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BA staff walk in in support of another company's staff
BillieTheBot
Posts: 8,721 Bot
Story.
Am I alone in thinking that:
a. Gate Gourmet were right to sack those who striked.
b. BA should sack anyone who has gone on a sympathy strike.
These people need to be taught a lesson.
Typical trade unionists though, leaving people stranded and bringing a company to a standstill for purely selfish reasons.
Am I alone in thinking that:
a. Gate Gourmet were right to sack those who striked.
b. BA should sack anyone who has gone on a sympathy strike.
These people need to be taught a lesson.
Typical trade unionists though, leaving people stranded and bringing a company to a standstill for purely selfish reasons.
Beep boop. I'm a bot.
0
Comments
I can see nothing wrong with the initial strike.
I can see nothing wrong with the sympathy walk out in itself, but
1) It's not up to BA so won't actually do anything
2) An hour or so would have shown support and then work could have continued as normal
3) Any longer risks the popular support this kind of shit needs to really work
I agree. We need more selfish people like that to get some sort of balance. What we tend to have is a fair fight on one side and an opponent who will kick you in the nuts and gouge your eyes first chance they get, then re-write the rules so it was ok all along.
Yep. Just as I think there's some hope for you Kermit, you come out with crap like this.
It's a bit more complicated than that.
The staff were all on notice of possible redundancy, when the company hired more workers "to cover demand" in a "busy seasonal period". On less wages etc etc. No prizes for guessing what was going to happen next. :shocking:
Would you have trained up your lower paid replacement? I fucking wouldn't.
They walked (good for them) and got sacked (which was what was going to happen anyway) and they got the satisfaction of fucking the people who were fucking them. :thumb:
Thought I'd never see the day!
Should have expected that attitude from Mat.
...for going on an illegal strike.
Although I have some sympathy with their position, they shouldn't have done it. My quarrel isn't really with the Gate Gourmet staff although they do seem to be a bit unreasonable (the summer staff isn't a new thing).
What, exactly, does this have to do with BA?
The people who illegally striked today should be made personally responsible for the losses BA suffered.
It was legal.
BA lost nothing.
BA can’t control the caterer’s actions; it’s an entirely separate company and a ‘sympathy strike’ directed at BA is grossly unfair on BA as well as against the law. The TWGU should be forced to expel any members involved. The TWGU should be fined harshly if it’s found that any of their shop stewards participated and encouraged this. And lets face it that obviously is the case.
And BA should sack every scumbag who's striked.
So fighting for employment rights is only allowed when sanctioned by the state?
They're just trying to protect their jobs.
Its called solidarity.
Why? Why are you more concerned with the profits of a billion dollar company than with the welfare of low paid workers?
See above.
See above.
If they do that, I'll be taking it up with my branch secretary and they'll have more strikes on their hands.
You obviously don't understand the role of unions.
If they're doing their jobs properly, yes.
And provoke more industrial unrest. Like it!
http://www.tgwu.org.uk/Templates/News.asp?NodeID=91860&int1stParentNodeID=42438&int2ndParentNodeID=42438&Action=Display
The initial move of hiring low paid temporary workers while hundreds of regular workers were under threat of redundancy can only be interpreted as part of a plan to get rid of staff and hire cheaper labour- I daresay, purely because of greed.
The 'unauthourised' strike was obviously seen as a god-sent gift by the greedy bastards at Gate Gourmet HQ, who quickly proceeded to mass-fire 500 people. Nice move! :rolleyes:
So I can only be grateful that fellow workers from unrelated companies who have nothing to gain and a lot to lose have gone on strike- which at the end of the day ladies and gentlemen is the only way workers can have a sporting chance of defending their interests. I raise a glass to all of them.
(Incidentally, everyone here who is not a CEO or a boardroom member should also be happy for such show of solidarity. Because no one else will look after you).
Yawn and what does that statement have to do with the illegal strike by these lazy staff at BA? Irrelevant post.
Gate Gourmet doesn't belong to BA.
:rolleyes:
No "solidarity" with the poor schmucks left stranded across the world, though, I note.
Because it isn't the company that suffers, it's everyone else.
And besides which, why should one company suffer because another company may or may not have done something a bit iffy. If gate Gourmet were owned by BA then maybe BA staff would possibly be justified in striking.
