Council workers to strike
 

Councils across Lancashire are set to be hit by strike action after workers voted in favour of walkouts in a dispute over pay.
Members of Unison in England, Wales and Northern Ireland voted by 55% to take industrial action after rejecting a 2.45% pay offer!

so that means ya bins wont be emptied....so does that mean we get some money off our council tax???:D

What is it with everyone, why does everyone want more money?...oh yeh to pay for all the **** thats gone up:rolleyes:

Re: Council workers to strike
 

Could we be heading for a "winter of discontent" ?.. just like the ones the Tories have been saying for the last ten years! it might happen this time.. 2.45% dosent look enough, taking into account the food price increase, this pay rise looks like it was set for last years inflation.

Re: Council workers to strike
 

With food and fuel prices escalating out of control it is almost inevetable that those workers already struggling will want to take action.

I dont want my bin left to rot and stink but then again I dont want anyone to be exploited.

This goverment has enough money to pay its employees fairly (I am talking at national level now) it just needs to stop wasting money on those who will not work, and invading foreign countries.

It is basically a case of re allocating resources for the good of those who have contributed and those who genuinely can not do so

Re: Council workers to strike
 

that i can agree with.:)

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I saw the 6 o'clock news today. It said they were striking because the proposed increase of 2.45% was below the rate of inflation. Last time I heard inflation was around 3%. Now they want a 6% raise.

Do we want increased council tax to pay for above inflation pay rises?

Re: Council workers to strike
 

read pollys post, it don't suggest that.:)

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I am angry .I am Ill , and I'm as ugly as sin..but I know when it's aggro from the Tories.. let's have it!1

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will anyone actualy notice :rolleyes:

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So you disagree that council tax would have to go up if council workers wages increased double the rate of inflation?

Re: Council workers to strike
 

The answer is fairly simple, in the abstract.
We are all paying too much tax and receiving too little for it.
The majority of taxation is via IR and indirect taxation on goods we purchase. With this money the goverment spend far too high a proportion on invading foreign countries and along the way getting far too many of our service people killed and maimed.

We also pay local taxation which councils use to pay ever more menial wages for people who perform essential services.

the solution, without costing us anymore, is to pull back a high proportion of our troops, and redirect the money from central geverment to local services, better wages for those who deserve them and improved hospitals, schools, pulic transport for all.

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Please don't do that I will loose all my credability

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not when ya talk sense ya won't.:D;)

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7469122.stm

Theres bbc's link for the story.

2.45% increase equals about 15p an hour pay rise. Not much is it? Over a 37 hr week it equates to £5.63 a week rise. Now when you take into account an increase in tax, national insurance, pension, etc.... how much of that will you have left? Not much i can tell you that in fact probably you will be worse off.

Next up you will be asking how i worked that out - my hourly rate is linked into the council rate....

Re: Council workers to strike
 

and how many council workers are there? as in what cost is it to us if they get the 6% they want

Re: Council workers to strike
 

If you read that link you will see this:

The wider Retail Prices Index measure of inflation - the one used for many pay negotiations - is already at 4.3%.

It also says:

Mr Darling was speaking after the government's preferred inflation measure, the Consumer Prices Index rose, to 3.3% in May, with the Bank of England warning it may reach 4%.

So it isnt even keeping up with what the government says it should be!

According to that as well they balloted nearly 600,000 UNISON members. The GMB union accepted the offer - because they couldnt afford to strike.

Re: Council workers to strike
 

The other month I was told by someone on here that RPI was an incorrect measure of inflation.

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since when have you been taking notice of anyone on here?:rolleyes:

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Um about 8 blokes and 2 spades and a JCB.. so that's 5 blokes and a wheelbarrow.. is that sorted mate?

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:psad:My son works in a council reabilitation home,for elderly people who nead extra care after a stay in hospital,,,,No way will he go on strike and desert the old folk ,its a principle thing with him .Would you like it if it was a parent or grandparent of yours,,,

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The rate of inflation is a false representation of the actual price rises we have suffered, I am pretty sure that many things are not taken into account, council tax and utilities i think are some of them, gas and electric will have gone up by 100% at the end of this year (in 2 years), fuel has gone up around 25% since christmas, so the pittance being offered is way below the rate of inflation, pay rises at our place will be none existant this year because we have been forced to indcrease prices to help the fuel bills, if we had to do it again to meet wage increases, we would lose a lot of business, therefore jobs would go, I dont see any easy solution, but I do see plenty of unrest on the way.

Re: Council workers to strike
 

Well put. I agree with most of this. :)

On a bigger scale, increasing wages can cause greater inflation too.

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That was part of what I was trying to say Andrew, thank you.

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Public sector workers are not in the real world. If they want a 6% rise what are we the customer going to get for our 6%?

I don't want to see my tax increased do you?

I would give it to them and pay for it with a 6% reduction in staff on the condition there was no loss in service to us the customer.
In industry we have to earn our pay rises by becoming more productive, more efficient, produce less waste and scrap etc.

What extra will we, the customer, see for this 6% rise?

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There are quite a few on here who will vividly remember 1979, the winter of discontent, when the waste was piled high, the dead were unburried and the country ground to a hault. I don't want to see that again, its bad enough the bins not being emptied every week now. However Neil has a point there is a big difference between the public and private sector, and the bottom line is if there is a 6% rise will the government make allowences in the local government payments or will services have to be cut. the only other outcome is a rise in council tax irrespective of the colour of the council:(