Back to the Eighties
In The Times today, Lord Mandelson is reported as saying that the Unions are taking the Labour Party back to the 1980s.
It certainly seems to me that the two organisations are not singing from the same hymn sheet.
I doubt in this country, there has ever been any strike, that has ever achieved all its objectives. Some small ones might, but in most cases the threat of strike action ends up with a positive result and usually for all parties concerned.
And Now We Have a Bus Strike!
Len McCluskey has a very good way of making life for Londoners better; call a bus strike for next Friday.
It actually doesn’t effect me much, as with a bit of planning I could make sure, I haven’t got any journeys on that day. I am going to something in the evening, and I suppose I will have to take a taxi, which I can afford.
Some might say, that the bus drivers have a case, because everybody else has got an Olympic bonus. But then every other transport worker is employed more directly by Transport for London and not individual companies like Stagecoach and Arriva.
On the other hand, I’m listening to the complete silence of the Labour leadership. At least most voters are brighter than Mr. McCluskey!
Laughing All the Way to the Angel
The proposed fuel strike doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, as someone who can’t drive because of a stroke and has lost two of his nearest and dearest family in the last few years to cancer, I could claim that all of the bad news is being shared out a bit.
The strike does bring out the worst in people.
I do hope that no-one near me has stored a lethal amount of petrol in his front room and then decides to have a fag.
I’ve got a litre of goat’s milk in the fridge, which will last me three weeks. If things get tight, I can walk all the way to the Angel and because too many politicians live in Islington, the shops will be open.
My only problem is that I have a dental appointment in Notting Hill on the 4th and if the Underground runs out of electricity or the buses out of diesel, I won’t get there. But then, if that happens the country will be in total chaos, with tanker drivers the focus of everyone’s anger.
We live in interesting times.
A Pointless Strike
The London Underground strike is totally pointless as it is trying to protect booking office staff, who because of the new ticketing systems, have little to do anyway.
Boris hohnson said this.
We need to take account of the fact that some ticket offices are now selling fewer than 10 tickets an hour. We need to liberate staff to get out on to the platforms and concourses where they can be of most use to the travelling public.
I’m afraid that this won’t be the last strike, where new technology is threatening to get rid of jobs or redeploy people.
Line-Up the Dinosaurs
It would appear that the TUC’s response to the country’s enormous deficit is to do nothing!
The dinosaurs are saying we need a few strikes to stop the cuts. If there is anything, that will put as back in recession, it’s that, as people won’t be able to get to work and will have difficulty living their lives.
On the other hand, strikes would probably be counter productive, as the general public seem to be very realistic about the need for austerity. I also think that a lot of Union leaders and members know this, so they would actually suggest cuts that are sensible and worthwhile, as it’s better to have a job rather than no job.
Unions, Strikes and Courts
Last week unions flexed their muscles in both the UK and France.
In the UK, the rail unions wanted to go on strike and were stopped by the courts, but in France the port workers and seaman at Calais just walked out.
We have laws about ballots, unofficial strikes and conciliation, but I’m not sure about French law. So perhaps if they have laws against unofficial strikes, the French just ignore them.
I would have no idea, which set of rules are best. But lets put it this way, lots of strikes might well sway votes against parties connected to the unions. Or they could get other workers in solidarity with them and move the vote the other way.
But to me strikes are wrong, as if they need to be called, then they indicate a failure of proper communication and negotiation.
Mount Pleasant
The largest postal site in London, if not UK is Mount Pleasant.
Years ago, when I lived in the Barbican and worked at Time Sharing in Great Portland Street, I used to cycle past the site to get between the two locations. I could never understand, why most of this valuable site is just a ground-level car-park. The site is still mainly undeveloped in an area of London, where property prices are sky-high.
If you take other large organisations, who used to have large premises of this sort in central London, they have closed and redeveloped them. As an example, a lot of London rail stations are new and spectacular, with or without offices, shops and apartments. These developments have enriched the environment and the organisations that owned the sites.
So why have Royal Mail not closed these massive sites in central London and developed perhaps four large sorting centres on the M25, with just smaller delivery offices in the centre?
It surely must be a much more efficient way of doing things. Or am I talking garbage?
The union will say I am. But then if you start with new sorting centres, you’ll probably break the power of the unions to hold everybody to ransom.
On the other hand, as mail volumes are dropping substantially, it is the management of Royal Mail’s responsibility to provide an efficient service suitable for the new circumstances.
My post is getting through, but I have a feeling that the junk mail that goes straight in the bin is not being sent. So perhaps, we’re seeing a benefit of these silly strikes.
What a Way to Run a Railway!
London Midland ran no trains on Sunday. There were a few, but they weren’t useful for anybody who lives between Birmingham and London.
Why?
Because their employment contract for the drivers said that Sunday working was voluntary. Which meant that when the company started to change the rules on pay, it all went pear-shaped as no-one volunteered.
I hope the Rail Regulator takes a dim view of this, because railways are a public service and not one for the primary benefit of owners and staff.
Postal Strikes
I’m not sure whether I’ll get any mail today, as there is a postal strike in Suffolk.
But does it really matter? How often do you actually get a real letter these days? And when did you last get a postcard?
I think I’ve had about four in the last seven days and two of those could actually have been sent by e-mail, but thankfully some people like to be personally. The other two were a water bill, which asked on the outside if we’d like an electronic bill and a letter from the NHS enclosing a bowel caner test kit.
I think the last would be a difficult one to do by e-mail, but on the other hand it isn’t very urgent.
I used to know a guy who ran BT’s telephone service in East Anglia and he told me that every interruption in the Royal Mail service moves business away to other methods like phone and e-mail. It rarely comes back.
So what would happen, if we had a postal service that only delivered mail twice or even once a week?
In my view. Nothing!
The Anonymous Widower 