Union Stupidity

The Unite union is threatening to bring aviation to Scotland to a halt after rejecting a 1% pay rise. Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen will be among six UK airports which will be forced to close entirely by the planned strike, leading to the cancellation of 2500 flights a day.

Leaders from the giant Unite union will wait until Monday before deciding what form the action will take and when it begins but the expectation is that the union could target the holiday weekend starting on 27 August in a bid to strengthen their negotiating hand with employers the British Airports Authority (BAA).

Along with the three main Scottish airports, Heathrow, Stanstead and Southampton would also be shut during the strike, although Scotland would be the worst affected in the whole of the UK with only Prestwick, Inverness and other minor airports open. Holiday plans for thousands of Scottish travellers hoping to travel south or abroad that weekend are also threatened.

The union insists they have been left with no option but to strike, accusing BAA of a 'confrontational' approach to negotiations.

I don't know about you, but I'm weary of hearing about strikes at airports. Of course people should be paid a fair wage, but shouldn't unions like Unite be protesting against the behaviour of the banks, some of which belong to us, rather than considering destroying the travel of those who are suffering the consequences of their very left-wing policies. Unite, just to remind you, is the Union in dispute with BA.

Since Unite began their strategy of fear with their BA strikes, I know many people have decided to travel using other forms of transport or not to travel at all. I'm one of them and I intend to holiday in my own country without the requirement of airlines.

It's common knowledge air passengers have reduced radically in the past couple of years. Without customers Unite wouldn't have a case and the airlines wouldn't fly. What then for Unite airline staff?

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Diageo Update

With my thanks, RantinRab has brought to my attention the fact that Diageo planned months ago to turn part of the Johnny Walker plant in Kilmarnock into luxury flats.

They lodged a planning application to convert their staff car park into a residential development eight weeks ago.

Nobody within the council put two and two together by the sound of it. Read the story here.

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A UNION DIVIDEND FOR MEMBERS?

The Edinburgh Evening News today carries an article entitled 'Unions Hold 'Funeral' for Volunteer Jobs.'  Now I'm no fan of any Scotsman publication these days as I find the average standard of journalism abysmal and the anti-Scottish government bias makes many articles asinine, but sometimes there is something which catches the eye.

Unite organised a 'funeral' procession outside the Scottish Parliament today as a protest about lost jobs and services in the voluntary sector. Firstly isn't Unite a UK wide union?  Why aren't there protests such as this organised in England especially when the Guardian reports today that the sector in England also has problems?  Many charities are UK wide such as Barnardos. 

My belief is that this protest was instigated by the UK union and the Scottish branch of Unite were instructed to orchestrate the protest which is really little to do with the voluntary sector and much to do with another attempt at embarrassing the Scottish government. 

Some of these voluntary organisations have staff who are very well paid but they do have their fair share of lower paid workers.  Now the lower paid workers want parity with public service staff who do similar jobs and the hourly rate of £7 an hour was mentioned on BBC Newsround as the amount.  Wasn't it just the other week that Stephen Purcell said there were 700 staff in Glasgow Council earning only the basic wage of £5.73 and he intended to increase it to £7 an hour.

Now I see what this is about, it's nothing to do with cuts, it's an attempt to increase the minimum wage initially in the voluntary sector then of course the public sector staff in all Scottish councils bar Glasgow, who are paid less than £7 an hour, will have a perfect case.  All this at the beginning of a recession which is being called the worst since the 1930s.  

Unite had a fine day for their demonstration which was paid for by their members of course. As one EEN commenter Mik Wilso said, "Hire a horse drawn hearse. Great use of union funds. Still its less for the Labour Party."

 

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