Made up name

RE: "They do something about it"

On the other hand....We now produce more cars in this country than ever before. Why? Because Nissan, Toyota and Honda all have huge car plants here, they would rather invest heavily here than anywhere else, why is this? Because they know that if they were to open a plant in France they would not get the level of flexible working they get over here. Its swings and roundabouts, boot is on the other foot, bakers dozens and killing multiple avians with singular minerals or something.

 

RE: "They do something about it"

For flexible working read one-way traffic which is precisely my point - the French / Spanish / Italians wouldn't accept it. I take your point and I suppose, if you're one of those people who now works in a car plant that was built in an area of high unemployment, you're going to be grateful for the work. However, at what price? Lower wages, higher levels of stress, poorer employment protection, "flexible" working and to cap it all the government hands over large sums of taxpayers cash to multi-million pound industries to subsidise these poorer working conditions.

People in this country do complain about those conditions despite their intransigence causing them in the first place which was, mainly, my initial point...

We've gone from the workshop of Europe to the sweatshop of Europe...

 

Re Nissan - Govt had to give a $58.5 grant to get them to

locate in UK, otherwise it would have gone abroad cos wewouldn't join the single currency.

 

RE: "They do something about it"

You try telling that to my colleague Pascal, he's French and as a young software engineer he has to work over here (lucky bugger has best of both worlds cos we let him work from hom, home being Paris) because its all gone Pete Tong over there, unemployment amongst the young is very very high because firms are not prepared to employ them as it costs too much to get rid of them if they are no good. French enrepreneurship is at an all time low, too much red tape, social costs of taking on staff is too high for small businesses and taxation is killing them. As I say, swings and octopusses.

 

RE: "They do something about it"

A software engineer called Pascal - quality!

Any other people whose first name matches the job they do?

 

Again...

I don't dispute what you're saying and the logic of your argument is sound and pragmatic and from the "reality" point of view, very difficult to counter...

However - I leave you with this thought: pragmatism dictates that, in order to secure jobs, costs must be kept to minimum. We were one of the first countries to take this philosophy to the next level - break the unions, create mass unemployment to keep down wages, offer massive incentives to companies setting up shop in this country etcetera.

What you describe about your friend is probably typical in Europe and it won't be long before France have the sort of philosophical revolution we had in the eighties. Now our car-makers make cars for 75% of the wages they made cars for in the seventies (hypothetical figure) - in two decades French car makers will do it for 50%. How then do we attract jobs back to the nation?

The cheapest option, surely, is indentured slaves? My point is competition of this nature is good for only a very small minority of the population (i.e. the rich) - we may be grateful now for the jobs but the situation for semi-skilled, manufacturing workers is getting worse, not better...

I doubt Toyota would suffer too much if we kept the £5 million and paid for a few more nurses or summat, eh?

On the subject of software engineers - the situation is hardly that rosy over here - I have plenty of qualifications but have never worked in the industry due to lack of experience - mainly 'cos it's cheaper to employ foreign workers like your mate (no disrespect intended, by the way). So the competition we're talking about is certainly no good for British workers with IT qualifications...

I always thought it was swings and octopi or octopussies? Bloody octopusses get everywhere...

 

Michael Steinkamp is hardly a looker too...

I can hear banjoes...

 

Pearl, maybe?

That's a definite "in" joke, matey! Reminds of summat Dilbert and Wally would sit about chuckling at!

 

Wouldn't be surprised

If Rebekah Rodgers has others in orbit around her!

God Bless America!

 

good grief, and i thought Barrow was full of munters nt

 

RE: Again...

It wasn't seventies wages that made it expensive to produce cars it was the Union mentality that made them expensive. Strikes, work to rules, no flexibility. They, along with inept management killed the homegrown car industry.

I would guess that workers in Honda or Toyota are skilled and well paid, of all the European countries we have the second highest income per capita - only Denmark beats that. How can we have slave wages and high incomes (and please don't tell me its skewed by a few dozen merchant bankers)?

As for software engineers there are plenty of jobs out there, but you need the right skill set, none of my software engineering pals (I am one too) are out of a job or have ever been unemployed for long.

As for Pascal (and me), well we work in Higher Education, research, he gets paid exactly what everyone else gets paid, in a salary framework agreed with by the unions (I'm a union member too, see, not a Tory), he's not a cut price wage slave.

 

RE: Again...

I've worked for an IT firm - quite a big one, too. Particularly down South a lot of their work was done on the cheap - they made quite a lot of use of immigrant workers whose English (and therefore customer service skills), in particular, was shocking - a bit of a ball ache considering we worked, primarily, through the medium of telephone! We had quite a few complaints but the company rode them out 'cos they were cheap! It isn't a problem with foreigners, by the way, it's a case of they get exploited, we get exploited and vice-versa.

Right skillset? I am a qualified Java Programmer but was never once invited for an interview for a Java job! Admittedly, I have no experience in the that particular section of the industry...

"salary framework agreed with by the unions" - exactly...

Wages are very much skewed by those at the top - I'm thirty-one years old and this September will be the first time I've ever earned the national average wage (it may even have gone up since I last checked!). I've worked (more or less) since leaving school and have a degree. I also know a lot of people just like me. Barnsley has wages well below the national average and is one of those communities that has had to "change its ways" since the eighties - no coincidence there. We have a widening gap between the rich and the poor - much wider, I believe, than anywhere in Europe.

Maybe that "skewing" isn't as big a factor as people like me like to make out (I am biased, I admit) but, factor in the cost of living, and wages aren't all that good...

Never thought you were a Tory, mate - except when it comes the death penalty!

 

RE: Again...

I understand what you mean abot getting a job in IT using your qualifications. Companies want experience, took me ages to get in, once you are in then it's a different matter entirely.

 

It is..

and Whitehaven, Workington and Maryport.

Cockermouth however is full of rare beauties. With only the l'all-ist of accents. Marra.