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The Daily PollA PROPOSAL TO introduce debt forgiveness for mortgage-holders unable to meet their home loan payments has today gained more traction and support.
Constantin Gurdgiev has further reiterated his support for mortgage debt relief, following fellow economist Morgan Kelly’s calls for a similar measure last week. Housing super junior minister Willie Penrose has also said that he thinks it’s a good idea.
What do you think? Should mortgage debt relief be introduced?
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Tesco claims the older contracts impede their ability to compete yet it’s such a small percentage of their workforce on these contracts doesn’t make sense , they should honour the terms of their employees contracts and stop all this nonsense, prob some senior manager refusing to back down in order to save face !
@Mrs M:
It makes sense if you’re manufacturing a conflict to try and break the power of the unions as Tesco are with their “Operation Black” strategy. If successful they will then move unopposed to degrade the terms and conditions of their entire workforce. Solidarity with the Tesco workers, firemen,, Bus Eireann workers, nurses, healthcare support staff, teachers and all workers fighting to defend themselves in the Ireland of the bondholders, vulture, funds, corporate tax dodgers and corrupt cops.
“Operation black” had a very clear strategy – make sure Tesco Ireland is in the black (not losing money). There is absolutely nothing in it to do with unions, or any other worker’s rights, purely to stop making a loss. As is obvious, the pbp know zero about running a business, that would be three options – reducing headcount, reducing costs or increasing prices. The last one is not viable in the Irish market, so it off the first two they are trying to reduce the unsustainable costs associated with legacy quinnsworth contracts. So, unfathomable as it is, what would you Union supporters think should be fine to keep the Tesco Ireland viable to the people that own it?
Gulliver Foyle are you really so naive as to think Tesco Ireland are losing money? The parent company are trying to maximise profits pure and simple. Their turnover is down and will continue to go do until they accept what they are trying to do is wrong. Most people starting a job will sign a contract and are expected to honour it as are their employers.Tesco are peddling fake news as was plain to see with the adverts taking out in yesterday’s newspapers.
What profit are they making in Ireland, Paul and what fake news are you on about?
@Skimothy:
Tell us more. Are Tesco Ireland making a loss and running their stores here as a public service?
@Gulliver Foyle:
The AAA and PBP understand that “running a business” is always about the maximization of profit through the exploitation of labour. That’s how the system works. Tesco will be here as long as they can extract profit so you needn’t concern yourself with the welfare of the vast multinational.
@Skimothy:
Tesco Ireland profits are estimated at €200-250 million.
If they dispute this figure, let them publish their accounts for Ireland instead of using the usual financial 3 card trickery to hide how profitable our “Treasure Island” is for the corporate parasites.
I can see the headlines now, “Capitalists in Capitalism Horror!”
@Damocles:
We’ve already seen that headline when Oxfam released their data showing that the 8 richest individuals on the planet now have a combined wealth greater than the poorest half of humanity, 3.6 billion people.
@Dusty Mooney:
Colm MacLiam,
you are Certainly not a good example for school children. Another Wannabe school Teacher trying for the Dail.
Three times you have gone for election and three times you have been rejected.
Does that not tell you something? Do the hard working low paid workers who read this site know that you are of the privileged class, a school teacher with 5 months holidays, fat pension when you hang up your shoes, and spend your time on here instead of teaching class? I am aware it’s “now” mid-term. but it’s not always”mid-term”, now is it?.
And your condescending comment: Your dismissed, typical, think your holding class.
@Dusty. I never made any claims so don’t need to back them up. All you’ve got is a guess, no facts.
@Gulliver Foyle: Chase Tesco out of Ireland by boycotting them, no doubt they are importing people to work for their awful terms and conditions and Dunne’s Stores are no different either. Anyone who insists on employing people on low/no hour contracts should be avoided. The are just as guilty as ripping off many of their suppliers.
@Alan Cooke:
Micheal Noonan,
You’re certainly not a good example to the children what with inviting in the vulture funds who throw families and children in the streets and hounding dying women through the courts to deny them justice.
And as before. I’m not Conor McLiam. You haven’t even got the county right never mind the individual. But thanks for supporting the AAA with your logo. Keep it up whispering Mickey :)
I actually started to compose a sensible response to Billy/Wally/Willy/Timmy/Dusty/Rusty/Musty/Busty/Uncle Tom Cobbleigh and all Mooney. Then I stopped myself.
@Damocles:
You think such obscene wealth inequality is “sensible”? The only sensible response is to consider how to reverse the system which produces such undeserved riches at one pole by imposing abject poverty at other.
7 of those 8 billionaires are self made, started with nothing but their wits and made huge pots of money. You want to punish success.
Great to see the reaction of the consumer to these strikes! Well done!
@Damocles:
Were you not able to stop yourself?
