Chippy Minton

Ahh...you're Richard Littlejohn then!

Is that because you're Bob Crow's MI5 handler? ;-)

It wasn't pointless from the RMT's point of view as they had to strike to in order to keep the mandate valid and therefore to allow the strikes to happen next week.

I'd agree with Mick Mac. If you have a five bed house your resell market is going to be families and they are going to be looking for a reasonably sized garden so you need to consider that. Otherwise I'd go for it - we've done a complete refurb and know exactly what's involved so I'd say now is defiantly the time to do it. Also, no nothing now and you're going to be living there in September - wow! Who's your builder?

Like you say, this strike only one day, so at the moment nobody is having their education put at risk. I also had my school hours shifted in the 80s due to the strikes. We moved to what the school termed a "continental day," starting early, having no lunch break and finishing early. After the strikes ended, the school concluded the move had been so successful that it kept this model. I'm not suggesting schools should think about doing this now at all, just that the strike is only this one day and we need to keep this is perspective. The ATL in particular is not made up of militants and for their members to have voted for this action it must show the strength of feeling on this matter.

Why is it being ignored? Crazy! What was the point in a pilot in the first place then? Fortnightly recycleable collections won't be great for us if we have to stick with boxes - we already fill at least two blue boxes every week and usually more than that. Will we def be able to get the blue wheelie?

I never said mobility was a bad thing! And spot on, they certainly need to get away from the 'job for life' mentally if they are to modernise and retain their relevance. However, there are still millions of people in this country that don't enjoy the benefits of the "modern information rich era" in the sense that moving from job to job simply because of ambition or a desire for more distant horizons is ever an option.

MM - agree with a lot of what you say. Unions are in decline - globalisation, the decline in UK manufacturing, the transient nature of the workforce and migration etc are all factors that have led to this. In recent years there have been numerous trade union mergers, in all likelihood not to pool resources and benefit from economies of scale, but in order to survive! Further, if they're to stand any chance of surviving they will not only need to go through more mergers, but they will have to become more commercially aware and will have to work more closely in the international arena in order to address the issues that multi-nationals and globalisation present to order to increase both their relevance and their ability to influence (some have made tentative steps in this direction). They will also need to pay far more attention to the growing sectors of the economy - aspects of the service industry, finance etc. Having said that, I disagree that "management is more informed and sensitive these days." Tell that to the people that work at Cadbury, Diageo or Lloyds Banking Group for example! In fact, I would argue management is far less "sensitive" these days - gone are the times when people stayed at a company for years and years, if not their whole careers, working their way up whilst retaining a link with the workforce. Instead, today we find, because of multi-nationalism/globalism, management effectively saying to their workforce: "do this, cos if you don't we'll shut down tomorrow and move to Poland/India/China etc." - not what I call sensitive. I would also disagree that unions are only strong in the public sector. The RMT and their hold of the TOCs is an obvious example of this, and if we believe what other posters have stated on this forum, British Airways would have gone bust recently if Unite hadn't agreed to settle the cabin crew dispute ;-) BTW, I'd love to know who you think the more "enlightened" unions are?

Can't find an online link to the actual doc but if you want to, you can subscribe to the Industrial Law Journal - http://ilj.oxfordjournals.org/content/36/2/242.full to get it - it's called "Workplace representatives: A review of their facilities and facility time," DTI consultation document, January 2007 and this gives the ?10.2 billion figure. I'm not sure what you mean by "union members will be subject to a number of fees." If you mean they pay a membership subscription then yes, but all these benefits I listed are free at source e.g. a member will not pay to attend any lifelong learning course, indeed the union will even pay their expenses to get to and from the course. And just what does "The studies we shared over in the Drawing Room said that there was no quantifiable difference between unionised and non-unionised workforces" mean if you claim you didn't say that unions don't make a difference? Anyway, it's Saturday and the pub is calling, and thanks to the unions, I've got the weekend off ;-)

