as someone who never got paid overtime but works plenty of it, nor time in lieu, who started off working at a pittance (training contract), where you do what needs to be done and no-one whips out their employment contract to whine that its not in their job description, all this stuff is staggering.
Am I being exploited?, no. I'm in a profession and, at this stage, am well paid, but I worked just as hard when I was on buttons. I abhor this trade union mentality - people who need to be seen to doing something to back the workers - they live an a parallel universe inhabited but 'fat cat' greedy employers exploiting workers. They should be told to roll the clock forward from 1913. Workers are not "entitled" to jobs, they are lucky if they have them. If employers have it so good why dont "exploited" workers go into business themselves??
With the amount of labour law on the books at the moment there is absolutely no positive role to be played by Trade Unions any longer, labour law protects workers, Trade Unions ruin the economy's competitiveness.
Brilliant post.
couldnt agree with you more.I have to laugh when I hear people say,I gave my life to the company...surely the company gave them a life ,in that the company gave them a job,which allowed them to have a life for themselves and their families.
The way some workers go on ,one would think they worked for nothing,or were doing a life sentance for little or no pay.
When asked to change work practices ,they go ape,and when the company pull out due to the militant practices of workers and unions ,they get on radio shows to complain...
The stark reality is that Ireland is a high cost location, for virtually everything - living,working,marrying,manufacturing, and dying.
There are endless examples of unions pushing employers to the brink, again and again, and when a company eventually reaches the end of its tether - the unions queue up to call for rescue plans, political intervention, or the Labour Court, to save the day.
SR technics might still be operating if the unions hadn't made the implementation of change painfully slow and expensive, over many years.
No company can defy the laws of the market-place, if you can't compete, you die.....it's that simple.....
So what are the two sides here? You admit that you know bugger all about this but you still see fit to treat us to 1920’s style class warfare gibberish.
What evidence do you have that “For every 'union pushing employers to the brink', there are the 'employers pushing employees to the brink'”?... or is that just a flight of fancy based on nothing more than upper-middleclass socialist angst and a resentment of those that actually employ “the poor” and give them more than empty rhetoric?
Let’s for a moment suppose that you are correct and “For every employer struggling to deal with the high-cost location, there are many employees struggling to deal with the high-cost of location, and put/keep a roof over their families head” So people should be paid what they need to sustain their lifestyle rather than in accordance with the value of their input/labour? The rest of the free world gave up on such absurd notions a few generations back.
If an employee is not getting a fair wage for their work then they can move to a different job. If what they consider to be a fair wage is not available in the market place then their expectations are unrealistic.
You, like so many socialists, are confusing where the core social responsibility to engineer a just society lies. It is up to the people, through their government, to use the taxation system to redistribute wealth in society. If people are struggling financially why should their employer pay them a wage that they do not deserve and cannot justify which will make the business unviable in the medium term?
There was no PR spin; the €40 million has been on the cards for many months. In case you hadn’t noticed there is a recession at the moment and air travel suffers during a recession. Jet engine overhaul is scheduled based on the hours each engine has been in use. Therefore when fewer planes fly fewer engines need to be overhauled. (5th year economics bit) When supply is greater than demand there is a downward pressure on price. If you don’t believe me have a walk around Dundrum shopping centre and look at all the sales.
Anyway, back to the morons in question; they were too expensive in the boom and the sure as shinola are too expensive now. They are morons if they can’t see this, they are morons if they can’t see that their jobs are at stake and they are morons if they think a government and a people that are facing our biggest crisis since the foundation of the state have any apatite to help people who act in a moronic and self-destructive manner.
You’re half right there.
There is nothing I could add to those BRILLIANT posts which IMHO deserve a round of applause.