Mr and Mrs Strike
All out over at Education. Well 37.5% out, as some members of the civil service PCS union vote to strike over job cuts in the department. According to PA, PCS boss Mark Serwotka is claiming that the department is being used “as an ideological testbed for wider civil service cuts”. It’s interesting that the main PCS representative in the department is one Ruth Serwotka. It may be no relation, but a Mrs Ruth Serwotka, who is apparently a civil servant, has popped up before.
Is this a case of union royalty using their power couple connection as an ideological test-bed for wider civil service strikes?
Can’t comment. On strike
Does Ruth Serwotka work at the department or is she one of those Union Pilgrims that the
governmenttaxpayer subsidises?Guy Walters added: “Gavin Grey, the newsreader the BBC use when there’s a strike. He’s probably the only Tory in the entire corporation.”
Just about says it all.
Just drafting a letter:
Perhaps others could draft the sort of response one might get…
Dear Mr Cat
There is a lift shaft on the top floor which requires investigation.
Sincerely
DG
Polish/Welsh/Commie, what do we expect from that mix?
Gas them all,
Gas them all,
The long, and the short and the tall…
I like the cut of your jib!
Pip, pip
It must be a 1940′s joow thing.
The Unions can fuck off, get back to work you lazy bastards
No, sack the jobsworth pojntless leeches!
Sack everyone on strike.
Show some backbone.
By going on strike they show they don’t want to work there and there are loads of more capable people currently unemployed.
surely a libertarian supports the right of people to withdraw labour?
Surely a libertarian would be more likely to support the concept of doing what most of us do when we’re not happy in our current employment, or are worried it might be at risk – plan for the future by trying to find another job.
Not when that “labour” is nothing of the sort!
Where does it say he doesn’t ?
So-called libertarians come over all statist when it comes to strikes.
That of course is because they’re not libertarians, but propertarians who believe in a strong state to uphold property rights.
“Libertarian” does sound cooler than “Tory Boy” though.
I think everyone has the right to strike. But people who do so also have no automatic right to keep their jobs. Whether they stay on in employment should be a matter for the employer and the employee to agree as part of the settlement of the strike. If the employee is needed, a wise employer will keep him on, on whatever terms result fro the negotiations. If he is not, then he should go elsewhere.
What you propose would lead to escalation and the sorts of picket lines seen in other parts of the world and in this country decades ago.
The plain fact is a one day strike suits most employers very nicely, and keeps state-sanctioned unions like PCS at the negotiating table. A 14 or 30 day programme of rolling walkouts of different sections/teams/departments would have genuine impact, but union leaders like Serwotka are more interested in having their day in the sun than organising effective industrial action.
“Genuine Impact”
These non-jobs impact will be to let Schools run themselves a bit better for a few days.
A libertarian would be in favor of smaller government and lower taxation first and foremost.
Especially as Schools should NOT be a core state activity.
Making sure parents educate their children, yes.
Forcing other people to pay for it, no.
Providing school buildings and employing teachers, definitely no!
Strikes are supposed to be a last resort against a tyrannical employer. British unions have traditionally used them as a blackmail technique to get unreasonable demands, eg: underground workers wanting triple pay on bank holidays. No one, including a sensible socialist, should automatically support any strike regardless of the issue.
up Da wOrkERz!
oI! garSONE! BrUng mee MY chableASE!
I hope Ruth is the first to be sacked – serves her right for sleeping with the PCS bastard
So a majority don’t want a strike, but PCS does and its boss gets paid either way, although if there’s a strike he gets on TV. Nothing fishy there.
The two names (Sewotka/Serwotka) are spelt differently unless that’s a typo – maybe no relation?
That’s just Guido’s normal spelling errors.
They are both Serwotka.
Bit of a coincidence that his wife’s name is also Ruth, don’t you think?
“Born Aberdare, South Wales.
Status: Married to Ruth; two daughters”
One has always to keep it in the family boyo.
Look at how well my family have done at the public trough.
Snap!
Curious that Ruth was married to Boaz in the Old Testament!
Neo is not famed for his spelling.
Edjumacated under Labour. That explains it.
This is Order-Order, it’s a typo.
Man made global warming.
158,811,880,000,000,000,000 x 2 calories are burned each year by people having sex.
As very few do it in greenhouses, it will be known as the non-greenhouse effect.
I used to think it was sustainable energy….
We are proposing to introduce a Copulation Tax.
I offset my greenhouse gas emissions by smacking chavs in the street and having affairs.
Is this a carbon footprint fetish ?
