*Workers want to have weekends to be with the kids and Friends.
For half a century ,more, overtime is what it is called.
Penalty rates for imposing on free time.*

Belly, you remain totally confused on the points that I am making.
I have said nowhere, that unions don't have a role to play. I have
said nowhere that workers should not be paid a reasonable wage or
even a bit extra for working weekends. But I put to you a case,
where union power and ignorance is costing workers money, here
and today. Your response, you try to preach history to me.

Belly, we live here and today. Union leaders are hardly the sole
owners of intelligence or fairplay. We need win-win solutions,
not lose lose solutions, like the one that I have described.

Its when union leaders obtain more power then they have brains,
that we land up with these disasters.

I had to smile recently, when one of your AWU leaders went to the
press, claiming the evils of fly in fly out for miners. His own
workers shot him down in flames in the comments, telling him they
were not about to move their families into the 40 degree heat and
flies of the mines, to get real.

The women I am mentioning would most likely be quite happy to
earn 30 bucks an hour for weekend work. They are casual workers
anyhow, not full time workers. Yet union stubbornness that they
should be paid double or nothing at all, means they get nothing
at all. That is our difference Belly. I talk about here and
now with real people, you preach about history and much as I think
that you are a nice bloke, in this case you are clearly wrong.

Open your mind yabby to the other side, yes I did introduce history.
I Wanted to underline the simple truth ,we change, but some of us drag past wrongs along with them.
The basis for penalty rates is set by other than unions now.
Do you want ,truly, an end to weekends?
Socializing, family time, sport need weekends.
Do not blindly blame unions for your highlighted problems.
As a once interstate truck driver let me tell you, almost no such workers are even in a union.
A almost every boss in such places hunts for and employees folk on social security while under paying them.
These criminal bosses are the loudest in screaming about wages.
How many, show me one,do not charge surcharge on holidays.
Fact is very likely that person was not even born when penalty rates first came in.
Some unions are wrong, some bosses too, the hospitality industry is as bent as any and that is the other side to your mates complaint.
Want to fix it?
Tell me how.
But think on this, next stimulus package instead of wasting it our government could reduce tax on hospitality industry over time to compensate for low wages already paid.

pelican:>> We are doing well financially and spent less this year than previous years because we are more interested in increasing our nest egg and saving money.<<

Pel we spent less than last year because the banks tightened credit, I don't know of any pleb who has decided, "this year I will save money". Our national household savings was 18% of GDP thirty years ago and now it is struggling to hit 2% of GDP. Australian households have not saved money in the last twenty years. Our disposable income has dwindled because of "fixed costs" going through the roof.

The fixed costs I mention are food, fuel, utilities, telco, government charges and taxes. Why I mention this is regarding our ability to save that nest egg. Thirty years ago the suburban pleb took home $200 in the hand and the nothing special suburban house was $34,000. Thirty years later the plebs take home is $600 and the same house now costs $340,000. Wages went up 300% and house costs went up 1000%.

Thirty years ago we had twenty grocery chains, some chains were national and some were state based. Now we have two, Woolies or West farmers, take your pick. These same two duopolies control petrol pricing along with the retail liquor industry in Australia.

Pel we have no chance of saving a cracker when the triopoly of the banks and the duopoly of the mass merchants have no competition. My current beef is the disappearance of Australian food items on the grocery shelves, these bastards that have our market cornered are now importing the majority of crap they sell to us. Are there no Australians for Australia left, the plebs are simpletons but where have our pragmatic and Aussie biased statesmen gone? A generational change I believe, I hope it changes back.

pelican :>> We also have become more aware of buying 'things'. Things are not important but spending time with family and friends and living with less emphasis on material goods. We are not unique in this I think, this movement away from mindless consumption is growing.<<

Yabby tried to blame our current situation on ourselves as well, Pel I will say to you what I said to Yabby. Today I could take $5000 and buy a washing machine, dryer, microwave, fridge, TV, DVD, music center, and computer and that is about the extent of our indulgent consumer spending, the rest goes on food petrol rent/ mortgage and transport.

Yabby:>> Next we'll be hearing moans and groans on OLO, about part time unskilled workers not able to find enough work.<<

Yabby you and Belly were discussing a roadhouse in the middle of no where and you have the hide to use it as marker to the plethora of jobs available if you are prepared to move to the Gobi desert.

Yabby:>> I talk about here and now with real people, you preach about history and much as I think that you are a nice bloke, in this case you are clearly wrong.<<

This line is apt, “those who forget history are doomed to repeat it".
For as much as you consider Belly a "nice bloke" you would do to him what he would not do to you, and that is try to screw and negotiate your way out of paying him what is due to him. That is the reason we have an arbitration system, so the pleb does not rise up and guillotine you Yabby.

I have never been a fan of weekend work, except where it is absolutely necessary. You can't stop a blast furnace, & the tourist industry is a 7 day a week creature, but I could not believe when we were silly enough to introduce 7 day, & late night shopping.

Sure it suited the big two, as it got rid of a lot of small players, but it increased the unit cost of selling stuff, when more staff were required for longer hours, to sell the same groceries.

My father was in retail, & Saturday mornings stuffed things up enough for the family, I wouldn't want to be in it today.

Having said that, I was in the tourist boat industry industry, a 7 day a week operation if ever there was one. No Belly, no one charged a surcharge on weekends, it was not practical. Many employees offered to work weekends for standard money, as they preferred week days off. One disadvantage of cruising around the Whitsundays all day was, it made it hard to get to Townsville when shops were open in those days.

These people were pretty well payed, working a 10/11 hour day, as a matter of course, due to the nature of the business, & we had 3 complete crews to operate the 2 large boats. When that fool pilot strike made it impossible to run the boats full time, I had to offer the 15 involved the choice of going on a 4 day week, or 5 of them loosing their jobs.

They all went for a 4 day week, & fortunately we were able to find another day each, on the smaller boats, for the couple of crew who had big mortgages to pay.

When things went back to normal, many of them said that they had preferred the 4 day week, even for somewhat less money. After all it doesn't make too much sense to be in heaven, & have to work every day.