Strike

[George Hannah]

I couldn't give a sod what he earns. He does a good job.

Maybe he is doing a good job. Maybe £125,000 is about the going rate for someone in a job of his level. Both of those things are irrelevant. When he ran for election to this high profile, high financial reward role he made a promise, that was to take no more than the average civil servant wage, he now earns £125,000. So, he lied. He lied to the members in order to gain their votes and win a lucrative role for himself. How, exactly, can anyone trust a single word he says if there is such a clear example of him lying in order to line his own pockets?

Your'e very quick to accuse him of lying, I'm not so sure that's fair. Anyway for what it's worth here's what he said about this in 2011

Welsh trade union leader who organised a mass public sector walkout has defended the pounds 86,000 salary that has seen him dubbed a "fat cat" by opponents.

PCS leader Mark Serwotka, who 11 years ago was elected general secretary on a promise to take a wage much closer to the average member, said his salary reflected the seniority of his role.
Serwotka, 48, who grew up in Aberdare, told Wales on Sunday his pay was being used by the media to create a division between himself and rank-and-file PCS members.
He said: "The logic of the newspapers who write this is that their editors should be on the same wages as the people who are cleaning their offices. And, of course, they don't do that, do they?"
Serwotka, who was a key player in organising the nationwide public sector strike on June 30, was keen to point out he hands back around £8,000 a year of his salary.
The PCS has said he couldn't keep his pledge to take a wage much closer to an average member because it would have disrupted the union's salary structure.

Average pay in the civil service - from which the PCS draws many of its 290,000 members - is just under pounds 23,000.
Serwotka, who now lives in London, added: "I have given back around £83,000 of my wages to the union over the 10 years I've been here.
"That still leaves me fantastically well paid, but I thought it was important to make that point. I think I'm the only one who does it.
"But I don't pretend from that, and never have done, that I'm on the same wages as the people I represent."
The PCS leader said he works hard to ensure he stays in regular contact with ordinary members to bridge the gulf opened up by his pay packet.
"You can't pretend that you live in the same circumstances as the people you represent so the best way to ensure you keep in touch with them is to ensure you meet them enough," he added.

"That you talk to them and take up the issues that are important to them - not to substitute your own personal circumstances for them."
A PCS spokesman said they would not take lectures on pay from a "secretive" organisation like the Taxpayers' Alliance, which does not declare the sources of its own funding.
UNION MAN TELLS OF HIS ADOPTION Mark Serwotka has spoken publicly for the first time of how he was plucked from a Cardiff orphanage as a baby.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) leader was adopted by Polish father Henryk Serwotka and his South Wales wife Audrey in the early 1960s.

Serwotka said he does not know his natural parents and has never been tempted to try to contact them. "I have made a conscious decision that I'm not interested in doing that because I consider my parents to be the people who brought me up," he told Wales on Sunday.
"The information [on his biological parents] is available, but I'm not interested in pursuing it."
Serwotka said the little he does know about the circumstances of how he came to spend the first six months of his life in an orphanage was passed onto him by his adoptive parents.
He said: "It was nothing out of the ordinary that wasn't happening in the early 1960s in communities in South Wales or throughout the UK. There are some people who aren't in a position to bring up kids so I don't make any judgement."
Serwotka, whose adoptive parents died in 2008, insisted he wasn't embarrassed by his early life but did not wish to reveal the full reason why he ended up in the orphanage.
"I had a fabulous 45 years when my parents were alive and I'm very content with that," he added.

 

[Fuzzy Logic]

I used to be in the Civil Service and went on strike a few times during the 90's.
How many times have you heard " yep, i support if but I can't afford a day off"...
Unbelievable.
Anybody who goes in, crosses a picket line and pisses over their colleagues and mates is a horrible gutless selfish human being in my eyes.
I used to be a manager and had staff who had gone in. That was difficult as whilst obviously everyone has the right to decide and that has to be respected, we are all human and also have our own opinions on morality and behaviour.

And there you have it:
Its amazing how some people feel that others do not have a right NOT to strike!
These people may be happy with their job and working conditions?
They may genuinely not be able to afford the loss of a full days wage?
They may even have the temerity to actually disagree with the reasons for the strike?

