Tesco Drivers dispute

[MrFrost]

Sorry IDM but I can't really believe you are so naive to believe what you just posted.
How on earth can the people who are being put on the dole by Tesco/Stobarts picket either of their head offices?
They are local people so they want to let local people try and affect the situation.
If everyone stopped shopping at every Tesco store in Doncaster for a week I guarantee every one of those drivers would be reinstated.

Again, how does this give those protesting a right to abuse those walking in and out of Tesco.

On another note, Tesco is building a huge new store in the borough, thus creating more employment for the town.

[Wellred]

So every Tesco driver is hurling abuse at every Tesco shopper? Come off it you know that isn't true.
As for Tesco opening a new store in Doncaster. The only reason they are doing that is they see more £££££££.
So its ok for Tesco to go throwing drivers on the dole as they are opening a new store?

[bobjimwilly]

I might have got this one wrong, so please correct me if I have, but shouldn't the drivers be protesting against Stobbarts as they're the company making drivers redundant? 

[MrFrost]

So every Tesco driver is hurling abuse at every Tesco shopper? Come off it you know that isn't true.
As for Tesco opening a new store in Doncaster. The only reason they are doing that is they see more £££££££.
So its ok for Tesco to go throwing drivers on the dole as they are opening a new store?

I'm not saying every driver is doing it, but it is happening. Do you think those on the end of verbal abuse are now sympathetic to their cause? Absolutely not.

Of course Tesco will be opening a store to maximise profits. Why wouldn't they? They are a business, and the main reason of business to to turn a profit. However they will be creating jobs for over 100 people.

[MrFrost]

Dispute has ended. Feel free to shop at Tesco again.

http://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/business/long-running-doncaster-tesco-drivers-dispute-comes-to-an-end-1-5222722

[NorthNorfolkRover]

Yeah go to Tesco for the cheap prices achieved by bullying the unemployed into working for nothing. Alright as long as its not your family involved. As for Silent Majority seeing helping the Police as staying out of it South Yorkshire Police wouldnt be facing so many enquiries if they did.

[Filo]

Not sure why this has been moved to off topic, I started the thread because it was relevant to Rovers

[MrFrost]

Yeah go to Tesco for the cheap prices achieved by bullying the unemployed into working for nothing. Alright as long as its not your family involved. As for Silent Majority seeing helping the Police as staying out of it South Yorkshire Police wouldnt be facing so many enquiries if they did.

I'm sure they pay the minimum wage.

[AbsolutDRFC]

I might have got this one wrong, so please correct me if I have, but shouldn't the drivers be protesting against Stobbarts as they're the company making drivers redundant? 

Good point Rob.
However what hasn't been mentioned yet; is what salaries the drivers were on in the first place?
Granted it's not their fault, but I wonder if they may have been overpaid relative to the market rates (which is why, presumably, Tesco switched their operations to Stobart; and why we saw these problems).

Although I'm sure there won't have been any complaints at the time.....

[Jenny]

I guess none of you need to worry about it anymore.... Industrial action called off, 200 or so men out of jobs as of now. You can all go to the football on Saturday without worrying that some nasty men will delay you a few minutes.

Merry Christmas one and all!

[jonnydog]

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[GM-MarkB]

I can tell you from personal experience that the Drivers bieng made redundant will have a hell of a job getting what is rightfully theirs from Stobarts. I worked for a company that was bought and within 12 months shut down by them. That was in 2009.....I (and the rest of the people I worked with) got part of my redundancy in August this year after a long battle that included the help of John Mann MP fron Woksop. The second part of my pay off should be coming in January.

[RoversAlias]

I got abuse from some outside our Tesco also. Protest all they like but don't block the road at edenthorpe some of us just wanted to go home. Can someone summarise what's actually gone on with this dispute?  To me the actions of the picketers outside stores have been awful.  No doubt union activists some of them, those guys help nobody.

Rovers for me do the right thing trying to stay out of it and doing as police request.

They have n`t stayed out of it, because they`ve let the scabs park there

Filo

will you stop calling those who more than likely have no choice but go to work because they cannot afford to go on strike.  Its nothing short of ignorant.

No i do not condone the actions of Tesco or Stobart but attacking others at the same level as yourselve for their actions is no way to get any respect from me or the public

A scab is a scab, how else would you describe them?

How old are you? This 'scabs' business is pathetic, always did find it so. I absolutely abhor strike action because of the kind of attitude that it creates in people. Protesting against unfair treatment etc. is fine, but to hurl abuse at people for shopping in Tesco or to call all those who go in to work against the wishes of the unions 'scabs' is appalling. It is abhorrent and is one of the main reasons that I think Ed Miliband's Labour party is one of the most disgusting organisations to exist near power in the world.

