ICTU mass mailing today from David Begg.

sold

Hi I got a ICTU mass mailing letter today.

* Don't Pinch our Pensions
* No to Income Cuts
* Get up and stand up


!!!!!!!!! What planet in David Beggs living in>??!!?

I would love to have a job in Public sector with a Pension. Lets face it, if David begg were running the country we would have failed banks and would need the IMF to bail us out and if the IMF were to be running the country the first thing they would cut would be public sector pay.

Fianna Fail have made a mess of the economy, But its easy for D. Begg to sit on the fence shouting no to everything. Let him run a business in the real world!!

rasper

got the same junk in the post today, it actually really annoyed me , do they really think that the non public sector majority actually support them in their mission to bankrupt the country. of course it looks like Cowen the wimp is about to fold again, so maybe it is best we default and fail and start afresh again

jimmmy

Have to agree with you there. A unionised monopoly who gets everything they want is not a good thing. I remember flying with the unionised Aer Lingus to England in the late seventies and early eighties, and having to pay a few hundred pounds each time for the privilidge. If they had no competition, and unions still had their way, it would be the same only maybe now a thousand or more euro to allow for inflation. A pint was 70 pence back then, a good house fifty grand. They talk about public sector pay now, but nobody can find a country in the world with higher average public pay than Ireland ( 966 euro per week ...ie the guts of 50k : source cso ).
Less than three years gross pay can buy a new 3-bed house down the country : one weeks gross pay will pay for a flight to Australia and several nights B+B thrown in. I understand average industrial wages in America, the worlds superpower, are 41k dollars ( about 27k euro ). Our public services in Ireland have never had it so good and yet they threaten strikes ?

sold

The most amazing thing for me is the sick days they get.

"Average of 11 sick days for public-sector staff, On average, 59pc of all public-sector staff employed in 2007 availed of sick leave, a new report from the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) has shown.The C&AG’s report is based on a survey carried out in 2007 and revealed that the average public-sector employee was absent for just over 11 days during that year."

I work in a private sector, we are 22 people in the team. I would say on average we take 2 days a year (Usually our Boss will see we are not well and send us home). There is no way we would take 11 days average accross the team. taking 11 days means 242 working days lost which is an extra head.

Management say if we are sick we are sick and don't come in, but our honest average days is 1 to 2 a year, for sure not more. I really don't know how the public sector can justify the 11 day average, its simply wrong.

dan_d

That email does not make much sense.
Is that an indication of what's in charge in there?

sceptre

There's already a thread on the ICTU stance down the page. And every second thread seems to turn into a public sector pay discussion, sometimes for little reason, so I suspect it'll be easy to find one.

This thread can stay alive if it doesn't do either of the above. Something different people, otherwise there's already a thread on it. Let's say... by teatime or so.

sold

sceptre wrote: »

There's already a thread on the ICTU stance down the page. And every second thread seems to turn into a public sector pay discussion for little reason so I suspect it'll be easy to find one.

This thread can stay alive if it doesn't do either of the above. Something different people, otherwise there's already a thread on it. Let's say... by teatime or so.

Hi, This thread has nothing to do with the Pay issue, its the Fact the ICTU sent (it seems) a mass mailing to all homes in Ireland calling them to protest against the cuts. I mean they know who their members are, so why just mail them? I find the mass mailing an incredible waste of Money.

So, it it were not for the mailing, I would not have started the thread.

sceptre

sold wrote: »

Hi, This thread has nothing to do with the Pay issue, its the Fact the ICTU sent (it seems) a mass mailing to all homes in Ireland calling them to protest against the cuts. I mean they know who their members are, so why just mail them? I find the mass mailing an incredible waste of Money.

So what's the thread about then? If it's the pointlessness of mailing it out to everyone or the waste of money, neither of those are in your first post. Let me know, edit it explicitly into your first post and I can cull the thread of the irrelevant bits and hence not close it. That's assuming it's not just a general rant. Or if you like, start a new thread, I can close this one. I'm fine with whichever works best for you and I'm happy to facilitate either, as it isn't as clear as you'd probably like.

10000maniacs

Begg will have a job convincing the vast majority of PAYE workers that the Public service doesn't need a good haircut. I got the mails this morning too. Who is he trying to convince?

johnnyskeleton

What's this get up stand up malarkey? They've set up a website designed to get a broad based protest organised, i.e. anyone who has lost their job, got pay cuts, has lost or is at risk of losing their home and pretty much any other gripe to come together and protest.

Sounds great on paper, but in reality the people with jobs and no home will not be in favour of subsidising those with a home and no job, and those with a home and no job will not be prepared to lose their home in order to make Ireland more competitive.

