british jobs for british workers.

[BBKing]

Who should be blamed for this mess???

Why should anyone need to be blamed? Let's hear some constructive policies and some idea of how you can get them into a party's manifesto, then get that party elected, then hold them to it. This may require upgrading British Democracy (tm) to a new patch level, however.

Just blaming Labour, apart from being only half accurate, isn't going to get us anywhere, unless you think the Conservatives are going to hammer the rich, beef up regulators*, improve working conditions and employment rights, nurture an environment of mutual loyalty between bosses and workers and invest in education, then you're just swapping one bankrupt ideology for the same bankrupt ideology in newer suits. If you do think this makes a difference, I suggest you look out for the pigs barrel-rolling over your house.

* Who, lest we forget, form part of the bloatedworthlesspublicsector with 'gold plated pensions' that prominent Conservatives** contrast negatively with the poor hard working wealth-creating bankers for whom we should feel sorry, or something.

** Boris Johnson, of course. See here http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2...boris-pensions and http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standa...ces/article.do

[mr,m]

Never mind,at least there is some hope for British tradesmen lol
http://www.mirror.co.uk/advice2/jobs...5875-21119304/

[papa smurf]

No job unless you're Polish: Biggest Asda meat supplier excludes English speakers as 'all instructions are in Polish'



Forza’s advertisement came as the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report condemned the ‘mistreatment and exploitation’ of foreign workers, who are often too afraid to raise concerns for fear of being sacked.

The commission said it uncovered ‘widespread evidence’ of physical and verbal abuse and lack of proper health and safety protection, while workers often have little knowledge of their rights.

It is also reported that British workers had spoken of difficulty in registering with employment agencies that supply mainly East European workers.

Shadow Immigration Minister Damian Green said the advert exposed the hollowness of Gordon Brown’s pledge to create ‘British jobs for British workers’.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...#ixzz0i9DADHIC

[Stuart]

The problem is cost. You can argue all you want that you want british workers, but would you pay for it?

The cost is partly justified. It *is* incredibly expensive to live in this country, and it's going to take a major change in the economy to change that. I personally believe that change would be for us to STOP regarding property as an investment, which is driving people to get larger and larger mortgages, thus ensuring that they need to earn more to pay for them, and for a longer time. It also drives house and land prices up, which increases both mortgages and costs for business. This, together with increased wage demands (to cover increased mortgages and other increasing bills) and the increased costs for business drives prices up.

Now, whether we can afford the increased cost or not, most people would, given two products/services that are identical apart from the fact that one involves foreign labour and one that doesn't, go for the cheapest, regardless of whether it came from the UK, India or any other up and coming country that is cheaper than India so is about the usurp India as the supplier of service/products.

That idea runs through the whole country so, even if you do practice the idea of buying entirely british products/services, the companies who provide them probably don't, so will buy their parts or other services from other countries.

[Jimmy-J]

I knew I should have carried on taking them Polish language lessons! Oh well, What's the chances of some people on Job Seekers Allowance finding themselves working along side the Polish for £50 a month when they get picked to "Work for Your Benefits".

Basically, it's all about greed, selfishness and who can make the most money for themselves and the share holders, **** everyone else.

I visit uk factories as part of my job.

Many employ 'foreign' workers.

The consensus seems to be that the 'foreign' workers tend to turn up for work, do what they are asked, don't whinge, or fight each other or their managers.

that isn't to say 'native' employees can't achieve the same standards, just to post an opinion that people expecting to be 'owed a living' may struggle in comparison?

[Nugget]

Originally Posted by gazfan

I visit uk factories as part of my job.

Many employ 'foreign' workers.

The consensus seems to be that the 'foreign' workers tend to turn up for work, do what they are asked, don't whinge, or fight each other or their managers.

that isn't to say 'native' employees can't achieve the same standards, just to post an opinion that people expecting to be 'owed a living' may struggle in comparison?

Very good point. I manage 21 staff - ignoring the 3 QA supervisors and 3 raw materials guys, I have 10 on the morning shift, and 5 on the backshift.

Of the 5 on the backshift, 4 are Polish and 1 is English (and she's a temp) - I have absolutely no problem with any of them, and can happily leave every evening knowing that the job's going to be done but, if there are any problems, they'll ring me to let me know.

By contrast, of the 10 morning guys, 2 are Polish and 8 are English. You would not believe the amount of bitching, complaining and moaning that comes from them, and the majority is from the English staff. There's also the fact that most of the sick leave taken by them is by the English staff and, frankly, I'm happy that I've got the Polish guys to cover us

[Osem]

Yet another of those catchy New Labour slogans, the foundation of which is based in lies and spin.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by piggy

agreed, but the offshore call-center worker is niether best or paying tax in this country.

