We should all protest by not filling up at Total service stations for this insult!

[northwind]

Originally Posted by chakraist

If the government stepped in and said 'Okay guys, bring in your workers from abroad, but pay them at least minimum wage,' then there would be no problem.

I'm about 99% sure this is exactly how it is now- immigrant workers have exactly the same wage protection as british workers do (probably the same people saying "no more cheap EU immigrant labour" will also say "Why should these EU immigrants get the same protection and wages we do")

In this case, Total have said that the wages for the foreigners are on the same basis as the UK employees. True? Maybe, maybe not. IREM back this though.

There's so much basic misinformation out there, I reckon most of the public reaction is to the lies, not to the actual situation, as ever. The strike leaders are still happily trotting out the blatant lie that british workers were prevented from applying for these jobs, when the original contract went to a british firm who then pulled out (allegedly, because they were unable to staff it)

What's mental is that even now, the italian subcontractors actually do employ british workers in these teams. The strike leaders would like us to think that it's a closed shop but that's laughable.

If the people leading the strikes want to stop the b******t and start actually making an argument based on fact, maybe we'll get somewhere, but you can't negotiate with fantasists.

[Biker Biggles]

Are they fantasists or fanatics?
Im not sure of the facts here but what they are saying is that foriegn firms are bidding for contracts and then importing all their workers for those contracts,thus effectively preventing local people getting those jobs.Given that they pay for the workers travel and accomodation and claim to pay them the same wages as the British would have got,something appears to not add up and someone maybe isnt telling the truth.Every news item Ive seen has failed to get to the bottom of this,which perhaps explains why these disputes are spreading so quickly around the country.I cant see people walking out so readily unless there are some real issues going on,and maybe some real provocation from somewhere,but we are not being told the full story.

[dizzyblonde]

I can understand partially why there is all this hoo har. I work in manufacturing. Originally i started off as a temp, or contractor as they liked to call us. When I first acquired my skills at work I was on huge sums of money. Then the company decided to negotiate wages based on 'money saving' with the agency, so they decided to cut our hourly rate, and to put us off some more restricted us to nights OR days, rather than both which we were used to. The British workers in the agency disappeared thick and fast but the amount of migrant workers the wages attracted (especially for unskilled) went up ten fold. These folk didn't seem to mind the crap wage, plus would work all extra hours on offer.
A hell of a lot of us were taken permanently a couple of years back....mostly poles as there were only a handful of brits left. Unfortunately the company is now finding out that the 'skills' that these people have aren't as transparent on paper as it seemed at the time, and are now stuck with a load of people that are useless that they can't get rid of. There are very few brit left here now, apart from those that have been here for years. Those that are externally recruited now are migrant, who have set up home here for a while, because it seems british people either don't apply or aren't considered, its one or the other

I act for some Filipinos who are here on student visas. They are allowed to work - their visas say so - in approved employment. They all work in residential homes and nursing homes, doing unsocial hours and basically doing not very nice jobs - I don't need to say what.

Nobody creates a fuss about these foreign workers doing British jobs, I believe it's because the work is of a sort that it's er difficult to find British people who want to do it.

Service contracts carry performance guarantees.

The subcontractor will source labour that ensures he will meet those guarantees. Its not about the hourly rate its about getting the job done to quality standards on time, every time.

Thats where reliable labour wins every time. No matter which country it come from.

If you have a labour force that can do this then you will pay over the odds to keep them............. I know I do.