Plus, it seems to me that people who have private sector jobs at the moment are highly unlikely to take a Friday off to protest generally as it is unlikely to achieve anything for them and risks losing them their job.

irish_bob

10000maniacs wrote: »

Begg will have a job convincing the vast majority of PAYE workers that the Public service doesn't need a good haircut. I got the mails this morning too. Who is he trying to convince?

unfortunatley no , this is cynical self serving old ireland , those who have relatives in the public sector will in most cases back strikes to the hilt , irish people love to keep money in the family, they say the ps vote is close to one million when you take in sons , daughters , mums and dads of ps workers

serfboard

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

Plus, it seems to me that people who have private sector jobs at the moment are highly unlikely to take a Friday off to protest generally as it is unlikely to achieve anything for them and risks losing them their job.

I agree with this. Interestingly though, the one in Galway is planned for Friday afternoon, and a lot of private sector companies in Galway finish early on a Friday (having worked longer hours during the week, before you ask).

This is a risky strategy for ICTU. If it is not well attended it will give the government greater confidence to proceed full steam ahead with their budgetary plans, and will give them a stronger hand in any social partnership talks, should they happen.

c montgomery

Got the letter on friday and today i crumpelled it up and threw it in the doors of siptu in connelly hall cork.

Who are these jackasses trying to kid.

Stand up and fight????More like open your eyes and get real!!!!!

I have to add i am a siptu member. I disagree completely with their stance on the public sector.

starbelgrade

Did anyone else notice the small print on these letters? It read "Irish Congress of Trade Unions".... big slogans, big promises & even bigger stickers, but only the teeniest, tiniest mention of who the letter was from or who they are paid to represent. It reminded me of the Fianna Fail posters in the last local elections.

"You can fool some people sometimes,
But you cant fool all the people all the time."

Bob Marley, "Get Up, Stand Up".

To hear David Begg, sitting in his cushy, over-paid job, quoting Bob Marley lyrics, you gotta question his motives. He needs to listen to more than the chorus....

"Preacherman, dont tell me,
Heaven is under the earth.
I know you dont know
What life is really worth.
Its not all that glitters is gold;
half the story has never been told:
So now you see the light, eh!"

Bob Marley, "Get Up, Stand Up".

Dannyboy83

sold wrote: »

Hi, This thread has nothing to do with the Pay issue, its the Fact the ICTU sent (it seems) a mass mailing to all homes in Ireland calling them to protest against the cuts. I mean they know who their members are, so why just mail them? I find the mass mailing an incredible waste of Money.

So, it it were not for the mailing, I would not have started the thread.

It goes beyond that.
It was utterly deceptive.
In the ICTU letter, they never mention the core PS issues.

They instead hide behind a vague claim of protesting against levies and taxes, and the complete absence of job creation and support of indigenous companies.
Some of the points they make are valid, that's beside the issue.

This is a complete departure from their previous position.
This was merely a cynical and manipulative attempt to rally the uninformed irish peasant into supporting the protests ( which are actually most harmful to Irish peon in the Irish Feudal system) ........ thereby swelling the numbers at their protests.
They're hustlers.

rasper

irish_bob wrote: »

unfortunatley no , this is cynical self serving old ireland , those who have relatives in the public sector will in most cases back strikes to the hilt , irish people love to keep money in the family, they say the ps vote is close to one million when you take in sons , daughters , mums and dads of ps workers

thats possibly a very valid and scary quote, answers a lot when I think back on wealthy pensioners and their families moaning about their medical card when everyone else is vetted, explains the amount of muppets talking about the poor teacher, guard and nurse who are being picked on and can't afford to pay their 2nd mortgage or holiday homes.
If theres much truth in that statement which I suspect their is , well we might as well just shut the country down now, coz these type of parasites will bring the finances down anyway , and maybe thats a good thing too

irish_bob

rasper wrote: »

thats possibly a very valid and scary quote, answers a lot when I think back on wealthy pensioners and their families moaning about their medical card when everyone else is vetted, explains the amount of muppets talking about the poor teacher, guard and nurse who are being picked on and can't afford to pay their 2nd mortgage or holiday homes.
If theres much truth in that statement which I suspect their is , well we might as well just shut the country down now, coz these type of parasites will bring the finances down anyway , and maybe thats a good thing too

much of the opposition last year to the medical card for the over 70,s fiasco was from middle aged people worried that thier inherritence would be spent on pills and doctor bills for mammy and daddy

it is a disgrace that a retired garda inspector on a pension of over 500 quid a week can visit thier GP for free when a young couple in thier 30,s with a few kids and a big mortgage have to fork out 50 euro to thier local doc

SeanW

I got that mailing last week. Straight in the bin :mad:

nesf

Meh, free stickers for my three year old to put on stuff. Other than that, yeah I agree with a lot of the above. At least with the IMPACT mailing there was no hiding what they were going to strike about.