- The wage difference: the figure comes from BERR/National statistics. - Department of Trade and Industry (now BIS) report from 2007 concluded union reps significantly reduced the number of "exists," improving labour retention and reducing absenteeism - this is where the ?143 mill figure comes from. - Union members deliver health and safety - there are an estimated 150,000 trade union health and safety reps in the UK workforce today and they play an enormous role in thousands of workplace in order to improve health and safety. - BERR estimates up to 241,000 fewer working days are lost each year due to the presence of trade union safety reps, the potential benefit being ?371 million. - DTI estimates up to 375,000 fewer working days are lost each year due to work related ill-health because of the work of union safety reps saving up to ?207 million. - Employee involvement through union membership and the subsequent ability to participate in company decision making leads to the greater productivity figure of ?10.2 billion - again a figure produced by the DTI. - Legal representation is free for union members. It is not always free for non-members. - Equalities: what does the law have to do with it? The law states that men and women are equal, that all ages are equal, that all races all equal etc, but sexual, age, racial discrimination etc exists all over society and that includes the workplace whether it's pay or otherwise. - Lifelong learning: nearly all trade unions have a lifelong learning department these days and all promote this. Union members have more opportunities to access this for free. In the last 10 years, over 400,000 trade union reps have taken advantage of free lifelong learning education, and over 200,000 trade union members are helped into further learning for free every year. It's naive to suggest there's no difference - if that's the case, why are so many up in arms about the RMT in the first place?

There is defiantly a quantifiable difference between unionised and non-unionised workforces! There's the obvious wage difference - unionised workers earn 12.5% more per hour than employees in non-unionised workplaces. They are also less likely to leave their jobs saving employers up to ?143 million a year; they save employers money because of reduced absenteeism; and employees that are listened-to are "money productive" - worth up ?10.2 billion a year to the economy. In addition, unionised workers also get all the other benefits union membership brings in health and safety, lifelong learning, legal representation, equalities etc etc

How can any action today be compared to something that happened 100+ years ago! I think it's safe to say society and employment conditions have changed somewhat since Annie Besant!

I believe, and it is also stated in law, that it is a human right to belong to a trade union and that if a trade unionist withdraws their labour within the law, then that is obviously within their rights. I've never said I personally support the RMT strike, just that they have every right to go ahead with a strike if they are acting within the law. BTW he's not a "union official" as you state, he's a union rep - a lay member of the RMT. Much of UK law has been diluted when it comes to union reps and their work, but it is entirely possible that this member is a seconded rep working full time on RMT/union work. If this is the case, and I have no idea whether it is or isn't, this is not only perfectly normal, but it would have been agreed with the RMT and LU.

The alternative is to target the people that caused the crisis in the first place i.e. not teachers. We need a Robin Hood tax on the banks and financial services and a crack down on their tax avoidance.

ladywotlunches - I don't get it. I really feel for you if you've lost your job, but are you really saying that because you've been treated poorly, you can't support someone else that's being treated poorly and that teachers should roll over and just take it?

Errr....I just said I believed it's a human right to withdraw your labour - no real "logic" there, just an opinion, so I'm not sure which bit of this half a sentence is weak or poor. Anyway, the right to strike is a human right, regardless of whether you think it's logical, as long as it's within the law. As LU has failed to stop this strike, I assume it is within the law. The RMT's actions will inconveniences hundreds of thousands - no argument from me there! And yes, damn right, I think they should call it off - I'm going to have think about how the hell I'm getting to and from work as well! However, it's the RMT's responsibility to defend its members. I'd also guess that because this guy is a union rep he's very valuable to the RMT - recruiting members, organising, helping full-time officials etc. The organisation is a lay-democracy and the RMT will rely on its reps in order for it to function. They will always look to give them all their backing and resources wherever they can.