But no they are and I quote 'a horrible gutless selfish human being'

Trade unionists fought long hard bitter struggles to win the right to strike. With this came the equal right NOT to strike. But if they don't they are 'a horrible gutless selfish human being'.
Thank God I don't work in your office.

Exactly. In my office the union members respect our reasons for not being in a union and working on strike days, just as we respect there choice to stay home.

There is no animosity between colleagues who do and don't strike, i'm glad some of the pro union posters on here don't work at my place!

 

[tidyman]

I used to be in the Civil Service and went on strike a few times during the 90's.
How many times have you heard " yep, i support if but I can't afford a day off"...
Unbelievable.
Anybody who goes in, crosses a picket line and pisses over their colleagues and mates is a horrible gutless selfish human being in my eyes.
I used to be a manager and had staff who had gone in. That was difficult as whilst obviously everyone has the right to decide and that has to be respected, we are all human and also have our own opinions on morality and behaviour.

And there you have it:
Its amazing how some people feel that others do not have a right NOT to strike!
These people may be happy with their job and working conditions?
They may genuinely not be able to afford the loss of a full days wage?
They may even have the temerity to actually disagree with the reasons for the strike?

But no they are and I quote 'a horrible gutless selfish human being'

Trade unionists fought long hard bitter struggles to win the right to strike. With this came the equal right NOT to strike. But if they don't they are 'a horrible gutless selfish human being'.
Thank God I don't work in your office.

Exactly. In my office the union members respect our reasons for not being in a union and working on strike days, just as we respect there choice to stay home.

There is no animosity between colleagues who do and don't strike, i'm glad some of the pro union posters on here don't work at my place!

Will you be respecting that any potential gains that are won from this action should be awarded to just those who fought for it and be informing your bosses you do not want to profit from a fight you weren't involved in?

 

[njmcfc1894]

I think he means union members who cross line,why join then not back the vote?

 

[pominoz]

Usual turnout in my office today, about 50% of staff are in. A day without lefties in the office, i enjoy strike days.

Scab.

I take you will refuse any benefit that those on strike may gain/retain?

 

[Matty]

I couldn't give a sod what he earns. He does a good job.

Maybe he is doing a good job. Maybe £125,000 is about the going rate for someone in a job of his level. Both of those things are irrelevant. When he ran for election to this high profile, high financial reward role he made a promise, that was to take no more than the average civil servant wage, he now earns £125,000. So, he lied. He lied to the members in order to gain their votes and win a lucrative role for himself. How, exactly, can anyone trust a single word he says if there is such a clear example of him lying in order to line his own pockets?

Your'e very quick to accuse him of lying, I'm not so sure that's fair. Anyway for what it's worth here's what he said about this in 2011

Welsh trade union leader who organised a mass public sector walkout has defended the pounds 86,000 salary that has seen him dubbed a "fat cat" by opponents.

PCS leader Mark Serwotka, who 11 years ago was elected general secretary on a promise to take a wage much closer to the average member, said his salary reflected the seniority of his role.
Serwotka, 48, who grew up in Aberdare, told Wales on Sunday his pay was being used by the media to create a division between himself and rank-and-file PCS members.
He said: "The logic of the newspapers who write this is that their editors should be on the same wages as the people who are cleaning their offices. And, of course, they don't do that, do they?"
Serwotka, who was a key player in organising the nationwide public sector strike on June 30, was keen to point out he hands back around £8,000 a year of his salary.
The PCS has said he couldn't keep his pledge to take a wage much closer to an average member because it would have disrupted the union's salary structure.

Average pay in the civil service - from which the PCS draws many of its 290,000 members - is just under pounds 23,000.
Serwotka, who now lives in London, added: "I have given back around £83,000 of my wages to the union over the 10 years I've been here.
"That still leaves me fantastically well paid, but I thought it was important to make that point. I think I'm the only one who does it.
"But I don't pretend from that, and never have done, that I'm on the same wages as the people I represent."
The PCS leader said he works hard to ensure he stays in regular contact with ordinary members to bridge the gulf opened up by his pay packet.
"You can't pretend that you live in the same circumstances as the people you represent so the best way to ensure you keep in touch with them is to ensure you meet them enough," he added.

