I’m not angry with Public servants . . I’m angry with the unions . . I’m also angry with the government for procrastinating over how to deal with the unions . . I believe the Trade unions threaten our countries future financial stability just as much as the Banks have done so in the past . .
Contrary to some peoples beliefs, the government have not had to engineer a Private v Public divide . . The public service Unions have done it all themselves. . I am disgusted nearly anytime I hear a public service union head on radio as they usually make the weakest/shallow arguments for their cause and do so by completely dismissing the majority of the struggling people in this country (even if they give a token mention to them) . . I know many people who would have more support for public servants cause, only for the Union's disgusting tactics . .
Everybody has a right to feel upset about salary reductions . . Everybody has a right to defend their own livelihood . . Everybody has a right for protection in their job. However, if you want to argue or defend your corner, it’s just as important to understand the downside/ramifications of successfully getting your demands met . . Put simply, if there were rollback on the cost cuttings in the public service, the ramifications for our country could be catastrophic.
Here are some statements that we hear from unions that I , a private sector worker with an unemployed wife, find offensive, disgusting & delusional born from lack of education/ignorance –
"We did not cause the mess" –
We all in some way in this country contributed to the mess . . The main doorstep of blame should of course be attributed to the financial regulator, the government (including county councillors who made a complete mess of zoning of land) and the bankers. However, as a society we very much wanted this bubble for our own reasons and we voted in the government that gave us what we wanted during the years the rot started . . That aside, by saying "we did not cause the mess" you completely dismiss the fact that most of the people in this country did not directly cause this mess, but most of us cannot use this as a bat to bring to our employer when pleading with them not to reduce our salary . .
“Sure look at those people in Anglo and other industries that are getting pay increases and havent had paycuts ?”
I agree in principle with this question however , what has this got to do with any element of public service pay ? From my understanding the pay increase is due to people in Anglo who are doing more work with a third of the staff, that aside I dont think it has any relevance to the debate of public service pay cuts . . On a like for like basis, Job Security, pension and benchmarking would have to go out the window . . By all means compare yourself with a similar sector or country with similar problems to ourselves (Piigs & Greece) but dont think that these kind of questions look like anything other then a smokescreen to hide the fact that the unions want all the perks that come with working in the private sector with all the benefits that is afforded (and apparently unappreciated) in the public sector.
“We have money to bail out the banks, why dont we have more money to pay the hard working public servants what they are due ?”
We dont have money to bail out the banks . . We are getting loans to do this . . Loans that have been provided with provisions . . The reason we are bailing out the banks is because not doing so would have far more damaging implications on the country . .. . Bailing out the banks in some form (whatever way you look at it) is vital to the stability and future potential growth (and foreign confidence in Ireland) of the country v Keeping public service pay at a level they feel fair . .
The truth is that nearly EVERYBODY working is struggling or feeling pain in some form . . The select few who are not struggling are not a reason why public service salary's should not be cut . . If any of these statements were actually important to unions, then strike for fairness . . Strike for accountability . . Strike for salary cuts for upper paid (overpaid) public servants and Politicians . . But to do that, you need to drop your demands on your own salary . . Therein lies the motivation of the unions (and those who follow them) is nothing to do with what is good for this country, its for themselves . . "Of course its for themselves" I hear somebody say . . Well then dont throw out random comments about how you want fairness, when you completely dismiss the 450k people who dont even have any choices or the other hundreds of thousands who are worried about their own jobs and salaries . . Remember, if the unions get their demands, its the rest of the country that has to pay for it . .
In my opinion, the Unions are currently the biggest risk to this country . . There is a time for unions - When employees are being taken advantage of and are not sharing in a companies success etc . . But now is a time when the country has to get its head down and work harder for less . . The unions are all about more money for their members . . Dont confuse any of their rhetoric for anything other then the Unions justifying their existance . . If they truly want to serve the greater, longer term good of their members they would not encourage any sort of strike or go slow action based on paycut reversal . . If the Unions were in anyway GENUINE about the good of the country and their members, they would be pushing fairness in the correct manner , while educating their members on the importance of cost cutting measures of all sorts. .
