Quiet day today...
Nothing much happened today...oh except 1 million plus local governmemt workers took strike action to defend their pensions.
And just to show that anything we can do they can do tres-bon the French had a general strike.
You can read more about the joint union action today here.
posted by Paul @ Tuesday, March 28, 2006
2 Comments:
What a suprise, the French decide to strike, could that be because their economy is down the tube and unemployment is massive.
Much as I would love us to I think this is a reason as to why we would experience problems if we signed up to the European working time directive.
Do people think that the UK strike will force the Govnt to bck down or will they just ignore it?
Adele, the fact that the UK still has the WTD opt-out hasn't made us any more productive; in fact we lag behind most of our major European competitors (including France), mainly because large parts of UK plc have decided its easier to make people work longer and harder, than to invest in raising productivity (through better use of new technology,improved skills and so on).
The same business lobbyists that are telling us its imperative that the UK retains its WTD opt-out, are the same people who told us a National Minimum Wage would send the UK 's economy into freefall, and put millions on the dole. It didn't happen - in fact the economy grew, and employment increased.
Think there is reason to be hopeful that a settlement on pensions will be reached in local government - working together the unions across the rest of the public sector secured an agreement acceptable to them, their members and the government, and theres no reason why local government can't reach a settlement as well.
You can follow the progress of the talks here: http://www.unison.org.uk/pensions/index.asp
P
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