Oh, I’ve never tried that one?
Think I’ll stick to my brown log fetish though.
They have a bigger mandate that London Mayor Boris Johnson has then, as fewer than 17% of Londoners chose this cretin to represent them.
Still, more than voted for Ken “I will make London a beacon for the words of Mohammed” Livingstone. Twice.
I hate Ken more than Boris.
This article mentions his wife is a civil servant named Ruth:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2004/oct/27/interviews.politics
Married, Serwotka is an avid Cardiff City fan and lives in Chipstead, Surrey
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Serwotka
We used to have proper,manly,meaningful strikes in the ’80′s,not the mamby,pamby half hearted ,lefty whingeing,token strikes,they try to do now….
Let’s not forget that all Union leaders are jumped up little pricks.
My hero !!
Now that it appears that a fatwa has been decreed upon Sadiq Khan for voting in favour of gay marriage would it be in bad taste to have a Guido crosshair on his chops?
How much does it cost to have a fatwa issued for publicity purposes?
Interesting to reflect that Genghis Khan was noted for his brutality but also for his tolerance, in his case of different religions.
No.
Recognizing this Fatwa and celebrating the execution of a centuries old tradition should be the stuff of celebration for multi-cultural loving socialists.
Indeed, one hopes that Sadiq does not discriminate by going into hiding, but rather should take his message directly to the community.
A reasoned liberal debate with those who decreed the fatwa would be most instructive and demonstrate how society has been enriched in recent years.
Perhaps some for May:
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/fatwa-issued-against-british-home-secretary_100495493.html
If only 37.5% have voted to strike, the government has not been cutting enough. They are merely going through the motions.
I have to do it every day.
What cuts ? I’m still running the deficit at £15bn per month
The April to December deficit was £7bn HIGHER in 2012 than 2011
I HEREBY CONFESS THAT I AM A COMPLETE AND UTTER FAILURE
EXCUSE ME FOR A MINUTE WHILE I COMMIT HARA-KIRI
Today I will be mostly sampling My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy by Kanye West.
Oi Rustbucket– why not sample a bit of Fred and Rosemary West’s twisted fantasy, from the receiving end?
Sewotka reminds me of Andy Gilchrist of the FBU – ”it’s all about me!”
Hey up there’s trouble ‘t mill!
1. Civil servants go on strike.
2. Everything runs smoothly.
1. BBC News staff go on strike.
2. Everything runs smoothly.
Skools shudn’t produze weeners.
Definitely Mr and Mrs. 192.com and btexchanges.com confirm. Nice house near Chpstead, they must be paying well at the Union and Civil service
Some comrades are more equal than others.
Did you know Serwotka is Polish for “cheese-water”
You do now.
Sfunny, I thought it was Polish for oxygen waster.
That could be read as: Smeg.
Paradoxically, ‘Mark Serwotka’ is an anagram of ‘A Market Works’.
Ah but a mаrket needs to have some order, even when it is not regulated.
Maggie Maggie Maggie, Out Out Out!
O’Farrell, O’Farrell, O’Farrell! Fucked, fucked, fucked!
Mark Serwotka is married to a Ruth Serwotka, so this would be too much of a coincidence not to be true.
Mark Serwotka is bitter and twisted, a trait found in all commie/socialists.
The lights are set to go out over Britain by the end of this decade, the national debt is still rising, unemployment stubbornly high with 0% growth and mass immigration still continuing in the land of the quangos! And what is Dave doing? Bumsex marriage!
That way we’ll hit our carbon reduction targets.
Any idea how many of the strikers are Common Purpose graduates ?
All of them.
I watched BBC news yesterday morning, as it was news. Today I turned it off as I am not remotely interested in sofa chitchat at that time in the morning.
Given the lack of jobs, how do the Serwotkas justify two high incomes going into one household? Couldn’t they job-share one or the other? That would be the socialist thing to do.
The blessed Mark spent his first 19 years of working life as a Benefits Officer doling out our cash to a mix of the real needy and scroungers. Perhaps he will think back to why so many of his members kept pressing for more and more protection for m the often violent customer who were pissed drugged up or would just attack them if they dared to say no
What’s this, Serwotka trying to keep it in the family as the Kinnocks did.
PCS need to get a grip and realise that the taxpayer demands efficiency for its money, which large swathes do not offer.
Perhaps Serwotka would like to give up his present salary and perks and expenses and accept one that is based on his membership median.
So who’s going to smear Toby Helm today?
37.5 % vote to strike? That’s 1.5% more than the bastard Toff party got to run the country.