Taxi Driver Online

Yes, thanks a lot. But least it'll save spending hours trying to help other people on here, because clearly it's "not doing anyone any favours", unlike your own wisdom and munificence.

And it was only me who set the frigging site up in the first place, so your post has a certain illogicality about it.

I don't think the tanker drivers are asking for your support tbh and they probably don't care if you support them or not. At the end of the day everybody is entitled to their opinion and nobody on here has a right to take that opinion and rubbish it, but, they do on a frequent basis. I'm not entirely sure why you think they should be sacked but you do and that is your opinion but do you know why they are taking this action and the consequences for them if they don't or do you not care anyway?

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

What point would that be Dusty?
Now you tell me where I said you should support them? Or them support you?

I don't even know if they have a legitimate grievance with their employers, and neither do you.
Now I couldn't give a sh!t either way.
You, on the other hand, seem to have decided that they must be wrong, Why? because they make more money than you do? or because it might affect you
On that basis, i doubt anyone would have the right to strike

What I'm saying is they have the right to withdraw their labour if they choose to.
To deny them that right is just plain wrong, regardless of how much they do or don't make.
It's not always about the money.

_________________

http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

My basic point is that it's wrong for these drivers to threaten to bring the country to its knees and thus cause detriment to tens of millions, and indeed no doubt severe detriment to millions a lot worse off than themselves.

I have no problem with workers fighting their corner and taking industrial action, but there has to be a balance. The effect on others has to be considered, as has their relative position in society compared to others. I mean, it's a bit like those people earning £50k who were moaning about cuts in child benefit recently. I don't like to see anyone losing money, but I can't really muster up much sympathy for such people.

Ditto the tanker drivers, and I find it incredible that some people on here expect me to support their strike and thus make sacrifices when they are and will still be earning several times what I am.

And all this solidarity stuff is just pie in the sky. There's always been a so-called 'labour aristocracy' ie those with a featherbedded postion in the labour movement who are good at the 'we're all in this together' schtick but do naff all to help those further down the pecking order, instead being more concerned with maintaining their elevated position. There may have been more people in the unions in the past, but it's simply a myth to try to conjure up some kind of golden era when it was 'all the workers together'.

I mean, I can't recall these guys making sacrifices to help anyone in the cab trade, but obviously no one has ever asked them, because they know the answer.

And if whoever does 'come to get us', or whatever, do you really think the tanker drivers will lift a finger to help? Not on your nelly, as long as they're not threatened, of course.

What they're doing is threatening to use their industrial muscle with little regard to anyone else, and indeed it's probably that industrial muscle and the fact that they're controlling a vital service that's gotten them to such an elevated position in the first place. It's not about skills and danger - how much does a private in Afghanistan earn? - because if it was we wouldn't be having this argument.

Put it simply, I suspect the reason we're having this argument is because they're being paid significantly more than their skills deserve in the marketplace, ie the marketplace that the vast majority of others are subject to.

That's why the unions went out of favour with a lot of people. They used their industrial power - and not a little intimidation and violence - to impose closed shops, Spanish practices, better wages and conditions etc - while others were left scraping along the bottom. The Dock Labour Scheme was a classic of that genre. Even John Prescott realised that it was just taking the pish. Or like the tube drivers on the Victoria line who're paid a fortune basically just to open and shut the doors - the trains drive themselves!

It's just like the taxi trade in a way. The plateholders managed to wangle an elevated position, but in my experience will still take on any amount of drivers who want to drive, thus it's a free market for some, but the taxi barons - like the trade union barons - are featherbedded and self-evidently care little for those beneath them.

That's why I turned my back on the unions. And the tanker drivers are just another labour aristocracy with little regard for those less fortunate than themselves. It's the greasy pole and pulling up the ladder behind them kind of thing - most on here seem to see that as the workers v capital, but some of the workers are just as bad as the worst of the bosses; they take what they can get and everyone else can go to hell, but like the bosses who'll do the spiel about respecting their workers and suchlike, the labour barons are good at the rhetoric about union solidarity, while the reality in both cases is a bit different.

I'm all for workers' rights and improving wages in conditions, but as in the taxi trade I can't support one group being favoured while the others are left behind.

Anyway the Army are going to save us aren't they? I doubt it somehow, the Army won't be allowed to to use the tanker fleet so they'll be using their own tanker vehicles which have only been used to carry red diesel so will be contaminated.

http://www.mod-sales.com/direct/vehicle ... ellers.htm

Anyone want to buy their own tanker?

_________________
Grandad,

We have had two drivers commit suicide down here, due, in the main, to financial pressures.

_________________
IDFIMH

Indeed.

But how does earning nothing, when the car is out of fuel, help any of us?