Their “success” as you call is always achieved at the expense of the majority. So for example Carlos Slim’s fortune was made on the back of the privatization of Mexico’s telecoms infrastructure much the same as our own telecoms billionaire here Denis O Brien.
@Damocles:
And even the richest capitalist Bill Gates understands that his fortune made in IT is thanks largely to the research and development undertaken by the public sector.
“Since World War II, U.S.-government R&D has defined the state of the art in almost every area,” Gates said. “The private sector is in general inept.”
http://usuncut.com/climate/bill-gates-only-socialism-can-save-us-from-climate-change/
So the Internet itself (TCP/IP) was not developed by private enterprise. It was created by the U.S Dept of defense and assorted other U.S government agencies and universities. After decades of research and development in the public sector, the powerful new communications technology was following market dogma handed over to the private sector to be exploited for profit.
As I said, absolutely 100% clueless about business and economics. Probably looking at his council house window in envy at his “capitalist” (anyone who tries to improve anything) neighbour painting his fence to look better (or “for profit”), while digging his nails into the holes in the ctrl, c & v keys. Trying to get left-fanatics to understand long term employment systems is like getting a Bible basher to understand science – they know there is something to figure out, but just can’t understand how to make the first step.
@Gulliver Foyle:
If you understood anything about economics you would know that the macro economy is circular. Business in general wants its customers to have as much money in their pockets as possible to purchase their products and services and generate revenue and profit. In contrast, each individual firm wants to pay their workers as little as possible to reduce costs in order to maximize profit. But in the macro economy, the workers ARE the customers and this glaring contradiction is lost on the slavering neo liberals like yourself eternally demanding wage cuts and ‘flexibility’ such as zero hour contracts in the labour market. The compulsion of each individual capitalist enterprise to maximize its profits tends to undermine the economy as a whole. So if Tesco succeeds in undermining their worker’s wages then it will inevitably damage the broader Irish economy as 14,000 people will have less to spend in other shops etc.
It’s always aggregate demand and spending through the whole economy that ultimately creates and maintains jobs. Someone’s spending is always someone else’s job and income as the macro economy is circular. It is the aggregate spending of everyone in the economy, public, private, individuals and businesses that maintains and creates employment. We have seen the result of slashed government and private sector spending over the past 8 years of Austerity reflected in our massive dole queues, planes full of emigrants and mounting social problems such as the homelessness crisis. Now as first step, have think about the reality of the macro economy as described.
So blame the company and not the people who work for them and have a choice .
@dusty. Why are they “undeserved riches”?
@Kieran Jones:
No individual deserves to have say a $50 billion fortune as that money was accumulated through the exploitation of others. On the flip side, no child deserves to die of malnutrition in a world where the working class has produced enough food to provide for everyone. Capitalism by its very nature inevitably produces those 2 extremes and so needs to be replaced.
@dusty. What about the rich individuals who dont exploit their work force?
@Kieran Jones:
All capitalist fortunes are accumulated through the exploitation of the working class directly as workers or indirectly for example through the parasitic finance sector, corporate tax dodging etc etc. The obscene wealth at one end is achieved by denying people their rightful share of their labour and resources of planet and their at the other end.
@Skimothy: Google it. Tesco Ire. are making loads of money. There’s a multitude of articles there showing Tesco are doing well.
Or maybe Google are peddling fake news.
@dusty. With political views like that thank ***k your lot aren’t in charge !
@Dave I shouldn’t have to google it. Why can’t people just back up their claims. Anytime I ask for this they disappear.
@Kieran Jones:
It’s not a simply a view. It’s the objective reality of how capitalism works. And imagine the working class being in charge and not allowing children to die of malnutrition in Africa or be thrown out of their homes in Ireland to enrich the vulture funds. You keep voting for FF, FG, Labour and bogus Independents though and wondering why things don’t change……….
@Skimothy: You’re asking for the information. Use it either to refute the claims, or say sorry.
@Dave if you make a claim you need to back it up. It’s not up to me to prove it wrong. Fool.
Dont want no commies in charge, or people who spout clap trap like that Dusty !
@Gulliver Absolutely, when you see the looney left (mis) quoting Bill Gates, then you know you’re in Alice in Wonderland territory.
When is a contract not a contract? When it’s a Tesco contract!
The contract is fine, they are trying to renegotiate it as the contract is no longer viable for one side. No one has been found in breach of the contract. Try to imagine any other contract that doesn’t have a term for renegotiation? Your phone contract? A business contract to supply services? What is missing from these superquinn contracts is any change of circumstances, and any annual review like in all modern contracts. If a company loses billions, it will impact how the business is run… The inflexibility here is putting the majority of employees at risk (by mandatory redundancies of all employees in the small number of stores affected) to temporarily enrich a small number of employees. A pyrrhic victory, if any, if this strike goes on.