[BobG]

Ok. so the Bryant and May match girls should still be covered in phosphorous then?  Jawbones, arm bones, finger bones all being physically destroyed i a stinking mass of putrefaction (and that's no exaggeration either).  Women should still not be able to vote? Christ Almighty! It is ONLY by collective action that anything, anything at all, has ever happened to improve the lot of the working man.

Of course, the abuses of the 'bosses' doesn't involve striking, or abusing locals. But have you EVER wondered just why that should be? And what the consequences of enfeebled collective bargaining might be? Hint: there are quite a number of cracking examples in front of our eyes right now.

You ought to thank your lucky stars Alias. I dread to think where you, me and everyone else on here would be without a century and more of collective bargaining and political power.  No NHS for a start. No safety legislation. No votes for women. No free education. No clean air. F*** me. I'm just gobsmacked by the ignorance and Daily Mail rhetoric on display in your last few lines Alias.

BobG

[Viking Don]

So it's OK to shop to shop at Tesco now is it? Even though all the drivers are out of work next year with a few squids in their pocket and such great employment prospects.

I'm with Filo.

[Filo]

So it's OK to shop to shop at Tesco now is it? Even though all the drivers are out of work next year with a few squids in their pocket and such great employment prospects.

I'm with Filo.

Power to the people comrade VD!

[RoversAlias]

You ought to thank your lucky stars Alias. I dread to think where you, me and everyone else on here would be without a century and more of collective bargaining and political power.  No NHS for a start. No safety legislation. No votes for women. No free education. No clean air. F*** me. I'm just gobsmacked by the ignorance and Daily Mail rhetoric on display in your last few lines Alias.

BobG

Really? I love this attitude, and I have to deal with it all the time. Labour (the MODERN party, not your Clement Atlees and all that) did a great deal to damage this country in recent years and they've certainly done their bit to damage Doncaster. Yet I still have people come up to me and tell me their reasoning behind voting for Labour still is "well my dad does and Thatcher f**ked the miners etc.". It's ridiculous.

What annoyed me here was the high-and-mighty attitude of a section of those protesting. Like I said before - hurling abuse at people shopping in Tesco is not on, and certainly turning mob on those who dare to go in and keep on working to make money for their families is really not right. I make it clear that I'm not on the side of Tesco/Stobart in this dispute, but that doesn't excuse how some on the other side act. This 'scabs' business gets right on my nerves and always has. It always will. Filo's post summed up the attitude of those who use that label by saying "a scab is a scab".

[Filo]

A person that is prepared to cross a picket line to the detriment of the workers with a grievance is a scab in my eyes, just like strike breakers are. If the workers of this Country stuck together during disputes rather than being selfish, the anti union laws put in place by the Tories would n`t be worth the paper they were written on, working conditions would be better, there would be less companies paying the bare minimum and employment agencies would n`t get away with treating people like shit!

[jonrover]

Dispute has ended. Feel free to shop at Tesco again.

http://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/business/long-running-doncaster-tesco-drivers-dispute-comes-to-an-end-1-5222722

I'll never set foot in another Tesco store again thank you very much. Apart from to fill a trolley with a couple of hundreds of quids worth of shopping, have it rung through the till and refuse to pay because of the way Tesco treat their workers, as I did on Saturday at the town centre store whilst the protests were going on.

[jonrover]

Yeah go to Tesco for the cheap prices achieved by bullying the unemployed into working for nothing. Alright as long as its not your family involved. As for Silent Majority seeing helping the Police as staying out of it South Yorkshire Police wouldnt be facing so many enquiries if they did.

I'm sure they pay the minimum wage.

Not heard of WORKFARE. Tesco are one of the main users of this free labour scheme by the Con/Dems.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

A person that is prepared to cross a picket line to the detriment of the workers with a grievance is a scab in my eyes, just like strike breakers are. If the workers of this Country stuck together during disputes rather than being selfish, the anti union laws put in place by the Tories would n`t be worth the paper they were written on, working conditions would be better, there would be less companies paying the bare minimum and employment agencies would n`t get away with treating people like shit!

If it was me I'd be more concerned about my family, my prospects than solidarity with other workers, but that's just me.

My opinion on this is that the decision to simply sack them is wrong, I'm pretty sure they could find them alternative works within Stobart surely? 

