Strike!!

[Duckman]

Ok, some of you may know that there is a pay dispute happening at the moment between the government here and their employees.  For more information on it go here:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/glasgow_and_west/7632259.stm

So there's a strike on at work today and as a result I'm the only person in my office, which is why I'm on here when I should be working.

I'm not in the Union because frankly I think they're a bunch of money grabbing bastards who do what they do for power and status rather than helping the working man.  That and the fact I've got better things to put my money towards each month, like an Xbox 360! 

Anyway, my question is, do strikes ever work?  Have you ever taken part in one and what's your opinion on them?

I know, two political type posts in one day, I don't know what's going on either, but let's go with it!

Peace

Duckman

[Brandon]

It depends.

If people go on a strike, those people can always be fired and replaced with people more then willing to do the job that they before mentioned are boycotting.

But then again, if enough people do it, and leave nothing else for the people in charge to do, then they might just get what they want.

[Rebel Child]

My dad has been union for a long long long long long long long long long long time.   There was a strike at one point for the school district which my father and his wife work(ed) so that the food handlers (like my step mom) would be able to get insurance etc, because under the laws at the time - they had non - though they pretty much worked for the district and in turn worked for the city etc etc.  They were considered part time, but if anyone knows anything about running ANY form of kitchen either it be a resturant or a school cafeteria, there's a lot that you have to do during the day, it's a regular job, five days a week.

After three months of the strike (cafeteria kids were served sandwiches every day) they passed it to where they got the insurance.

My father also has helped picket groceries there built non union and hired non union employees and even barred unions being formed.  Since then those grocery stores have been unionized.

The union helped us out when my dad would get laid off almost every winter, he worked for heating and cooling places, and well it usually was a slow time.

Without them we wouldn't have had food or Christmas.

Unions CAN be good things, as long as they are for the people they are formed for.  Not for political proponents or anything of the like.

[Russ]

I've only ever been apart of a strike once, that was last year at school... we just sat on the hall floor and refused to move until a certain teacher apologised for suspending a student for basically saying he didnt like that teacher.

Luckily they were showing prospective students/parents around that day, so they gave it pretty easy xD

[Adam Wrong]

My mum and dad are majorly pro-Union and still believe we are in the era when they work most of the time. It didn't stop my dad being made redundant from 3 consecutive jobs despite being part of unions who do nothing in my opinion.

Unions stamp their feet and don't know half of the facts when they demand money. They don't understand practicality and don't realise that most of the time they don't know what is going on.

[Gary]

one of the big colleges down here usually have strikes every  2 or 3 years, last one was cause they where gonna raise tuition for 10 dollars more, they had a strike for 2 or 3 days before the administration caved in.

[Zombie Gunn]

Not being a member of the union, I hate them.  But, if I was in a union I'd be thrilled.

Unions were good in a time where mistreating employees didn't get much exposure.  Today, with so much accountability to businesses, (at least in America) I don't think they're necessary.  In fact, likely counter-productive.  For the same amount of work, someone in the union typically makes 2-3 times more than a non-union member.  Fairness aside, I think they function based on mob-tactics and I'd like to think in 2008, we've moved on from this type of thing.

[Big Gay Honker]

I agree with Jesse Gunn.  To me, when you accept the job, you accept the benefits, the pay, and the bullshit.  I don't believe in Unions for this day and age.  In the past, sure thing.  That was when workers were mistreated.  now days, if you don't have a dental plan, you can get your union to strike.  Sure, the owner of the business makes too much money and he can give more and go without his nightly steak dinner once or twice a year.  But...  The business owner owns a business to make money, not provide jobs for other people to make their wages.

Strikes also hurt the union workers too.  They obviously don't get paid to picket, so by the time you calculate missed wages, some of the things they strike for are useless.  I don't know how many of you are freakin old like me, but who remembers the UPS strike around 1998?  They got what they wanted in the end, but tons of their part time workers were laid off after the strike.  Their retirement was still gone.  They didn't get much out of striking. 

[Judge]

I remember the UPS strike.  I was stuck waiting forever on a computer part.  Pissed me off.

[Duckman]

The only time a strike works is when you're providing a service that the wider public need or use on a daily basis.  If you deny them that service, they in turn put pressure on the governing body to sort the strike out.

This used to happen all the time in the 70's and 80's over here when everything was unionised, steel, railways, coal, telephone company.  They could bring the country to a standstill and had far too much power.

Which is why Thatcher came along and smashed the whole lot of them.

in the case of my work, it's not going to make much difference or get much support.  As an office worker who deals with debt recovery, if people don't get a letter about their debt, they aren't going to be upset, lol.

It's only for front line staff like teaching assistants, school dinner ladies, bin men, social workers, that these kind of strikes may have the desired effect.  As for us?  Fuck us, we're too greedy as it is.

Peace

Duckman