No. Garden waste and food waste (which you tie up in biodegradable bags) go in one bin (your current brown garden one if you have one). All other recyclables - paper, glass, cardboard, foil, aerosols, plastic etc - go in the another (your blue box or, like James says, you may get a new blue wheelie). Sorry for the confusion.

Freddy1929 - we're in the pilot food waste collection area at the moment. It's great - we had two green bins but now only need one. There's also no need to separate recyclable stuff. James - I assume this pilot has been successful then? If so, can we swap our two blue boxes for a big blue one? Also, small issue, but is there anyway the council can give out the kitchen caddy bags that have the handles again - the recent ones we've receive don't have handles and so are very difficult to tie up.

I can't believe the Co-op ever sells any milk. Every single time I have been in there the four pint cartons have one day left before their best-before. Or maybe they sell gallons of the stuff and I always get there after everyone else has already grabbed it :)

JAGS lessons fill up really quickly, but are meant to be really good. Beckenham Spa is good for a 4 year old as they have a teaching pool which means they can touch the bottom. Obviously, a bit further away but it's not too bad on a weekend - 15 mins or so.

Hi Nikki73, Like most people we've always sworn we'd never travel with Ryanair again but we keep going back to them, not because of their service obviously or even their price, but because they fly near to where we usually want to go. We've never had a problem with buggies. But completely agree with beababies, Grotty et al - this type of thing also happened to us. They don't do families first, therefore it's a complete bundle - you need to get on the plane asap. We made the mistake of getting on towards the end only to find there were only single seats left. The cabin crew refused to help us and instead tried to insist that we all sat separately, even our then two year old. Obviously this was never going to happen as junior Minton would never be able to sit on their own and eventually a good samaritan passenger moved to allow Mrs Minton and junior Minton to sit together. Cabin Crew were useless though. Other tip is remember the minuscule weight allowance is per bag, not per person i.e. take lots of small bags not one big one. I'll never forget our friends having to unpack their bags at check-in and all their kids having to wear layers of clothes onto the plane because of this stupidly low allowance.

Quids - do you really think "that most workers aren't public sector workers, and have thus far faced the bulk of redundancies" or are you just trolling? Surely, both public and private sector are being hit by cuts to public services, benefits, pay and jobs (?145bn over the next 6 years)? The Treasury itself says austerity cuts will lead to at least 500,000 public sector jobs and between 600,000 and 700,000 jobs in the private sector being lost by the end of this parliament - not really a massive difference especially given the Charted Institute of Personnel and Development has estimated that govt spending cuts could lead to up to 750,000 public sector jobs losses.

Clearly, the RMT are the most likely to strike in this sector. ASLEF are more minded to talks and TSSA's rarely gets into disputes by comparison. I had hoped the 50% idea would always be blocked by the Lib Dems, but in the light of Cable's comments the other week now I'm not so sure. As for driving them out of business, I can't see that happening anytime soon - the RMT is one of the few unions that are increasing their membership at the moment and the Tube workers are probably the closest thing the UK has to a closed shop these days. Personally, I believe it is everyone's human right to withdraw their labour and just because an RMT strike inconveniences you, I don't see why this should be any different.

What is it with people on here judging what other people should be entitled to simply based on whether they get something themselves? I just don't get the argument that "I don't get this, so therefore you shouldn't get this." If public sector unions have negotiated employee's terms and conditions, then they have every right, indeed requirement, to defend them. If you don't think it is "fair," because someone else is getting something you aren't, here's an idea - join a union! Unionised workplaces pay, on average, more than non-unionised workplaces.

Because the RMT have notified them of their strike action the mandate is still valid even after the 20 June. As long as they are acting within the law they have every right to make their "demands." It is a human right to be a member of a trade union and it is a human right that no restrictions are placed on the exercising the rights of trade unions/trade unionists other than what's prescribed by law. In this case, the law seemingly recognises that the RMT has a mandate to strike. Of course, whether is actually true and that they are acting within the law is an entirely different matter and both sides will have lawyers considering, interpreting and advising them regarding this.