But I don't at all think unions help theirselves in these situations (or most situations).  The lorry drivers get huge sympathy from me, but they're simply badly advised.  From what I saw the trouble causing aspects at my local Tesco didn't look like lorry drivers to me (I assume as usual it's the union activists again causing trouble).  They help nobody but their own egotistical views and their concerns don't at all ever seem to be about their fellow workers but focussed solely on their political anti government views.  It seems strange to me that all they could negotiate was a better redundancy package, you'd think they could've negotiated better terms for their members and helped them keep jobs wouldn't you?  I mean you can't tell me Stobart can take over and not need extra staff?

[MrFrost]

Dispute has ended. Feel free to shop at Tesco again.

http://www.doncasterfreepress.co.uk/news/business/long-running-doncaster-tesco-drivers-dispute-comes-to-an-end-1-5222722

I'll never set foot in another Tesco store again thank you very much. Apart from to fill a trolley with a couple of hundreds of quids worth of shopping, have it rung through the till and refuse to pay because of the way Tesco treat their workers, as I did on Saturday at the town centre store whilst the protests were going on.

Bravo.

[Jenny]

A person that is prepared to cross a picket line to the detriment of the workers with a grievance is a scab in my eyes, just like strike breakers are. If the workers of this Country stuck together during disputes rather than being selfish, the anti union laws put in place by the Tories would n`t be worth the paper they were written on, working conditions would be better, there would be less companies paying the bare minimum and employment agencies would n`t get away with treating people like shit!

If it was me I'd be more concerned about my family, my prospects than solidarity with other workers, but that's just me.

My opinion on this is that the decision to simply sack them is wrong, I'm pretty sure they could find them alternative works within Stobart surely? 

But I don't at all think unions help theirselves in these situations (or most situations).  The lorry drivers get huge sympathy from me, but they're simply badly advised.  From what I saw the trouble causing aspects at my local Tesco didn't look like lorry drivers to me (I assume as usual it's the union activists again causing trouble).  They help nobody but their own egotistical views and their concerns don't at all ever seem to be about their fellow workers but focussed solely on their political anti government views.  It seems strange to me that all they could negotiate was a better redundancy package, you'd think they could've negotiated better terms for their members and helped them keep jobs wouldn't you?  I mean you can't tell me Stobart can take over and not need extra staff?

What do lorry drivers look like?

There were quite a few of men in the group of drivers who stood to benefit a lot more than the others due to their length of service etc, yet they stood together why the guys on the pickets and put solidarity before themselves. Its what friends do....

If Stobarts needed the extra staff then they would have never have been made redundant in the first place, they decided that they could staff the depot with their existing workforce. They claimed that jobs were available in alternative roles, barely any of them were in Doncaster, or the surrounding area - realistically there were no jobs there for the vast majority of them to go to.

When their contracts werre transferred from Tesco to Stobarts, they were on worse conditions, lower pay, lower benefits, less pension etc - and then not only did they have to contend with that they also were served with a 90 day notice almost immediately after the transfer. They didn't want to go on strike, its not like they were getting paid for being on the pickets but they were standing up for what they believed in, and that was Tesco & Stobarts selling them down the river.

These aren't all young men we are talking about either, these are men who may find it difficult to find a new job given their age, men who have families, kids and grandkids to support. Don't ever think that they found the decision to strike easily.

It is funny that those who seem to be supporting Tesco/Stobarts are the same ones who moan about unemployment figures and people claiming benefits etc... yet you have a group of men who just want to work and have lost their jobs a few week before Christmas being criticised for standing up for what they believe in. Would you rather they had just taken it lying down and claimed job seekers?!

Some of you wouldn't know what solidarity and compassion was if it come and slapped you in the face.

Aren't we all supposed to be in this together?

[MrFrost]

A person that is prepared to cross a picket line to the detriment of the workers with a grievance is a scab in my eyes, just like strike breakers are. If the workers of this Country stuck together during disputes rather than being selfish, the anti union laws put in place by the Tories would n`t be worth the paper they were written on, working conditions would be better, there would be less companies paying the bare minimum and employment agencies would n`t get away with treating people like shit!

If it was me I'd be more concerned about my family, my prospects than solidarity with other workers, but that's just me.

My opinion on this is that the decision to simply sack them is wrong, I'm pretty sure they could find them alternative works within Stobart surely? 

