Poor, poor strikers go shopping

[doodab]

Not the point. You go on strike, you choose to forego the wages, you then choose to go shopping instead of just staying at home or on a picket line, then no, I can't take it seriously; it looks more like a sort of mass luxury day off than a protest by people who have something genuine to complain about.

But the people who went shopping clearly aren't the people who turned up at the protests and picket lines. The telegraph has produced a little bit of anecdotal evidence that a few people went shopping and you are tarring them all with the same brush.

[Mich the Tester]

you are tarring them all with the same brush.

Yes, because they're on strike with an unjustifiable complaint instead of going to work and contributing.

[BlasterBates]

Amazing that an average public sector worker earning £8000 per year (and hence be entitled to a pension of £5000) could afford to go Christmas shopping.

[DodgyAgent]

Not really. You have your negotiating tools and they have theirs.

They are a monopolistic organisation and you are not. They are free to bargain and strike as long as we can choose where we go for public services.

[DodgyAgent]

But the people who went shopping clearly aren't the people who turned up at the protests and picket lines. The telegraph has produced a little bit of anecdotal evidence that a few people went shopping and you are tarring them all with the same brush.

So who is going shopping if it is not the striking workers? Very very few of the strikers went on protest marches.

[doodab]

Yes, because they're on strike with an unjustifiable complaint instead of going to work and contributing.

Are they? It seems to me that there has been a transfer of the cost of pension provision to the individual from the body corporate in order to protect corporate profitability, with no commensurate increase in salaries to cover the additional costs, and no legislation to ensure that people actually have pensions. These people are simply the last victims of that and it's entirely reasonable for them to be complaining. We should ALL have been complaining, because by allowing employers to abdicate their responsibilities we are placing an additional burden on the state which will cost us all money later on.

[doodab]

They are a monopolistic organisation and you are not. They are free to bargain and strike as long as we can choose where we go for public services.

You can choose private healthcare or schooling if you wish.

[doodab]

So who is going shopping if it is not the striking workers? Very very few of the strikers went on protest marches.

People with kids off school for the day. That's what we did, and what a lot of other people we know did.

[Mich the Tester]

So who is going shopping if it is not the striking workers? Very very few of the strikers went on protest marches.

It gives me an impression that there's a hard core of strikers who want to protest because they feel they have a real complaint, and then a whole lot of hanger-onners who just join in for the sake of a day off to do some christmas shopping. So no, I wouldn't take their negotiating position seriously.

[Mich the Tester]

Are they? It seems to me that there has been a transfer of the cost of pension provision to the individual from the body corporate in order to protect corporate profitability, with no commensurate increase in salaries to cover the additional costs, and no legislation to ensure that people actually have pensions. These people are simply the last victims of that and it's entirely reasonable for them to be complaining. We should ALL have been complaining, because by allowing employers to abdicate their responsibilities we are placing an additional burden on the state which will cost us all money later on.

Yes, I agree we've all been shafted, but that doesn't justify 2 million public sector workers refusing to go to work. If you don't like your remuneration, leave and find another job.