Would you mind my asking:

- where was your car built?
- where was your TV built?
- where were your PC components made?

I'm almost certain that the answer to all of those questions is 'not in the UK'. I don't see any distinction between you using foreign services for those things and using foreign services for customer support.

By the way, 'center' is American English. We spell it as 'centre' on this side of the Atlantic. British spelling for British websites, please.

[rogerdraig]

hmm

that's not quite the same i would happily buy British or made in Britain on all those but its not as simple as that the car maker you want a car from may well manufacture some models here but maybe not the size or type you want but if every one started buying only from here and those abroad only bought from their country soon those jobs would likely end up disappearing from both countries

where as foreign call centers :P are just about reducing costs to push up profits and are taking away from British jobs ( and only mean that in the sense of jobs available in this country and not that they have to be only given to people who qualify under the old rules for BNP membership )

[Chris]

Originally Posted by rogermevans

hmm

that's not quite the same i would happily buy British or made in Britain on all those but its not as simple as that the car maker you want a car from may well manufacture some models here but maybe not the size or type you want but if every one started buying only from here and those abroad only bought from their country soon those jobs would likely end up disappearing from both countries

where as foreign call centers :P are just about reducing costs to push up profits and are taking away from British jobs ( and only mean that in the sense of jobs available in this country and not that they have to be only given to people who qualify under the old rules for BNP membership )

It's more similar an argument than you think. Nobody sells into the UK market without employing at least someone here to handle sales and marketing operations. Wherever whether the company is UK based and offshoring some of its operations, or foreign based and simply selling into the UK, there are always both domestic and foreign workers involved.

My main point is, I don't think we can afford to be selective about our principles. The TVs, cars and computers we all used to use were once all made here in the UK. Now, for the most part, they aren't. And it's all for the same reason - the foreign stuff is cheaper and often better. Our manufacturing sector disappeared overseas, and now our service sector is following it.

My dad made this same 'Buy British' argument about cars, because he couldn't stand the thought of such vast amounts of household spending going straight into the pockets of a foreign company. As a result we always had BL vehicles, and therefore we were often without a car at all as they seemed to spend so much time in the garage.

[rogerdraig]

i would still disagree with the call centre being the same but will agree on the BL cars lol

but a lot of the not buying British or British made is down to no one really advertising stuff that comes in that category as such if they made more of an efort to inform they may be pleasantly surprised

i doubt anything will bring manufacturing back but we can limit what goes if we know what it is

doing my bit lol still have a milk man use my corner shop at least once a day and will buy local produced food where its labelled as such or where they make it available to me ( i am sorry but i am not doing what my mum used to and buying a pig then cutting it up my self lol ) but i do go to local butchers but will also buy the uk labelled meat in tescos

[martyh]

As i see it the days of British workers in British jobs are over they will never return .That is not "defeatist talk" imo It's just progression .We are going through a development from many nations constantly at war, be it a military one or a trade one ,to what is ultimately meant to be a single nation working together for the benefit of everyone .Now us "oldies" (me included)are probably a bit stuck in our ways and yearn for the glory days of British supremacy when we had the best workers and the best products and taught the rest of the world how to be civilised, but in 50 or a 100yrs time our grand kids will look at these times and see them for what they are ,a pain in the backside for us going through this transition but ultimately the right thing to do ,otherwise we would just have a bunch of countries at war with one another ,never working together unless it's for a more powerful countries benefit and so holding societies development back and never progressing

this is just my view and may not make much sense to some but i know what i mean

[Rainman]

We have to protect our British industry for British workers.
Don't forget the British workers now owns 90% of RBS because the Admin:edit lost all our money mostly investing abroad. Now RBS used the British tax payers money to help Kraft to buy Cadbury's only to shut it down. The very workers who paid tax to bail out RBS that lent Kraft the money to buy Cadbury lost their jobs.
And those British workers tax money paid to open a new factory in Poland.
We must be Admin:edit mad


Admin edit (Chris): The forum swear filter is there for a reason, please do not try to circumvent it with selective use of *s.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by rogermevans

i would still disagree with the call centre being the same but will agree on the BL cars lol

I disagree. Why? Simple. The main reason for not using Western labour is cost. Companies (be they Sky, VM, any of the banks etc) outsource their call centres because it appears cheaper. Car manufacturers tend to move production to countries where it is cheaper. Beyond the obvious physical differences, it is actually the same concept. Why do you think a lot of manufacturers are looking to build factories in China? It isn't because they are trying to help the Chinese. Why do you think Ford Dagenham has largely closed down and Ford have moved production of the cars it used to produce to eastern bloc countries? Because it is cheaper.