (STRB). It recently released it's 24th report. It recommended a 1% increase in teacher's pay. Gove has announced he intends to accept their recommendations in full.

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/school-teachers-review-body-24th-report

Yet for some reason the NUT is unhappy with that and called a 'strike'. Go figure.

Independent pay review body? This clearly didn't happen. :

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15931086
29 November 2011
Chancellor George Osborne has said public sector pay rises will be capped at 1% for two years, as he lowered growth forecasts for the UK economy.
The number of public sector jobs set to be lost by 2017 has also been revised up from 400,000 to 710,000.
Among money-saving measures outlined by the chancellor were a 1% cap on public sector pay for two years, once the current two-year pay freeze ends from 2013 - Mr Osborne said the government "cannot afford the 2% rise assumed by some government departments thereafter". That would save more than £1bn by 2014-15, he said.

From the 2013 report:

The Secretary of State asked us to consider how to apply to teachers’ pay the Government’s “average 1%” pay uplift policy which applies across the public sector. This remit follows a two-year pay freeze (except for those earning £21,000 or less) and the Government has made clear that there will be two further years of pay restraint for the public sector as a whole.....the Department said there was no additional funding for schools to cover the 2013 pay award.

Most teacher unions emphasised the broader context for consideration of the “average1%” remit, commenting that the two year pay freeze had been imposed by Government without reference to the Review Body or to prevailing market pressures or trends in pay
awards elsewhere in the economy.

We also had to weigh carefully the impact of a higher award on school budgets when the Government has made clear there is no additional funding.

From the 2014 report:

we would like to receive a future remit enabling a fuller review of the teachers’ pay framework as soon as Government priorities permit. Such a review could examine the overall effectiveness of the framework in providing attractive career paths and pay levels which are competitive with other graduate professions.

Which seems to be saying: we'd like to be independent if only the Government would allow us to be.

Pay review for 2014

In this remit we were asked to consider how to apply a 1% pay award for 2014

So they were not asked to decide what the pay award should be, but how to apply the award the Government told it to make.

zagubov

Generali wrote: »

I agree with a caveat that striking isn't always the best or correct way to do this.

People like the military, police, firemen, teachers, nurses & doctors, ambulance-ists and bus & train drivers shouldn't be able to strike IMHO. The military can't at present and that should be extended I think. Tube drivers earn a very high wage for a low skill job because they have what amounts to a monopoly. I can't use a different train service or bus route to get to work as I need to get from where I am to where I want to be.

In Norway, Sweden and Finland the army can go on strike (but don't). In the US the police can go on strike (and do).

In Israel there was a doctor's strike and the death rate fell (and no I don't mean the certification of deaths fell). In Malta , the doctors went on strike but the government imported a load of Palestinian doctors to do the job, an option the Israelis either didn't think of or wouldn't countenance.

If the right to strike were withdrawn I doubt any number of ombudsmen could compensate for it. It's a fundamental freedom but needs to be exercised sparingly. I'm much more impressed by the Jimmy Reids of this world than the Arthur Scargills.

Generali

zagubov wrote: »

In Norway, Sweden and Finland the army can go on strike (but don't). In the US the police can go on strike (and do).

In Israel there was a doctor's strike and the death rate fell (and no I don't mean the certification of deaths fell). In Malta , the doctors went on strike but the government imported a load of Palestinian doctors to do the job, an option the Israelis either didn't think of or wouldn't countenance.

If the right to strike were withdrawn I doubt any number of ombudsmen could compensate for it. It's a fundamental freedom but needs to be exercised sparingly. I'm much more impressed by the Jimmy Reids of this world than the Arthur Scargills.

I'd heard of Jimmy Reid but didn't know anything about him. Interesting bloke.