The Sacking of a Union

[j.sabourn]

I fail to understand why a labour government should be at odds with a union ? After all we are led to believe that without their subscriptions the Labour Party would have difficulty to exist , or are we assuming the wrong thing. If not Albanese is cutting his own throat money wise. Anyhow not really interested in him his voice puts me off. As voting here is compulsory I will be voting for whoever has the dulcet tones and is going to look after the OAPs and not strip them of their life savings . Cheers JS

[happy daze john in oz]

Could be worse John, have a UK style and loose your heating allowance and be taxed on your pensions.

But this came about as pressure from a number of businesses in the building industry, particularly here in Victoria, where the union was just taking them for a ride.
Holding the state to ransom in order tog et what thye wanted.

[j.sabourn]

Isn’t that what most people do if given the chance negotiate their salaries and packages .i did for 5 years away from the BSF where the salary’s were worse than most other world countries. Loyalty to a ship owner comes from how he treats his crews , the same as any other trade or industry. I can count the number of uk ones on the fingers of one hand. However there are losers in this type of negotiation and they are the ones who don’t have that ability. Labour works on the principle of the law of supply and demand , unfortuanetley once again it is almost non existant for seafarers as the working of 3 world countries is regarded as legal business enterprise and not what it should be called the misuse of ignorant people who don’t realize they are there to increase the profits of their bosses. JS

[Tony Taylor]

Hi John.
The same reason Bill Shorten is leaving, we used to have many a run in when he was leading light in his old union, he used to try and pinch men from the building unions, heard on the grapevine he made good while they where building the motorways in Victoria. Many of those politician's where no better than the standover men for taking the brown bag.
Des

is that a sign of inflation Des? at one time it was brown envelopes

[Des Taff Jenkins]

Hi Tony.
When I was a delegate in the N.S.W building union We had a Premier {Labour} who took over from the Liberal PM who was known to take a brown paper bag of money from various Business men for favors given, At the time I was close to the Vice Premier who was a former Brickie, he said to me on day that he couldn't spend all the money he got from his salary, so he couldn't believe that the top man continued to take the Brown Bag'
It was started by a Queensland Premier who was so corrupt he flaunted what he was doing but came to a sad end.
Des

[happy daze john in oz]

Well remember him Des, set the standard for the brown paper bag.

But here in Victoria the building union went too far at times.
Guys holding up the 'stop go 'Signs earn about four times what a qualified nurse in a major hospital does.
Then the head guy of that union said holding one of those signs often put the worker in danger.!!!!!!

[James Curry]

#12 John the winter fuel allowance should always have been means tested . I am losing mine, only annoying thing about that is te local hospice is losing £200 as that is were my winter fuel allowance goes. What certain media outlets fail to mention is that the state pension is rising from next April between £30 a week to £37.50 a week. We have a system called the triple lock which means the state pension will rise, (1)Average earning, (2) Rate of Inflation or (3) 2.5%. The triple lock was introduced by the coalition government in 2010. The last mob tried tp put a freeze on the triple lock. At least the current crowd have promised to keep the triple lock.
Concerning Pensions my wife was inline to get her state pension at 60, due to changes made by the government in the 1995 pensions act. Basically she had £40,000 stolen by the government, bith Conservative and Labour. but in 2011 the pensions act was changed again they brought the pension age forward by two years in 2018.
Sadly the UK never ring fenced the funds we all paid into the system unlike many other countries in Europe especially the Scandinavian countries.

[vic mcclymont]

Don't know where you get figure from.
Pensions paid from 2016 will get 4% pensions paid before 2p16 will get over 3%.

[James Curry]

Apologies that should read increases per month and not per week as in my #17

[Des Taff Jenkins]

John.
Don;t you believe it, holding up that sign is not all eating chocolates, I have done it and been close to death a few times. We where repairing a broken sewer pipe on a main road once when my mate was on the stop and Go, a car came at speed and nearly hit him, he threw the sign at him and the car ended up in the ditch, the driver was sh%$#g himself thought we where going to string him up,and he would have been had he hit anyone.
Des