OT French Kettles

[Brian Sharrock]

snip

If I interpret what's being reported and/or not reported in the media correctly ... CG (UK) was originally that portion of BA's flight catering which was hived off with an exclusive contract [and obligation] to continue 'vittling' the BA fleet for a period of years. CG, albeit now acquired by somebody who bought something after Swissair became bankrupt, inherited the staffing structure and overheads of BA's Catering Division ...

Nows there's a strange thing !

We must honour our contract and provide food to BA, else they'll sue us for breach of contract! We are losing money honouring this contract - If we break our contract we'll lose more money. We'll provoke our workers to strike. We'll not fulfill our contractual obligations, but invoke force majeure citing the workers' strike. BA will cancel our contract citing non-performance. Who'll remember the workers, in six months time?

Once upon a time, when I was travelling long-haul frequently, I pondered whether it was possible to waste away on a continuous diet of airline food :)

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

Regardless of your leftie leanings, there is no excuse for that sort of vitriol.

*plonk*

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

Because of trying to deal with the unions who think business is a charity that should be held to ransom?

[Harvey Van Sickle]

On 16 Aug 2005, Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics) wrote

Ok, but of that was the case, why is the company saying that they're willing to re-hire most of the sacked workers? Either they "weren't of any use" or they were of use; take your pick.

If the business is saying "The employees weren't of use yesterday -- so we sacked them -- but, hang on: they're of use today, so we better re- hire them", well that's a bloody incompetent way to run a business.

[Andy Hall]

Quite possibly, and if you need/want a special meal for whatever reason, many are completely unsuitable.

[frgriffin]

[Andy Hall]

Who knows?

I guess that it's called covering the market.

However, I don't imagine Ryanair doing catering for BA any time soon.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But no rent on the premises, etc?

You'll get a pretty decent supermarket sandwich for about half that. And anyone who has priced up one sandwich knows just how much of that is profit. And I'm not convinced there is any extra handling - the factory will be close to the airport (in this case) and should be able to deliver straight to the plane or a central distribution where they are treated much as any other consumables an aircraft needs.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

'Red Robbo' didn't run a union. He was an elected shop steward, and was re-elected by the workforce he represented - however much this didn't suit the tory media.

You think strikes brought down BL?

[Peter Parry]

I believe about half of CAB aided cases fail.

[John Cartmell]

I'm fairly certain that she never said it; but just look at her actions. And look at where she got her support.

[John Cartmell]

The background was the desertion of the government by the Liberal Party who thought they could get more votes out of that desertion in the face of a torrent of lies by the Tory Press. The government had managed to hold down inflation after it had gone through the roof with the previous Tory government but holding down inflation meant keeping your nerve. The Liberals' nerve broke. After the election Thatcher kept down inflation by letting unemployment rip to 4-6million after winning the election complaining that the Labour government might have unemployment over 1 million. And inflation wasn't held down by Thatcher as anyone with a mortgage at that time can testify.

You did. You benefited from government policy promoted by all the Trades Unions.

The pay freeze was imposed to get out of the mess caused by the previous Tory government.

[John Cartmell]

What do you call it if you illegally sack someone and remove their only income?

[Snip]

So theft is OK as long as you offer to return the goods once the policeman arrives on the scene?

[Snip]

[John Cartmell]

Maybe he should have said "*Some* of the IRA were evil bastards."? The statement was possibly a touch severe.

[Peter Parry]

Actually I think it was the Times or Telegraph (or both) where I read it. Apparently the company confirmed the proposal had been considered but dismissed some months ago. The plan did seem to be very similar to what occurred though.

[Geoffrey]

He probably thinks it was because of the miners strike that all the pits were closed.

[Andy Hall]

Which means that the other half succeed.

[Andy Hall]

I'm still waiting to hear confirmation of something in contravention of employment legislation, other than dismissal of people legitimately absent. There has already been an offer to correct that.

[Andy Hall]

I did and I have. I don't find anything selfish at all. I do make a distinction between selfish in the sense of explicitly doing so directly at the expense of others as opposed to being self sufficient.

For some reason, some people confuse the two and automatically equate anything that encourages people to deal with their issues themselves and not through some collectivist arrangement as being selfish.

I don't take that view. I can completely reconcile an approach of sorting things out for myself and not expecting others to do so. Provided that I don't do anything explicitly to the detriment of others, then I think it's a reasonable approach. Moreover, I can't find anything in MT's policies that go beyond that into suggesting to people that they advance themselves at the expense of others.

[Andy Hall]

This of course is nonsense because economic cycles in those days followed a predictable time pattern and it's silly to suggest that things changed more quickly and after an election.

Unemployment figures, in the same way as inflation figures have been manipulated by successive governments of both parties to the point that neither figure has any real credibility. There have been a whole raft of changes over what counts and what doesn't, bogus training schemes to take people out of the figures, new deals and so on.

I don't regard artificial pay restraint as a benefit at all. Furthermore I don't want or need an organisation like a trade union to negotiate things on my behalf. I am perfectly capable of doing so myself, thanks.

Yeah, right....