DIR Return Create A Forum - Home
---------------------------------------------------------
ComeAllWithin (Harlequins Rugby)
HTML https://comeallwithin.createaforum.com
---------------------------------------------------------
*****************************************************
DIR Return to: Everything not rugby related!
*****************************************************
#Post#: 100710--------------------------------------------------
Taking the strike discussion out of the BG thread
DIR By: Kermitpower
Date: December 17, 2022, 3:58 am
---------------------------------------------------------
So, DazzaS asked "why are you on the side of big companies over
the average worker?" to which I responded as below.
The sensible suggestion was made to bring the discussion in here
rather than leaving it to derail the BG thread, so here it is...
let the discussions begin in their rightful place!
1. Because all of these "average workers" screaming for double
digit payrises have no demonstrable increase in productivity
with which to justify them, which is going to increase the cost
of the goods or services their employers sell, resulting in
increased costs to me (and also, ironically, to all those
demanding big payrises) for no additional benefit.
2. Because any of those employers in direct competition with
overseas companies are going to be made less competitive,
meaning a higher probability of job losses, meaning more of my
taxes going on unemployment benefits.
3. Because in the case of NHS workers, they represent over 5%
of the total working population, so giving them the double digit
payrises they're asking for would have a massive impact on all
of us, and I'm thoroughly hacked off with the way they all bang
on about how they all saved the country during Covid, when for
every massively overworked intensive care nurse there were
multiple others sat around twiddling their thumbs because non
urgent care was cancelled, and the money would surely be better
spent getting that care back on track.
4. Because like many "average workers", I'd really like to
retire one day, and when the strikers bang on about the rail
companies, oil companies and others making big profits, I view
that as news to be celebrated! Those big corporations aren't
owned by Monty Burns characters rubbing their hands in glee
whilst they release the hounds on the workers, they're owned
mostly by those self same pension funds whose success will allow
us better standards of living in retirement.
I could probably come up with more if you like?
#Post#: 100716--------------------------------------------------
Re: Taking the strike discussion out of the BG thread
DIR By: KiltedQuin
Date: December 17, 2022, 5:37 am
---------------------------------------------------------
3. Because in the case of NHS workers, they represent over 5%
of the total working population, so giving them the double digit
payrises they're asking for would have a massive impact on all
of us, and I'm thoroughly hacked off with the way they all bang
on about how they all saved the country during Covid, when for
every massively overworked intensive care nurse there were
multiple others sat around twiddling their thumbs because non
urgent care was cancelled, and the money would surely be better
spent getting that care back on track.
[/quote]
I don’t necessarily agree with all your points but you are
entitled your opinion. However I must take you to task on this
one as it’s simply not true that loads of NHS staff not just
nurses sat ‘twiddling their thumbs’ during the pandemic.
Although elective surgery and face to face outpatient work
stopped the staff who usually did this were either redeployed to
other areas or worked and implemented alternative methods. Also
emergency care continued in the same way as before. In my
hospital, most nursing staff who worked in elective surgery and
outpatients were redeployed to critical care, A&E or acute
wards. This applied to all other groups of clinical and non
clinical staff. Remember although our critical care staff were
overworked the number of critical beds tripled or more and they
needed more staff. Also new techniques and treatments needed
more people. Turning a proned patient in ICU takes 9 or 10
people to do it safely and effectively for example.
During the pandemic I never saw a single colleague sitting
twiddling their thumbs but I did see, and experienced myself,
exhausted colleagues, working longer hours than paid for, doing
jobs and activities that were new to them and suffering from the
stress of overwork and patients dying who really wouldn’t
normally have died. And we lost a few colleagues to the disease
as well.
This all against a background of 10 years plus of
underinvestment and staffing shortages.
#Post#: 100721--------------------------------------------------
Re: Taking the strike discussion out of the BG thread
DIR By: Kermitpower
Date: December 17, 2022, 10:03 am
---------------------------------------------------------
Anecdotally, my sister-in-law, a senior A&E doc in North London
who said they were rushed off their feet for a few weeks, but
then saw their work drop massively because practically nobody
was coming in with any of the usual sporting, drunkenness etc
type injuries. She and her team weren't retrained to work on
Covid wards, and had long periods of little to do as a result.
Part of the reasoning for this was that it wasn't necessarily
practical to retrain everyone, nor was there the equipment to
deploy them on if they were retrained.
There were around 2.5m cancer screenings alone missed as a
result of Covid. That's a lot of people not doing their day
job, and many of them - administrative staff and the like -
really wouldn't have much to offer in critical care, would they?
I don't for one second debate that the people who could work in
critical care were absolutely drowning for much of the pandemic,
but doesn't that just underline the point? There are a million
staff in the NHS, not including all those who work for GP
surgeries. If they were all able to be retrained and redeployed
to deal with Covid cases, then there would've been more than
enough staff, given how much of the rest of the NHS shut down,
wouldn't there?
*****************************************************
Page 1 of 1