Showing posts with label construction industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label construction industry. Show all posts

Saturday, 24 December 2011

THE SPARKS ARE FLYING!!!


        The bullying tactics of the employers goes on, with the full backing of the millionaire cabal in the Westminster Houses of Hypocrisy and Corruption. The construction industry is leading the charge to decimate the wages and conditions of workers, starting with the electricians, they have thrown them a new un-negotiated contract with the message, sign it or leave the site. This contract can mean up to 30% cut in wages and a host of attacks on conditions and entitlements won over many years. However, the electricians are not taking it lying down, the fight is on, and with the solidarity of all those in the private and public sector, plus the support of the ordinary people from all walks of life, they can force the employers back to the negotiating table and tear this blackmail document up and throw it in the bin where it belongs. This is not just an attack on electricians, this is an attack on all workers conditions in the private sector. If Balfour Beattie get away with this the others will quickly implement similar contracts across the board. The government is attacking the conditions of those in the public sector and now the private sector are following their lead, with the blessing of the Cameron/Clegg public school thugs. This is the biggest attack on the working class since the 30's and the results, if they win, could be much worse than the 30's for us. It is not a case of one nasty employer, it is a case of a policy of constructing a cheap labour force to help the corporate world swell their coffers.



ann arky's home.

Wednesday, 2 November 2011

TAKE A 45% WAGE CUT OR GET OUT.


        I keep spouting about this "crisis" is being used by all the corporate world as an excuse to slash at wages and conditions. Obviously as the government attacks the wages and conditions of the public sector, they are not going to complain as the private sector does likewise. Balfour Beatty the big construction company is leading the attack by tearing up electricians contracts and forcing them to sign new contracts or get off the site. The new contracts of course have not been negotiated and in some cases mean a cut of up to 45% in wages and deskilling of the trade. No doubt all the other big boys in the corporate world will be waiting and watching to see how far they can go and how quickly. A sample of what the electricians  in the construction industry are up against can be seen in this extract from an article in The Commune.


Under BESNA, the current across the board hourly rate of £16.25 would be scrapped, and electricians would be graded for a rate of between £14 and £10.50. This follows a pay freeze last year, so some electricians would be 45% worse off than they were two years ago, assuming they are able to find work at all in a declining construction industry. Inevitably, deskilling would follow, along with an increase in workplace ‘accidents’.


These type of greedy tactics are part and parcel of the corporate world, world wide, the only real answer is to get rid of the corporatism that devastates our lives and our planet, capitalism cannot be reformed, repaired or made ethical, it is a beast built on, and dependent on, exploitation. Its removal from the face of the Earth will require the some world wide solidarity and organisation by the people, as is shown by the cancer that is the corporate world.