Unions are an anachronism, a leftover from the steam age. All unions do is provide another, parallel level of management between the workers and the profit.
Disagree with me, union-card holder? What vehicle does your Boss drive? What vehicle does your union-Boss drive? What vehicle do YOU drive? I rest my case.
We have laws to take care of workers these days. In my not even close to humble opinion, we should get rid of unions; they are a parasite living off the backs of workers.
The majority of Fujitsu's 12000 staff are actually field engineers or based on customer sites. these are the staff who are most hit by the redundancies.
now the couple of days work they've been working on for us for the past several months, will take even longer
I hope the spineless bastards I worked with (was IBM, then TUPEd to Fujitsu) have grown a set of cajones to strike. I tried to organise a "blue flu", but everyone was too scared to take the risk. I left there in disgust to a £10k pay increase.
Having spent some time on the inside, I don't believe the majority are "field engineers" nor based on customer sites.
Also, I understand the majority of Fujitsu staff are not union members so what impact is a customer really likely to see from this? Collective bargaining can only hope to achieve if the collective is large enough and, in this case, I don't think the officially represented collective is.
Now that the large contractor base has gone, (which obviously wouldn't have been involved in this action) I wonder if someone in management is thinking they made a mistake culling as many contractors as they could.
With a bit of luck it'll turn into another Royal Mail and FJ will have to take on 30,000 temporary (contractor) staff :-)
Up the workers!!!
Companies could not arbitrarily change working conditions and basically reduce people's pay like fujitsu and the rest are trying to do. Lets not forget that these are the people that have been in the company for many years(10+) who given Fujitsu's crummy payrises even for promotions means that they are earning considerably less than new people bought in on the defined benefit rubbish.
Also highly profitable companies could not just cut 10% of its workforce after giving no payrises and hitting people's pension pots. I never thought I would say this but unions are more essential than ever! I think its good someone is finally making a stand and saying enough if enough.
"Companies could not arbitrarily change working conditions and basically reduce people's pay like fujitsu and the rest are trying to do."
Uh ... They CAN'T. Not unless the folks doing the work are too clueless to have a real contract with the company in question. Which, in theory, the union was supposed to take care of. Right?
Seriously, if there was a real contract (union driven or personal) this wouldn't be an issue.
This is 2009, not 1809 ... Education, people. It's kind of important. Understand whatever contract you decide to agree to ... unless you want it to bite you in the ass.
But whatever, AC 04:27 (may I call you that, or am I being too familiar?), if you want the second, parallel tier of management to make your decisions for you with regards to your contract with any given company, instead of making them for yourself, who am I to argue?
Follow your bliss. But don't gripe at me when your bank balance suffers because you are paying parasites for no good reason.
Jake, Fujitsu employees signed contracts that included DB pensions. The company intend to dismiss all these employees and offer to re-employ them on new, much worse, T's and C's. So how much protection is a contact.
What a shame you chose not to burden yourself with facts. A future in Government beckons.
Education, Jake. It's kind of important
"Fujitsu employees signed contracts that included DB pensions."
Ok. They have a contract. Where is the issue?
If it doesn't include a "fire/lay-off/re-hire under same terms" clause, it's hardly Fujitsu's problem. And again, wasn't the union supposed to be taking care of that kinda thing? Why didn't they? And are any of the union-Bosses going to be losing any money (or sleep!) over this?
I am educated. And my eyes are wide open. Unions are an anachronism, living on the backs of the workers, in parallel with traditional management.