Insults, Damn Insults
When you’ve lived deep in the media swamps and swam amongst the alligators of Fleet Street you develop a pretty robust thick skin. So, when, a verbal attack comes at you from the old Lefty Brigade of what used to be laughingly termed, the trades unions, it allows you to ignore the insult and try to understand why it was made.Trades unions have morphed into businesses flexing their muscles to create mayhem and damage, and use this blackmail to get what they want. Gone are the days when many of them represented real trades, or real people who deserved good money for their experience and dedication to their particular vocation. That included nurses and people of that manner, including cleaners, who gave us great hospitals and great treatment that didn’t leave the patients under the deadly shadow of MRSA, C Difficile and the phalanx of target-driven managers and other bureaucratic bugs and similar creepy-crawlies. The lack of pride in work has become a national calamity.
Alan Ritchie, the general secretary of something called UCATT, which was probably called something else before its PR consultants came up with a more media friendly name, read my last blog and said: “It is a pity that Eddy Shah has crawled out from under the rock where he has been hiding, particularly when he spouts such rubbish.”
Well, even the quality of insults aren’t as biting as they were before I went under that rock. And no, I haven’t gone into hiding, just got on with my life like most other people. But some things haven’t changed. Some union leaders, often people who can’t get a normal job and come up through the bureaucracy of dead men’s shoes in these organisations, still think insults and banging on about the useless bosses above them is the way to go.
I would have been more impressed with Mr Ritchie if he’d criticised me by saying we needed apprenticeships and that UCATT was doing something about it. Or working out ways whereby the management and staff actually looked to having a better and more meaningful relationship which benefited both sides. Or looked at improvements in building standards that created cheaper better built homes for the public. Or even speeded up the efficiency with his workforce so not only they got paid better and had more benefits, but there was also an increase in profitability for the company and a more satisfied customer base amongst the public.
If you’d done that, Mr Ritchie, I’d have said ‘well done’ as you stuck your two fingers up at me. Truth is, Mister Ritchie, you’ve become a subscription club rather than an old-fashioned trades union. There are a lot of good tradesmen still working, but without training and proper controls, we will lose the skills that we need in the construction industry. That’s already becoming clear as we see many of the untrained construction workers on modern day sites. Why don’t you stop bleating, get out from behind you desk and do something about that?
In Fleet Street they always said the managements got the unions they deserved. Which made me realise little has changed when I hear Berkeley boss Tony Pidgley leap to the defense of UCATT: “I have a good bit of experience of workers in our industry. Most working in housebuilding are subcontractors or self-employed. They do a good job and work hard.”
I’m not accusing Mr Pidgley of anything, but I wonder how he thinks this cosy relationship will wear with the public, those millions of nameless people like you and me who are taking the financial brunt of what has been happening in our industry.
I wonder if he knows any of the bosses of the 112 companies that have been pulled up by the OFT for fixing land prices. Around thirty seven of these men of character and high-moral principle have plea-bargained for leniency applications, after they’ve been found out breaking the law, and have sold their dinner-table chums down the river. What a brave lot they are.
The truth is these people have formed cartels and hurt us – the people. We pay the bills and it’s time to get rid of bosses who milk the system and workers who shirk and get overpaid by feeding at the same trough as those who are cheating us with their cartels.
Just as there are good workers, there are also good bosses who don’t get involved with these schemes.
I know you’re one of the better bosses Mr Pidgley. Therefore I’d like to see you follow the same approach I advocate to Mr Ritchie. Work together, in a meaningful way, and we might eventually bring down costs, improve product ecologically, improve profitability, build more local companies, build quality affordable homes at all levels and create a really modern construction industry with a fully trained and proud workforce. Then we might get the planning and political support we deserve.
But that won’t happen if you and Mr Ritchie pat each other on the back and tell everyone what a wonderful lot you are. Open your eyes and see the truth. Then let’s get back on track.
By the way, do you know any of those bosses who’re queuing up in the company chauffer-driven Mercedes to spill the beans and snitch on their pals?
With that and the credit crunch we are certainly in for an interesting journey.
Power to the people.
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