Sorry, I meant quinnsworth. I almost forgot the name of the company that this contract was with, it was that long ago.
@Gulliver Foyle: Also includes Crazy Prices.
Let Tesco publish their profits in Ireland. They have refused to do this since setting up here.
What difference does it make?
Likewise for Aldi,Lidl, Dunnes, while Supervalu do exactly CV what Tesco do and hide their Irish profits under their UK accounts. They are all as bad as each other when it comes to hiding their profits or mistreating their staff, however a lot of people just like to stick the boot into Tesco, simply because they’re British.
Tesco are spawn of Satan
Yes, the spawn of Satan that gives us low cost high quality foods and creates 5000 jobs.
I’d leave out high quality there, it’s not exactly M&S!
In fairness Kevin their horsey burgers are free range.
What about all the town centre businesses they decimated,we dont need anymore of these out of town shopping centres,tesco should leave ireland,happy days and stop poisoning people with rubbish.
Far better to have 5 paddy powers in every town damien or pubs.
@kevinhunt101:
I would also leave out low cost
More slanted reporting. Not one mention of the possibility that workers are voting against strike because they can’t afford it? I bet you in principle they support the strike but in this wonderful “recovery” we are in, it is not for everyone. Maybe you could try being a real journalist and do a bit more digging before to spout your masters garbage propaganda
@BERTIE: Or you could delete the app and go elsewhere, if you’re not happy with free content.
Fifa, you my friend are a langer
Their food is shit anyway. Fruit and veg goes off real quick and their ready meals are poison.
Aldi produce is excellent and their staff seem happy and friendly.
@Peter McGlynn: Happy days, why don’t you give us some examples of what makes Aldi better to shop instead ofjust saying they seem friendly.
It’s just my experience. Staff are easier to find for queries. No quibble when returning items. Friendly smiles like you get in M&S.
Produce wise I think their meats like their fruit and veg are top quality, items are easy to find.
If you’re looking to bake a special cake or an exotic meal from scratch they might not be the best.
I do still shop at Tesco but only if convenient. Another thing I don’t like is their self service check-outs – every third time I use them it seems something isn’t priced so assistance needed.
Are you insane. Do you know a single person working for Aldi. The money is poor band they work themselves Into the ground on split shifts. Tesco has a lot to answer for but Aldi is no better. On another point, food that stay fresh for longer are generally full of chemicals so if that’s what you want to eat then by all means go ahead.
@ChuckE: Not insane fella. I suppose a big factor for me in choosing Aldi is that whenever I’m in Germany Aldi is everywhere, in affluent and regular areas. There is a perception here because of marketing that Aldi is somehow poorer quality but if that’s the case why would Aldi be so universally popular in Germany and elsewhere on the continent.
As I said Tesco has it’s positives but even in UK when I lived there I’d sooner shop in Sainsburys/Aldi – talking about food quality and service now…
@ChuckE: Aldi start off pay is 11.50€ per hour, and yes they work hard, but why shouldn’t staff be expected to actually work?
I shop in aldi lidl because they don’t have self service check out. more employment. also 70 cent bags are a rip off
Patrick Gough I take it you don’t fly Are Lingus and Ryan air when you go on holidays them??
@Peter McGlynn: Why are so many fighting over brand loyalty? We don’t either Tesco or Dunne’s unless nobody else something we need and that will stay until they stopped ripping off their staff and suppliers
These pre 1996 workers are guaranteed big fat redundancies regardless. A lot more that us average will ever get working in a supermarket. And here they have the poor youth picketing with them who have young families and big mortgages. I guarantee you if it was the young workers sticking for better pay but pre 1996 stay on their big wage, the pre 1996 would not be striking with them.
I was thinking the same thing.
Somehow I have bad feeling that the youngsters are picketing so that the older employee’s could retain their much higher salary’s and much better benefits.
It would be interesting to see the differences between the pre-1996 and the new contracts to see what the fuss is all about.
Im bit curious thou why the looney left doesnt scream discrimination when two groups of employee’s are getting different pay for the same job?..
Keep her lit! Dont let the fcukers divide you!
Yes… this is terrible and we all need to come together and support Tesco in this onslaught against their business… get out there and buy Tesco products.
@Emma O’Neill: They dont need your support. Are they strapped for cash and need help. Poor Tesco, every little helps.
@Brendan Mason: Yes they are Brendan, Tesco Group were on the verge of bankrupcy up until very recently. Standards and Poors had reduced their shares to junk status. If Tesco decided to pull out of Ireland tomorrow and only pay statutory redundancy it’d be more than these strikers deserve.
The Greedy get richer and the workers suffer the strike has to succeed
Just a question, why did mandate not do a national vote on strike action rather than individual stores. Shot themselves in the foot there I think.
