Re: Railway strikes : Fri Jul 01, 2022 10:46 am  

The Ghost of '99 wrote: Amazon and the supermarkets are operating continually in anti-competitive ways. They need to be broken up to restore our free market. A client of mine used to supply Tesco with tomatoes. Tesco would come to them and set the price, no negotiation and they set terms of something like 180 days. This isn't a free market of supply and demand, it's big businesses hammering small suppliers because they have all the power in the world. . https://ec.europa.eu/commission/pressco ... ip_20_2077 Let's not even get started on how Amazon sells books. But like all huge companies its main aim is to drive competitors out of business after which it can jack up its prices. Likewise we know about the working conditions at Amazon warehouses. Amazon is even more egregious. They have been allowed to expand into the marketplace. You would no doubt laud small entrepreneurs bringing products they have conceived to sell on Amazon Marketplace. However... if a product does well, suddenly an Amazon equivalent will appear. And the product of the entrepreneur will mysteriously fall down the rankings so that nobody goes to it any more. Amazon shouldn't be both the biggest retailer in the world and the biggest marketplace for goods in the world. It's a blatant anti-trust violation If there's one ethical thing you can do today, one stand you can make it's to stop buying at Amazon, stop using Tesco and Asda and walk down the street to your local shops and buy there, or use second tier internet sellers. And encourage everyone you know to do the same. Because the dream of these big, unregulated monsters is to have no competition and the ability to jack up prices and profits in the long run, all at our expense. Watched a segment on John Olivers Show about Amazon and this very thing about a month ago Very interesting Also seen various segments about what lengths they will go to, to stop Union representation etc.

The Ghost of '99 wrote: Amazon and the supermarkets are operating continually in anti-competitive ways. They need to be broken up to restore our free market. A client of mine used to supply Tesco with tomatoes. Tesco would come to them and set the price, no negotiation and they set terms of something like 180 days. This isn't a free market of supply and demand, it's big businesses hammering small suppliers because they have all the power in the world. . https://ec.europa.eu/commission/pressco ... ip_20_2077 Let's not even get started on how Amazon sells books. But like all huge companies its main aim is to drive competitors out of business after which it can jack up its prices. Likewise we know about the working conditions at Amazon warehouses. Amazon is even more egregious. They have been allowed to expand into the marketplace. You would no doubt laud small entrepreneurs bringing products they have conceived to sell on Amazon Marketplace. However... if a product does well, suddenly an Amazon equivalent will appear. And the product of the entrepreneur will mysteriously fall down the rankings so that nobody goes to it any more. Amazon shouldn't be both the biggest retailer in the world and the biggest marketplace for goods in the world. It's a blatant anti-trust violation If there's one ethical thing you can do today, one stand you can make it's to stop buying at Amazon, stop using Tesco and Asda and walk down the street to your local shops and buy there, or use second tier internet sellers. And encourage everyone you know to do the same. Because the dream of these big, unregulated monsters is to have no competition and the ability to jack up prices and profits in the long run, all at our expense. Watched a segment on John Olivers Show about Amazon and this very thing about a month ago Very interesting Also seen various segments about what lengths they will go to, to stop Union representation etc.

Re: Railway strikes : Fri Jul 01, 2022 10:47 am  

Scarlet Pimpernell wrote:

I believe de Pfeffel is now blaming Public sector pay demands for the higher inflation and a longer cost of living crisis. The man is completely clueless he and his bunch of the unemployable who have made things worse and yes my wife went several years with a pay freeze or increases of 1%.
The problem this time is that the unions are no longer perceived to be an enemy so he will need to find another group to blame. With Brexit not going well that rules them out, the opposition, no they have not been in power for 12 years, what about immigration but we are suppose to have this under control.

I wonder what sort of pay rise MPs will receive this year?
It’s been above inflation throughout the austerity years, will they have the brass neck to take a rise several times higher than the rises being offered to public sector worker?
You betcha!

Re: Railway strikes : Wed Jul 27, 2022 12:17 pm  

These strikes will have limited impact during the week - WFH will reduce the impact significantly

Re: Railway strikes : Wed Jul 27, 2022 3:01 pm  

Sal Paradise wrote:

These strikes will have limited impact during the week - WFH will reduce the impact significantly

WFH, a cushy little job perk that train staff don’t enjoy

Re: Railway strikes : Wed Jul 27, 2022 6:12 pm  

Superblue wrote:

WFH, a cushy little job perk that train staff don’t enjoy

Well durrr.

Re: Railway strikes : Wed Jul 27, 2022 6:32 pm  

wotsupcas wrote:

Well durrr.

Haven’t you got the message yet about personal attacks on members

Re: Railway strikes : Sun Jul 31, 2022 8:45 am  

Superblue wrote:

WFH, a cushy little job perk that train staff don’t enjoy

Different strokes for different folks - What you can't have is huge profits and supressed wages - there needs to balance.

On the other hand you can't have a "jobs for life" as the union wants if you believe in continuous improvement. There also needs to be balance here.

Lynch is very good at distracting the attention away from the intrenched union position and blaming the government.

Re: Railway strikes : Sun Jul 31, 2022 11:32 am  

Sal Paradise wrote:

Different strokes for different folks - What you can't have is huge profits and supressed wages - there needs to balance.

On the other hand you can't have a "jobs for life" as the union wants if you believe in continuous improvement. There also needs to be balance here.

Lynch is very good at distracting the attention away from the intrenched union position and blaming the government.

We have a government, I hadn’t noticed thought they had become party planners.

Re: Railway strikes : Sun Jul 31, 2022 4:27 pm  

Imagine being so out of touch with how most people think that you tweet this - https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/ ... teQdw&s=19 Shapps saying "archaic rules" mean people can't be forced to work their rest days. The country has turned against this kind of BS. The Tories keep reaching for a "be afraid of unions!" lever that used to be so powerful but now is only connected to their elderly pre-Brexit base. It certainly isn't a way to hold those Red Wall seats.

Imagine being so out of touch with how most people think that you tweet this - https://twitter.com/grantshapps/status/ ... teQdw&s=19 Shapps saying "archaic rules" mean people can't be forced to work their rest days. The country has turned against this kind of BS. The Tories keep reaching for a "be afraid of unions!" lever that used to be so powerful but now is only connected to their elderly pre-Brexit base. It certainly isn't a way to hold those Red Wall seats.

Re: Railway strikes : Mon Aug 01, 2022 9:21 am  

Sal Paradise wrote:

Different strokes for different folks - What you can't have is huge profits and supressed wages - there needs to balance.

On the other hand you can't have a "jobs for life" as the union wants if you believe in continuous improvement. There also needs to be balance here.

Lynch is very good at distracting the attention away from the intrenched union position and blaming the government.

Suppressed wages throughout the austerity years, coupled with raging inflation, there was always going to be some kind of reaction.
It's great keeping the lid on public spending and squeezing those workers, while many of the large companies make staggeringly huge profits, whilst taking huge handouts from government under the furlough scheme but, as you mentioned in your previous post, the scales have tipped far too much in favour of the employers and there needs to be some redress.
Maybe it's payback time ?

What I did find unsavoury, is the notion that anyone asking for a pay rise to match or beat inflation was some kind of traitor or pariah, trying to blame the working man for the utter mess that we are in. That is just wrong.