aDjUsToR
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
Posts: 882
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You are in an overpaid niche. Nice if you can luck upon that and stay in it for a significant period (these days). Most wage slaves in NZ have no such luck these days.
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Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
Posts: 32249
Having fun in the hills!
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Most people are too stupid or too unmotivated to organise with other workers to get good working conditions.
Remember the Employment Contracts Act foistered on NZ workers by the Bolger Nats government?
Well myself and my workmates stuck together like glue and started the beginnings of WWIII with our employer when they tried to take advantage of the Employment Contracts Act. We took industrial action when push really came to shove, then got rid of the scab bastards who underminded us during that industrial action.
The result is we held on to all our conditions of employment.
We weren't weak mugs like most NZ workers were who listened to all the bullshit from the Nats and as a result got walked all over by their employers.
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If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space!
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aDjUsToR
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
Posts: 882
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And how exactly did you "get rid of the scab bastards"? Criminal acts of intimadation under the table?
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Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
Posts: 32249
Having fun in the hills!
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Those scab bastards CHOSE to undermine their workmates who were fighting to retain their conditions of employment, so they didn't deserve any consideration whatsoever.
It was THEIR choice to be scab bastards and they paid the price. They knew the score when they drove trains during a strike.
And nobody got assaulted, or had violence dished out against them. There are other more subtle ways and means.
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If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space!
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aDjUsToR
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
Posts: 882
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Smells like garden variety criminal thuggery. Ringing people up during the night at home making menacing phone calls?
Seems to be a fairly standard MO.
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aDjUsToR
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
Posts: 882
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Unfortunately what you brainless thugs fail to realize is those out in the cold that are unemployed HAVE TO accept casualized employment (ie "scabs") to feed their families and /or survive. You are a dinosaur species who go too far. Companies basically just fold when you clowns get too greedy. Public service troughers who go overboard with lavish pay and conditions do so on the backs of the poor.
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Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
Posts: 32249
Having fun in the hills!
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Nope, what it is....I work in an industry which has a world-wide shortage of qualified, skilled, experienced operational people.
There are plenty of companies overseas who are desperately looking for qualified staff and KiwiRail know it.
Why do you think senior locomotive engineers can earn six figures per year?
It's 'cause KiwiRail are scared of us all buggering-off en masse for pastures overseas if they don't look after us.
And the various rail companies around the world only have themselves to blame for staff shortages, because they haven't kept up with training new staff, because it takes years for skill levels to rise to the point where we can work completely unsupervised without creating huge messes every so often. And its going to get worse, because there is a huge retirement bubble happening right now and they are desperately trying to retain the older workers so cover their shortages.
Some of us had the foresight to see into the future and pick a career where we would be in short supply most of the time. Commercial pilots are in the same situation as us, as are experienced senior officers and captains in the maritime industry. They either pay us enough to retain us, or we bugger off for higher-paying jobs elsewhere.
And most of us in those occupations have had the foresight to stay unionised and stick together like glue to retain conditions, as well as dealing to those who would undermine us.
If you wish to display your jealousy, then that is no concern of mine. YOU made your own choices in earlier years, so if you ended up in the wrong industry, then you only have yourself to blame. Ditto if you were a weak mug and walked away from trade unionism because you were gullible enough to swallow the trickle-down bullshit spouted by righties and capitalists.
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If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space!
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aDjUsToR
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
Posts: 882
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Well if what you say is true, the short supply of your quals should demand a high wage. I do actually believe unions have a place. Unfortunately instead of acting to keep a check on company greed and exploitation many unions have themselves become stupid greedy thugs.
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aDjUsToR
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
Posts: 882
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Like many rich right wing self righteous fuckwits, you give yourself way too much praise for your life choices. Your job could be wiped out by technology.
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aDjUsToR
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
Posts: 882
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There is a lot of luck in your situation. Many others have "stuck together" and it hasn't helped. They still got steam rolled by politics, economic or technological changes.
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Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
Posts: 32249
Having fun in the hills!
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Your job could be wiped out by technology.
Not before I retire, it won't. I could technically retire next year if I wished to, but I'll probably work a few more years. Although I'm not intending to still be working when I turn 70, and that is only six years and a couple of months away.
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If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space!
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Kiwithrottlejockey
Admin Staff
XNC2 GOD
Posts: 32249
Having fun in the hills!
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Total automation is possible with trains if you are running commuter trains with fixed consists on a fixed timetable, or running uniform trains on a conveyor-belt type operation, such as hauling uniform consists of coal, or iron ore.
However, if you are running consists which can change from one train to the next, then computers cannot cope with that because there are so many variables that a human operator is needed.
A couple of the big mining companies in Australia have been attempting to automate their trains for years, but they keep having setback after setback after setback, because even with their fixed consists, they keep running into changing variables which the computers cannot cope with, resulting in HUGE expensive fuck-ups.
Rio Tinto are running automated test trains, but they still have a qualified locomotive engineer sitting at controls, because the computers stuff it up too often.
It may happen eventually, but I'll be long gone before it happens in New Zealand with locomotive-hauled trains, if it ever happens.
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If you aren't living life on the edge, you're taking up too much space!
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aDjUsToR
Part-Of-The-Furniture Member
Posts: 882
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All good things come to an end. My industry got fucked over by outsourcing. Still, I had a pretty good run.
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