Thursday 13 January 2011

Cuts Cuts Cuts Cuts

Lots of noise on the TV news tonight about the prospect of 2000 job cuts at Manchester City Council.

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/852653-manchester-city-council-forced-to-axe-2-000-jobs

With union representatives doing the usual thing of complaining that the prospect of job cuts are 'unfair' or 'politically motivated'. The dark, and rather pointless cloud of strike action being mentioned.

I think I've gone on 'the record' before stating my views about strikes. The idea that anyone can think that by not turning up for work, and forcing your employer to find a way to cope without you, that you prove the reason for you to keep your job is just fanciful at best. Short sighted, masochistic and ever so self defeating.

I don't think anyone would be surprised to realise, or indeed care, that I am not any kind of socialist.

Would a union, perhaps suggest to it's members that if they were prepared to see a reduction in pay, or conditions that more of them would be able to keep their jobs ? There is, after all, only so much money to go round, and if you spend your whole time increasing the pay and conditions of the rank and file, all you really do in the long term is make them uncompetitive and unemployable.

Having said that, I suspect that there wouldn't be as much fervour for cuts in levels of management or administrative positions. Surely there are ways in the 21st century that any large organisation can cuts it's costs, increase efficiencies without actually having to shed the workforce ? After all, but the time you pay redundancy money, set up retraining programmes and counselling for those effected, is it not just cheaper to keep these people on in the first place ?

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