But I don't at all think unions help theirselves in these situations (or most situations).  The lorry drivers get huge sympathy from me, but they're simply badly advised.  From what I saw the trouble causing aspects at my local Tesco didn't look like lorry drivers to me (I assume as usual it's the union activists again causing trouble).  They help nobody but their own egotistical views and their concerns don't at all ever seem to be about their fellow workers but focussed solely on their political anti government views.  It seems strange to me that all they could negotiate was a better redundancy package, you'd think they could've negotiated better terms for their members and helped them keep jobs wouldn't you?  I mean you can't tell me Stobart can take over and not need extra staff?

What do lorry drivers look like?

There were quite a few of men in the group of drivers who stood to benefit a lot more than the others due to their length of service etc, yet they stood together why the guys on the pickets and put solidarity before themselves. Its what friends do....

If Stobarts needed the extra staff then they would have never have been made redundant in the first place, they decided that they could staff the depot with their existing workforce. They claimed that jobs were available in alternative roles, barely any of them were in Doncaster, or the surrounding area - realistically there were no jobs there for the vast majority of them to go to.

When their contracts werre transferred from Tesco to Stobarts, they were on worse conditions, lower pay, lower benefits, less pension etc - and then not only did they have to contend with that they also were served with a 90 day notice almost immediately after the transfer. They didn't want to go on strike, its not like they were getting paid for being on the pickets but they were standing up for what they believed in, and that was Tesco & Stobarts selling them down the river.

These aren't all young men we are talking about either, these are men who may find it difficult to find a new job given their age, men who have families, kids and grandkids to support. Don't ever think that they found the decision to strike easily.

It is funny that those who seem to be supporting Tesco/Stobarts are the same ones who moan about unemployment figures and people claiming benefits etc... yet you have a group of men who just want to work and have lost their jobs a few week before Christmas being criticised for standing up for what they believe in. Would you rather they had just taken it lying down and claimed job seekers?!

Some of you wouldn't know what solidarity and compassion was if it come and slapped you in the face.

Aren't we all supposed to be in this together?

Again, no one can answer why this gives a right for these protesters to verbally abuse the general public going in and out of Tesco.

My mum went to the town centre Tesco last week, and was verbally abused by those protesting as she left the store. It isn't acceptable, and you lose respect.

[Jenny]

It doesn't give them a right to abuse anyone, and I would be absolutely staggered if this was wide spread.... by all accounts the reaction they have had from the Doncaster public has been fantastic. Don't tar them all by isolated incidents.

It really doesn't surprise me at all that you seem to be aware of such incidents, always seems to be the case.....!!

[MrFrost]

It doesn't give them a right to abuse anyone, and I would be absolutely staggered if this was wide spread.... by all accounts the reaction they have had from the Doncaster public has been fantastic. Don't tar them all by isolated incidents.

It really doesn't surprise me at all that you seem to be aware of such incidents, always seems to be the case.....!!

Incidents were on the Free Press website, and on Facebook, so it isn't hard to be aware of them, and other people who have posted in this thread have also seen it happen, so it certainly isn't an isolated incident.

[Jenny]

It isn't every driver abusing every person who shops at Tesco though is it?

[MrFrost]

It isn't every driver abusing every person who shops at Tesco though is it?

Obviously not, but there shouldn't be any incidents like this. Those who resort to tactics like that, deserve everything that happens to them in my opinion. They are causing grief for the general public and undermining those protesting peacefully. It has nothing to do with those shopping in Tesco, or those working in the Tesco stores.

[Filo]

It doesn't give them a right to abuse anyone, and I would be absolutely staggered if this was wide spread.... by all accounts the reaction they have had from the Doncaster public has been fantastic. Don't tar them all by isolated incidents.

It really doesn't surprise me at all that you seem to be aware of such incidents, always seems to be the case.....!!

Incidents were on the Free Press website, and on Facebook, so it isn't hard to be aware of them, and other people who have posted in this thread have also seen it happen, so it certainly isn't an isolated incident.

Ah the Free Press! not known for sensationalising things are they, and facebook! well say no more!

[MrFrost]

It doesn't give them a right to abuse anyone, and I would be absolutely staggered if this was wide spread.... by all accounts the reaction they have had from the Doncaster public has been fantastic. Don't tar them all by isolated incidents.

It really doesn't surprise me at all that you seem to be aware of such incidents, always seems to be the case.....!!

Incidents were on the Free Press website, and on Facebook, so it isn't hard to be aware of them, and other people who have posted in this thread have also seen it happen, so it certainly isn't an isolated incident.

Ah the Free Press! not known for sensationalising things are they, and facebook! well say no more!

Obviously blind to reality then Filo that these incidents have happened. However judging on your posts, you're blind to a lot of things.