From yesterday's Evening Standard:
You quote critics who slam the RMT and TSSA as "greedy" and "unpatriotic" over their Olympic bonus claims. On the same day there are reports that hotel rates in London have broadly tripled for the Olympics. In the interests of balance, would you now print an attack on "greedy unpatriotic hoteliers" holding London to ransom?
Stanley Knill, London N15.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
Reader's Letter Of The Day
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11 comments:
Isn't the difference that the unions (ot their members) are deliberately failing to honour the agreements, in the knowledge that they hold a very strong hand, whereas the hotels are making an offer which is not subject to any such previous agreement.
Of course, if Boris and co didn't foresee that the unions could make trouble at this stage then they are bloody fools.
Mr Knill probably has a reasonable point, if Tube drivers got paid according to the number of people they move from point A to point B - i.e. more money at peak times, less when it's quiet.
One's leveraging supply and demand; the other's taking the piss by blackmail now.
CI, FT, yes of course the Tube drivers are taking the piss. But what is the real source of the extra bargaining power which will briefly accrue to hoteliers, landlords and Tube drivers for a few weeks this summer, prior agreement or not? It is massive taxpayer funded spending on 'the Olympics'.
A lot of landlords/landowners/home owners in that area will benefit permanently from the extra taxpayer funded spending on all the extra transport infrastructure in East London, in the final analysis they are all just collecting rents so they are, as the letter writer points out, as bad as each other - with the difference that the Tube drivers get a one-off extra £500 or something but the land owners etc benefit to the tune of tens of thousands of pounds each.
Anyone who can't see the difference between exploiting a monopoly (train drivers) and a market (hoteliers) is too stupid to be bothered with.
D, anybody who can't see the similarities between the pricing power of the two monopolies (Tube drivers, land owners - of which hoteliers are but one example) is hardly the most intelligent person either.
But what is the real source of the extra bargaining power which will briefly accrue to hoteliers, landlords and Tube drivers for a few weeks this summer, prior agreement or not? It is massive taxpayer funded spending on 'the Olympics'.
Yes, yes......... but one operates according to a contract of employment and one leverages a variable rate according to willingness to pay - which will be great because of all the jollies, politicians, bastards and officials (who in turn will be paid for by us all, in one way or another). I agree with dearieme.
The issue about the taxpayer-funded boondoggle called the Olympics is an interesting backdrop against which the differences play out, because there's nothing can be done otherwise with it. And that's all. How the two groups in their different circumstances react to it is illuminating in showing that the RMT & TSSA are at war with the public.
FT: "the RMT & TSSA are at war with the public"
Yes, they have cheekily demanded bonuses of £10 million or so in total.
But they couldn't have done this if HM Government hadn't decided to spend £13,000 million on the Olympics and related stuff, and methinks that the gains made by landowners will be several £'000 millions.
So if RMT and TSSA are waging guerrilla war with the public (and they clearly are), then what HMG and the landowners are doing is akin to large scale nuclear attacks.
It just shows what a bad idea these non-amateur fully commercialised Olympic Games thingies are.
"Of course, if Boris and co didn't foresee that the unions could make trouble at this stage then they are bloody fools."
It's not as if there weren't exactly the same sort of problem with the last piece of infrastructure with an unmissable completion date - the Millenium Dome.
Bayard
Actually they probably aren't bloody fools. They knew exactly what would happen, but hey, it's only taxpayer's money, isn't it?
Here is a somewhat related story: Olympic housing crunch: "London landlords evict tenants to gouge tourists" ( http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/02/10288441-olympic-housing-crunch-london-landlords-evict-tenants-to-gouge-tourists ).
If only there were a way to get back a portion of the landlord windfall for the public treasury, since the public is the one paying the bills...
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