"That you talk to them and take up the issues that are important to them - not to substitute your own personal circumstances for them."
A PCS spokesman said they would not take lectures on pay from a "secretive" organisation like the Taxpayers' Alliance, which does not declare the sources of its own funding.
UNION MAN TELLS OF HIS ADOPTION Mark Serwotka has spoken publicly for the first time of how he was plucked from a Cardiff orphanage as a baby.
The Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) leader was adopted by Polish father Henryk Serwotka and his South Wales wife Audrey in the early 1960s.

Serwotka said he does not know his natural parents and has never been tempted to try to contact them. "I have made a conscious decision that I'm not interested in doing that because I consider my parents to be the people who brought me up," he told Wales on Sunday.
"The information [on his biological parents] is available, but I'm not interested in pursuing it."
Serwotka said the little he does know about the circumstances of how he came to spend the first six months of his life in an orphanage was passed onto him by his adoptive parents.
He said: "It was nothing out of the ordinary that wasn't happening in the early 1960s in communities in South Wales or throughout the UK. There are some people who aren't in a position to bring up kids so I don't make any judgement."
Serwotka, whose adoptive parents died in 2008, insisted he wasn't embarrassed by his early life but did not wish to reveal the full reason why he ended up in the orphanage.
"I had a fabulous 45 years when my parents were alive and I'm very content with that," he added.

All very interesting, and all totally irrelevant.

He earns far more than the average civil servant, that's a fact.

He said he would earn the same as the average civil servant, that's a fact.

His excuses, the fact he's returned some of the money, the fact he doesn't NOW claim to earn the same as the average civil servant, are of no consequence. Is he doing what he said he'd do in his election promises? No. It really is that simple.

 

[cyberblue]

It is irelivent what the leader of any Union earns as long as the membership have the right to de select the leader each year .as for the scabs who cross the picket lines .will they refuse any gains there comrades who are fighting for there rights gain .?those same scabs will quickly run to the Union for help if they are in trouble with there boss at work

 

[Fuzzy Logic]

Usual turnout in my office today, about 50% of staff are in. A day without lefties in the office, i enjoy strike days.

Scab.

I take you will refuse any benefit that those on strike may gain/retain?

i thought a scab was a union member who crossed the picket line? I'm not in the union so therefore can't be classed as a scab.

Not that being called a scab bothers anyone, maybe it did in the 70's and 80's?

I respect the decision of my colleagues and friends who choose to join a union and strike so how about you respect peoples decision not join or strike? I'm happy in my job, happy with my pay and conditions and have no reason to join a union or take part in any action.

Of course i'm not thrilled by further years of a pay freeze but we're paying the price for the failures of a Labour government so things have to be done to put things right.

 

[pominoz]

Usual turnout in my office today, about 50% of staff are in. A day without lefties in the office, i enjoy strike days.

Scab.

I take you will refuse any benefit that those on strike may gain/retain?

i thought a scab was a union member who crossed the picket line? I'm not in the union so therefore can't be classed as a scab.

Not that being called a scab bothers anyone, maybe it did in the 70's and 80's?

I respect the decision of my colleagues and friends who choose to join a union and strike so how about you respect peoples decision not join or strike? I'm happy in my job, happy with my pay and conditions and have no reason to join a union or take part in any action.

Of course i'm not thrilled by further years of a pay freeze but we're paying the price for the failures of a Labour government so things have to be done to put things right.

A scab is anyone that breaks a strike.

Again, will you let your boss's know that you do not want anything gained/retained by the strike action?

 

[bluevengence]

Usual turnout in my office today, about 50% of staff are in. A day without lefties in the office, i enjoy strike days.

Scab.

I take you will refuse any benefit that those on strike may gain/retain?

i thought a scab was a union member who crossed the picket line? I'm not in the union so therefore can't be classed as a scab.

Not that being called a scab bothers anyone, maybe it did in the 70's and 80's?

I respect the decision of my colleagues and friends who choose to join a union and strike so how about you respect peoples decision not join or strike? I'm happy in my job, happy with my pay and conditions and have no reason to join a union or take part in any action.

Of course i'm not thrilled by further years of a pay freeze but we're paying the price for the failures of a Labour government so things have to be done to put things right.

ANYONE who crosses a picket line is a FOOKING SCAB