Public Sector Strikes

[jumpy]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-15704451

Originally Posted by bbc

Brian Strutton, national officer of the GMB union, said: "Maude's proposal for a 15-minute strike is a daft idea. We are asking members to vote for a strike not a tea break."
But Mr Maude said a whole day of industrial action, amid ongoing negotiations and after just a quarter of the unions' members had taken part in ballots, would strengthen the case for law changes to demand minimum turnouts for valid strike votes.
"The turnouts have been very low and, you know, I've got to say to the union leaders, if they actually call a strike based on a ballot where only just more than a quarter of those balloted actually bothered to vote at all then the pressure to change the law to set some kind of turnout threshold will really become very, very hard to resist," added Mr Maude.

Originally Posted by bbc commentator

This 15-minute walkout idea is a lot to do with winning the hearts and minds of the wider public in this battle over public sector pensions.
The government wants to appear to be the conciliatory and reasonable negotiator with unions and sway wavering voters who may feel as if it was bullying them.
The 'token strike' notion comes a week after the coalition made a revised offer to unions that no-one within 10 years of retirement would have to work longer to get their full pension.
These carrots from ministers come with a big stick, however.
If public sector unions press ahead with their 'mega strike' at the end of the month, then the government may look hard at reforming strike legislation. That could mean at least half of union members would have to have cast their ballots before a strike became legitimate. Only a quarter of public sector union members voted for the forthcoming walkout.

If the government are planning to revise the strike legislation as regards the number of votes necessary to legitimise a strike ballot, then perhaps they ought to give general elections the same consideration... in which case none of these bastards would hold a seat in government, nor the lot of tossers that preceded them.
Not that any of them can think themselves 'elected'; tony declared a 'landslide victory' following 2 labour successes with some of the poorest voter turnouts since WW2. And lets not even go there with the 'coalition' (of the incompetent) who didn't even get enough delineating votes to have a clear winner of any political denomination... and don't forget one of the first decisions they made was to give themselves an extra year in government.

Pft so much talk, all of it empty. Every time I hear a politician speak these days I just want to punch them in the face and tell them to piss off.
Same old same old... labour spends all of the money, then the tories take all of the money, lib-dems? well as usual they know damn all about anything.
Is it any wonder there's little point in actually voting when the choice is from such a narrow pool of venal incompetents?

For the record, I'd be pretty angry about reduced pensions and longer working years too. Can you imagine the noise if it were politicians pensions and salaries being cut? Handy that they get to vote on their own pay and benefits and terms, ain't it?
Bloody lot of 'em should be on minimum wage, see how fast things would change for the better with that, not to mention they'd not be allowed to have 'other jobs' alongside their office as an MP. Might focus their minds a little.