(no subject)

[caddyman]

It's very quiet in the office today.

We are waiting on a Ministerial decision so we can go ahead with the annual determination exercise, and despite emphasising the urgency of it we have heard nothing. Not surprising really I suppose. Given the defeat of the Assembly vote last night, I expect all our Ministers are sitting in a dark room somewhere trying to work out where to go next.

There are lots of empty seats around, too.

The union has called a strike for today in protest against all the job cuts proposed recently by the Chancellor. They have very little impact upon this department, but the union likes to show a bit of solidarity. The trouble is, and the unions never get this, every civil servant on strike is a net gain to the Treasury. So a one day strike penalises no one but the striker who loses money and has to catch up on the work anyway. Unless the strikers are in the Inland Revenue or HM Custom and Excise, departments that bring money in to the Government, no one takes the blindest notice.

And guess what? They get paid far better than the rest of us, and their jobs are not under threat.

There are better ways of organising things: Core hour working for one. Come to work core hours only, do your job and go home. Withdraw all good will and flexibility and let the system seize up solid. You get paid for it, too.

I must say though, that the pickets outside are very civilised. Urge you to join the union and wish you a nice day. Where are the braziers, the chanting mobs and ripped up paving slabs? Where are the water cannon and mounted police? Where are the TV cameras?

I was thinking about getting a donkey jacket and painting the word 'scab' across the shoulders. But no-one would notice.

Comments

[oldnick.livejournal.com]

Jaguar has too many unsold cars in stock. The capital cost of that and the current dollar rate means that even when we sell them (and roughly 50% are USA spec), we make no money. So, one factory is being closed down, and production moved to Birmingham.

For some reason, the Trade Unions seem to believe that if the people at that factory strike it will hurt the company enough to change their minds.

Hurt them? By striking they help run down stocks, by building fewer cars. Not only that, they build fewer cars without having to pay the striking workforce, rather than having to pay them when they lay them off in order to build fewer cars.

Luckilly, most of the workforce seem to realise this.

[keith-london.livejournal.com]

I like the idea of being a civil servant, right in the heart of Government! You know you got your fingerprints on the latest policies! :-)

[november-girl.livejournal.com]

...and they'll be fingerprints computer linked to biometric data, I should imagine.

[thalinoviel.livejournal.com]

Personally I like the "At Work" strike. You come to work, you sit at your desk, you read the paper. Maybe have a nice cup of tea. You leave your voicemail on and ignore your email. You are polite and friendly, but unhelpful.