eisenach
pfm Member
It was quite a big story on the 20h de France 2 this evening. Quite clear that it was only the UK staff being sacked. Make your own conclusions from that.
P&O Ferries Scandal
- Thread starter gavreid
- Start date
It was quite a big story on the 20h de France 2 this evening. Quite clear that it was only the UK staff being sacked. Make your own conclusions from that.
Yes indeed. So glad that we "took back control" . Yes, control to run a low welfare, low regulation society. Ha ha ha. Enjoy it one and all, it's what the electorate wanted.
ks.234
Half way to Infinity
But it’s not about Brexit, this is the culmination of the logic of 50 years of Tory ideology.
Tony L
Administrator
…as was Brexit.
Tony L
Administrator
It was all about creating a low-wage low-tax and civil rights eroded economy where the elites that own the Tory Party & pimp-out the likes of Farage can profit. The decline is faster than I expected, but it is what I expected.
I feel sorry for the folk who lost their jobs today. I’ve been made redundant a couple of times. I know the feeling. There is clearly no way in hell any corporation is going to accept an operating loss of the magnitude here, but the way they dealt with it stinks. The bottom line is this business clearly isn’t viable. It should have had the dignity just to fold rather than try to renege on contracts and cheap out and exploit labour in this way. The irony is the PR shit they have created will inevitably spill over to P&O Cruises, which is a largely different entity, and that will likely fold in the backlash. Sometimes corporate strategy is just bonkers. Sometimes, as in this case, it actually deserves to fail. I hope ports etc stop dealing with them.
But would they not have been able to do this even if we'd remained? A bit naive to think they wouldn't. Big companies have always got away with anything they want, some Mickey Mouse fine and a slap on the wrist probably but they'd still have done it.
So is brexit. They're 2 sides of the same coin.
ks.234
Half way to Infinity
True
Yes they would. However this is just the start of more to come. There's going to be less regulation. Cutting red tape, remember.
I believe they own a number of the ports they operate from.
cooky1257
pfm Member
"DP World has also come under fire for a £146m deficit in the Merchant Navy Ratings pension fund, which includes retired P&O crew. Sources said the taxpayer could be liable for the shortfall if it was left unpaid.
DP World last year agreed to sponsor the European golf tour – at a cost of £147m......."
It's obvious what type of a parent company we are dealing with here.
DP World last year agreed to sponsor the European golf tour – at a cost of £147m......."
It's obvious what type of a parent company we are dealing with here.
Richard Lines
pfm Member
Welcome to the shipping world - companies have been c******g on seafarers for decades, broadly speaking, those people employed onshore in the UK have no idea how good things are for them.
Regards
Richard
Seeker_UK
Feelin' nearly faded as my jeans
It would have happened here, Brexit or not. The difference is not "in EU" vs "not in EU" but strength of TU representation in UK vs Europe.
No obvious evidence that DP World or Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem has donated anything.
https://www.datasmoothie.com/@datasmoothie/who-funds-the-conservative-party/
Last edited:
Richard Lines
pfm Member
I'm not sure that either Nautilus or the RMT could achieve a great deal here. The merchant navy has been in decline since the end of the seventies and successive governments have done precious little to effectively support it. There have been some attempts but nothing truly significant. The unions know this. I doubt whether sufficient public/ political support can be drummed up to oppose this.
It is somewhat ironic that at a time when the importance of being more self-reliant (as a result of COVID and the current Ukraine/ Russian conflict) and less reliant on distant global supply chains that another nail in the employment of British seafarers should be happening.
Regards
Richard
kensalriser
pfm Member
It's quite obvious that successive governments have been extremely negligent on matters of national security in every respect.
Seanm
pfm Member
It’s hard to say how viable the business is when it’s not even clear *what* the business is or even whether it’s a business in the usual sense of the word.
“P&O Ferries furloughed 1400 of its staff during the pandemic, costing the taxpayer £10m.
They also asked us for a £150m bailout.
Its parent company then paid out £250m to shareholders.
Now pandemic's over, they're sacking the British staff we supported.
rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-calls…”
https://twitter.com/davidprescott/status/1504442919083819008?s=21
Cav
pfm Member
Foreign states own a fair proportion of our utilities and rail companies, so no, not really.
I don't find anything odd any more, Tony. I've lost all sense of being shocked or surprised at where we've ended up. Every day is just another scam being found out that goes unpunished and forgotten about in two weeks.
I can guarantee you though, if you or I owed a pound to the inland revenue they'd hound us to the ends of the earth for it and probably lock us up.