But they aren't. BA staff- yet again- just felt like taking the day off. Screw the rest of the world, they want the day off, so they'll shaft everyone so that they can get it.
Why should BA's customers be left stranded halfway across the world because a load of BA staff felt like taking the day off?
Oh yeah. Lets go back to the 70’s. Bring it on. Lets have another winter of discontent and another three day week.
In this particular case I think the company is just trying to cream extra profit by laying off their regular staff and hiring semi-slaves for much lower wages. Disgusting any way you look at it.
The company has almost all the power. The workers can do practically fuck all if the company abuses its position (as it did, I hope you'll agree, by mass-sacking practically every Heathrow floor worker on payroll).
The only way you can make them reconsidering is by taking such action. Yes, it's incovenient for travellers. But not much can be done about it. If companies weren't acting like greedy selfish bastards there would be no need for such action.
And incidentally I don't think anyone is blaming BA. Everyone knows it's not exactly their fault.
Given the shit BA workers have been through over the years with the company, I'm willing to bet most of them approve of this evening's actions.
This dispute has nothing to do with BA and as such this kind of action is unacceptable. And I fail to see how this strike will change anything – BA doesn’t own the Gate Gourmet.
I don’t like the way African farmers are treated. I don’t think nurses get a good deal. I think teachers in London deserve better pay. But I’m not going to go on strike ‘in sympathy’ because it simply would achieve nothing, my employer is not responsible for those wrongs and it’s illogical to take it out on them.
Unless you’re in some kind of battle against every business trying to make a profit, in other words you’re an anti-capitalist this action makes no sense whatsoever. Regardless, it’s illegal and the law should be used to maximum effect on those involved.
You obviously never heard of the concept of solidarity.
BA staff can’t complain. They get a better deal than any of the other UK airlines. My cousin was an air stewardess with Ryanair, moved to BA – no comparison. Far better benefits and higher wage at BA. Don't know how they compare to foreign airlines though, family friend works at el al and I think they have it pretty good.
Nice to see where your loyalties really lie.
Its called solidarity. You wouldn't have any employent rights without it. Try seeing the larger picture.
Naturally all of this wouldn't need to happen if the government had such powers in place as to say to Gate Gourmet 'oi- stop acting the cunts and reinstate the 500 people you have unfairly dismissed, or else'. But no such provision is in place- and that is exactly why such drastic action has to be taken. Because if it doesn't happen, then nobody else will protect ordinary workers like (presumably) you and me.
I would be very surprised if those on strike many any difference whatsoever. Other than possibly harden much of the publics dislike of unions and perhaps be another factor in making Labour keen to distance itself even further from the unions. I dunno it'll hurt BA's profits a lot and with terrorism in London and high oil prices I bet they're not doing great.
I imagine most non-striking BA staff are simply indifferent. It's another company and the original dispute nothing at all to do with BA. Yes perhaps there should be more government protection but there's another side to that. France has a lot of workers protection and has very high unemployment; Britain on the other hand has little protection yet very low unemployment. I'm sure we'd all like France's workers rights but we certainly don't want their high levels of unemployment.
I admit I'm lucky as I'm a student still but my part time job is with john lewis partnership who are pretty fair as everyone is a partner and stuff. Maybe if I worked at Asda I'd feel a bit different.
As for the rest of it, it depends who you believe. Gate Gourmet say they take on seasonal staff every year, the TGWU say they don't. I have a lot of sympathy with the Gate Gourmet staff, and whilst they shouldn't have gone on an unofficial strike (thereby allowing the company to do what it wanted to do in the first place), I can see why they would do it, and wouldn't condemn them for it. The company were within their rights to dismiss the staff though, unofficial strikes are illegal.
BA have no responsibility for this company. The fact that BA had to fly without food was surely enough to illustrate that they'd be better off with a different supplier, all the lazy baggage handlers going on strike does is irritate everyone else and lose any support the cause may have had.
Yes, my priority does lie with the people stranded halfway across the world, not with staff butting their noses into something which doesn't concern them simply so that they can have the day off. It's the same when the train staff go on strike because they haven't had a 15% pay rise- my loyalties are not with the greedy trade unionists, they're with the stranded commuters.
Purely out of interest, how do lazy BA staff taking the day off help me gain any employment rights? If anything they damage my employment rights by pissing everybody off and damaging the reputations of the trade unions. Just as what happened in the late 1970s and gave us Thatcher, in fact.