_________________
IDFIMH

The only equality we have here is the fact that when we start to go hungry due to empty supermarkets shelves caused by fuel starvation..then so will the families of these greedy Tw*t Tanker drivers. But they'll not let it get that far for fear of getting an earfull of their wifes..I bet they listen more to their missus than they do Red Len McCluskey.

No..they'll let it go far enough to feck up the Jobs of us non union types but not far enough to overly inconvenience their fellow Unite Comrades from other trades who the Unite Union relies on even more than it does 2000 tanker drivers for its mega Union Leader Wages.

With a bit luck the Unite union might Dis-unite over this and do us all a favour.

Dust, you mention nobody worrying about the cab trades condition, as you know it's on life support right now, but lets look into it why.


1 - De-regulation, this has enabled many more ppl to mortgage themselves with a 30k vehicle that they can't just give back, well not if they are honest ppl anyway.

2 - Mass immigration, which has enabled the baron to be born, where he wouldn't be able to get drivers he can now take advantage of cheap drivers.

3 - Rank errosion, councils see prime rank space as wasted meter space that can make more money for the council.

4 - When it was good, many of us didn't think it could end, but we bimbled along in the belief that we were sorted, were we worrying about anyone else then?

With points 3 & 4, this is what the tanker driver is trying to avoid, he doesn't want nor need his conditions changed so he has to do more for less, and I notice as Sussex you mention two local suicides due to financial pressures, this is going to get more common place before long as weaker minded folks fold under the pressure, but it's the actions of people like yourself that has created this time space continuium, had all working people been given a proper wage and the ability to live many of todays problems wouldn't exist, see it's not me that's the real barsteward, I think of all and I think of impacts when things get messed around with, I was with the last fuel blockers even though it cost me personally at the time, and I'm with the tanker drivers this time, because I believe in standing up and voicing myself when things aren't right, and finally the real reason you are earning nothing now is because the dominator's you obviously support have chucked all your customers out of a job or nailed them down wage wise so they can't afford a cab anymore, look at it logically, I smoke, pre-budget my cigs were £5.75, last night £6.29, that is a 10% hike, now when it comes to getting a pay rise for normal folks they get told 1% rise in line with inflation, all the time merchandise is hiked 10X the inflation rate ppl fall further behind in the affording stakes, if we adopted this ourselves and passed on the hike each time a 2 mile ride would be £15 by now, you like your football but don't seem to mind handing over £25 for 90 minutes of potential entertainment so 11 blokes can have 10k pw, yet a driver who earns 12x less pa you have a problem with, the real problem is you only care if it impacts on you, and as Taxeman quoted earlier, when you do that you invite problems further on.

If you have that much ingenuity to do such a thing (setting up the site), do you not think that there is much more to you than just taking your situation!?As I said..............you never answered any questions OR for that matter criticised companies for making RUDE profit at the expense of jobs and wage packets.

You have to look at the state of the country and your own for that matter! We have had wage restraints for the workers basically since the 1970s (a time when we had industry and people earned good money) - so Harold Wilson came along and said you can only have £1+ 4% of your wage as a rise, and that is how it has been in one shape or fashion ever since.

What has that policy done.

Well! Industry is basically wiped out ( I think that it is only "Greggs" that make anything these days), wages are down by a mile, unemployment is sky high with the real figures being hidden - and you are moaning about a modern day "Custer's last stand". What I am surprised about (but there again I am not because most of the Unions have been bought) is that we have not had a general strike - In a nutshell we need more Unions like this one to bring some sanity back to the work force, because everyone is being driven into the ground by existing policies.

Back in the 70s (car industry) we in Cardiff were earning less than the guys and girls in Birmingham! we were not jealous - but we kept on until we got the same - we did not attempt to drag them down by saying that they should be on a lower wage. If you aim for the sky you may not get it...............But! you should try, and not by dragging others down.

_________________
if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Agree with that 100%. And thats why they are striking.

_________________
stressed controller!!!

Thats easier said than done if you have contracts to service I think the answer is for cabbies up and down the country to blockade every motorway for 1 hour in protest at the tanker drivers going on strike !

_________________
lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector

I have just driven past two large queues of cars outside petrol stations, all panicking about fuel running out.

Sometimes I f***ing despair about this country.

_________________
IDFIMH

Its Probably better they do rush out and fill their tanks up to the top now before the Strike starts affecting supplies...after that they'll just need to top up as normal to replace normal usage when fuel becomes scarcer which in turn keeps the demand at normal levels during any actual Strike.

This'll give the Forecourts at least another week after the initial panic buy to Fill up their Fuel Tanks to capacity and hopefully ride out the Occasional days of Strike action the drivers plan..