Micheal Gove

[TBLOCKRANGER]

Can't wait for the Chelsea game

[paulmason]

Absolute rubbish, i was a trade union official and a foc we embraced all changes with caution after all you are not going roll over and die are you. What killed Print was very inept management (polestar, St Ives, wynderman, Cooper Clegg) The top management just could not manage inflated salaries and ridiculous bonus schemes.Print managers that needed to know the job and the problems you faced in day to day running large format press's didn't have a clue, Plus you needed to keep the closed shop to maintain skill level, the tories got that abolished. Then you would have had managers who knew what was what as middle manager's would have came from the shop floor. Plus many other factors we could not compete with eastern Europe, China, India, the second generation of kids growing up using the Internet and not buying magazines. The union did not kill print what so ever.

Thank you all is very well. No more Tory bashing back to football

Many people would say the three comments in bold above are linked and trade unions were a major factor in the demise if the UK Print industry, by demanding unrealistic wages, bonuses and working conditions and when the Internet arrived it sealed its fate. How did print houses not associated with unions do, by not having to pay monopoly wages like tripple time on satirdays and sundays ?

[andover66]

Barry Hibberd (Polestar)was the biggest paid executive, I'm talking about executive pay they had massive salaries and bonuses, We agreed a pay freeze for two years, while the management awarded themselves a 15% increase Plus the chairman got a bonus of £300,000 for the second biggest printers in the UK that lost £21 million.The European union gave millions to Eastern European countries to help them come to the forefront in print technology. In the long term we lost the sky magazine, Argos catalogue, all Avon work Tescos direct.These were all UK print jobs that went to Bulgaria and Poland resulting in large scale job losses. Cost was the main factor in some cases printing for up to 60% less than the UK. None Union houses did far worse because of poor skill levels due to labour being hired with out being qualified. Herons springs to mind lost all south bank titles due to poor print and poor perfect binding. Nothing to do with TRADE unions. We never got paid treble time for weekend working. We got paid over time at the correct rate, time and half and double time for Sunday. How ever to reduce cost to the company we negotiated a weekend night shift that was paid a higher wage to work the unsociable hours. You seam to think that being a union member is all about conflict, its all about welfare for your members and most of all collective bargaining. Every time the Tories are in, workers welfare suffers look at what is happening to the poor sod working for agencies.