I normally don’t support strikes and I will keep shopping in Tesco but Tesco got themselves into this over 250 employees, on a payroll of thousands, all of which are more than halfway through their maximum career.
Foolish on Tesco’s part.
This strike s defiantly hurting poor Tesco, we use the home delivery service and the regular drive told us two weeks ago that he would likely be on strike, you could see he was up set / worried about it so in support of him we haven’t used Tesco since. Email from Tesco this week offering free delivery and €10 off plus other offers on products we regularly buy – but these offers have to be used before the 1st March. If the strike is still on it will go unused.
As I said before I dont support the manor in which the unions in Ireland now operate. €100K plus salaries for Jack O’ Connor and Liam Doran to appear on the TV with a sad face and telling a poor story. Union leaders do not live in the real world. But for poor staff to go on to a picket line for no pay and in this weather you would have to feel they believe in what they are fighting for. As its only for 250 staff I cant understand way Tesco do give in on this issue, it cant be costing them that much, guessing less than €3 million a year, I would guess they are losing that in profits per day at the minute with these strikes.
I believe it’s only costing them €700,000 a year.
@Brendan McGill: If that is all then Tesco should just settle this dispute as I would safely say they are losing multiples of this per day while the strike is on. That’s without the ill feeling and bad will that will build up among both staff and customers the longer this strike is running for.
The thing is Anthony this isn’t only about saving 700,000 for Tesco, they’ll be going after the pre 2006 contracts next.. Effectively they want a race to the bottom.
And what will they go after in those contracts?
Does anyone else smirk in a somewhat juvenile manner when the hear the word “Mandate”, or is it just me?
Just you and six others currently. 11 have no or a better sense of humour according to latest running.
At least I’m not entirely alone. Being a bit juvenile occasionally isn’t a crime, at least not yet.
Just keep that type of humour away from the school toilets thread, Larissa’s on the warpath and will rip the head off ya!
Damocles Ihave a little smirk when I read mandate aswell. And i don’t know why but I also have a giggle when watching Barcelona play and the commentator says Untitti
Sainsbury should set up here and compete with Tesco. They are treating their workforce very bad and have done irreversible damage to their reputation in Ireland. They really should have honoured those long term employees contracts. It wasn’t going to cost them that much with the huge profits they are making.
Can we get a journal fact check on that mandate claim of 2000… it seems odd, almost unbelievable they managed to get such a round number.
It’s a load of rubbish. 20 stores on strike means an average of100 per store. Alot of the stores wouldn’t have 100 staff in total plus the fact that some staff are still going to work. Jus more lies from mandate.
I work in Tesco and have seen why type of contracts they are on. They have cushy hours with no flexibility along with thousands in bonus each year on top of their very high wage.
I won’t be going on strike in their name. They’ve had it pretty good all these years.
I don’t support contracts being changed but they are 20years old. Most contracts are redrawn every few years. I won’t be loosing my wages over their dispute
100% support the Tesco workers. Keep going.
Tesco are one of a few companies whom have a consolidation act recruitment contract. This is a hangover from the British Consolidation Act of 1992 which was opposed by big business. Tesco suppliers were all in trade unions in 1992 so they pulled a stunt they made it part of the employment contract that you had to be part of the tree union when you took up employment whethether you wanted too or not! They deduct your union sub from your wage each week and at first offered great union perks like cut price holidays share options and such. Once they got the public hooked and suppliers in their pockets they set about de unionising their suppliers and stakeholders…Voila the scam worked classic reverse psychology.. The workers never blinked and when their colleagues realised they were getting nothing for their union sub apart from a floor walker whom they bought off in most instances over time the EU courts ruled it was a violation of human rights to be forced into a trade union. The trade union leadership were given extraordinary power lobbied for by the food corporations and didn’t keep their eye on the ball ..is SIPTU instructing and attempting to dictate wage and pension policy. The unions whom were given this power let it go to their heads and when the old brigade sussed something was not quite right in that the captains of industry were giving in far too easily,they raised this concern and were sidelined by the superiority complex s of their new colleagues a quality they were identified and groomed to hold such positions. So with the superiority complex s all in place s of seniority the corporations could do what they liked as not if but when they started stealing from the people the superiority complex s ( which is a medical condition like aspbegers) would never contemplate it was happening on their watch So these people from the unions to the government were handpicked recruits and bankrolled into these positions for the simple reason that they possessed average talent however had that one characteristic that corporate psychological people typing recruiter’s look for a character flaw\ medical condition and that’s why they are all in this confusion at present and it will be quite difficult to bargain with them now all these ego shave been dented. Buyer beware!
Shop Irish buy Irish
They’ve robbed us ever since they took over Quinnsworth. No Irish supplier like dealing with them but they have to. Even their employees don’t like them.
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