Believe me . . If the unions get their way with this rollback on pay WE WILL ALL PAY FOR IT . . Ironically, it has the potential to cost public servants the most if it all goes belly up . .
Contrary to some peoples beliefs, the government have not had to engineer a Private v Public divide . . The public service Unions have done it all themselves. . I am disgusted nearly anytime I hear a public service union head on radio as they usually make the weakest/shallow arguments for their cause and do so by completely dismissing the majority of the struggling people in this country (even if they give a token mention to them) . . I know many people who would have more support for public servants cause, only for the Union's disgusting tactics . .
Everybody has a right to feel upset about salary reductions . . Everybody has a right to defend their own livelihood . . Everybody has a right for protection in their job. However, if you want to argue or defend your corner, it’s just as important to understand the downside/ramifications of successfully getting your demands met . . Put simply, if there were rollback on the cost cuttings in the public service, the ramifications for our country could be catastrophic.
Here are some statements that we hear from unions that I , a private sector worker with an unemployed wife, find offensive, disgusting & delusional born from lack of education/ignorance –
"We did not cause the mess" –
We all in some way in this country contributed to the mess . . The main doorstep of blame should of course be attributed to the financial regulator, the government (including county councillors who made a complete mess of zoning of land) and the bankers. However, as a society we very much wanted this bubble for our own reasons and we voted in the government that gave us what we wanted during the years the rot started . . That aside, by saying "we did not cause the mess" you completely dismiss the fact that most of the people in this country did not directly cause this mess, but most of us cannot use this as a bat to bring to our employer when pleading with them not to reduce our salary . .
“Sure look at those people in Anglo and other industries that are getting pay increases and havent had paycuts ?”
I agree in principle with this question however , what has this got to do with any element of public service pay ? From my understanding the pay increase is due to people in Anglo who are doing more work with a third of the staff, that aside I dont think it has any relevance to the debate of public service pay cuts . . On a like for like basis, Job Security, pension and benchmarking would have to go out the window . . By all means compare yourself with a similar sector or country with similar problems to ourselves (Piigs & Greece) but dont think that these kind of questions look like anything other then a smokescreen to hide the fact that the unions want all the perks that come with working in the private sector with all the benefits that is afforded (and apparently unappreciated) in the public sector.
“We have money to bail out the banks, why dont we have more money to pay the hard working public servants what they are due ?”
We dont have money to bail out the banks . . We are getting loans to do this . . Loans that have been provided with provisions . . The reason we are bailing out the banks is because not doing so would have far more damaging implications on the country . .. . Bailing out the banks in some form (whatever way you look at it) is vital to the stability and future potential growth (and foreign confidence in Ireland) of the country v Keeping public service pay at a level they feel fair . .
The truth is that nearly EVERYBODY working is struggling or feeling pain in some form . . The select few who are not struggling are not a reason why public service salary's should not be cut . . If any of these statements were actually important to unions, then strike for fairness . . Strike for accountability . . Strike for salary cuts for upper paid (overpaid) public servants and Politicians . . But to do that, you need to drop your demands on your own salary . . Therein lies the motivation of the unions (and those who follow them) is nothing to do with what is good for this country, its for themselves . . "Of course its for themselves" I hear somebody say . . Well then dont throw out random comments about how you want fairness, when you completely dismiss the 450k people who dont even have any choices or the other hundreds of thousands who are worried about their own jobs and salaries . . Remember, if the unions get their demands, its the rest of the country that has to pay for it . .
In my opinion, the Unions are currently the biggest risk to this country . . There is a time for unions - When employees are being taken advantage of and are not sharing in a companies success etc . . But now is a time when the country has to get its head down and work harder for less . . The unions are all about more money for their members . . Dont confuse any of their rhetoric for anything other then the Unions justifying their existance . . If they truly want to serve the greater, longer term good of their members they would not encourage any sort of strike or go slow action based on paycut reversal . . If the Unions were in anyway GENUINE about the good of the country and their members, they would be pushing fairness in the correct manner , while educating their members on the importance of cost cutting measures of all sorts. .
Believe me . . If the unions get their way with this rollback on pay WE WILL ALL PAY FOR IT . . Ironically, it has the potential to cost public servants the most if it all goes belly up . .
