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'Unite leader Len McCluskey calls for mass disruption of Olympics'

'Unite leader Len McCluskey calls for mass disruption of Olympics'

"Britain's biggest union threatened to disrupt the London Olympics last night as part of its battle against cuts to public sector pensions.

Len McCluskey, the general secretary of Unite, urged other unions opposing the Coalition's pension plans and George Osborne's austerity measures to target the Olympics.

In a dramatic escalation of the dispute, he also called on the public to back the unions by engaging in "all forms of civil disobedience within the law" – including during the Games."

Dicuss.

Good or bad move?

I'd like to ask him what he means by "all forms of civil disobedience within the law"...

(edited 12 years ago)

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Reply 1

username33685

Great, embarrass us all on a global scale so other countries will think twice about doing business with us.

Reply 2

Aj12

Because all the other strikes and marches achieved so much...

People are living longer it hardly seems unfair people work longer in line with that

Reply 3

meenu89

Great news just when the spotlight will be on us :rolleyes:

Idiot.

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 4

KingMessi

This will just annoy the general public and reduce sympathy with the unions. At the end of the day London 2012 is a chance to really showcase our country (namely London, but still) and what's good about it, not use it to protest. Disruption of the Olympics will do us no favours, nor will it do the unions many favours.

Stupid idea is stupid.

What a scumbag

Knob.

Lol, he'll just shoot himself in he foot doing that. :P

Reply 8

Llamageddon

It's a common misconception among the far left that the rest of the nation is begging to be 'liberated' from our government. We elected Cameron, not McCluskey, and he should well remember that.

I care little for the olympics but doing this would be just plain stupid and probably justify more draconian legislation against trade unions, further weakening their position and influence.

Reply 9

Genocidal

I hope he gets hit by a truck, what a moron.

Reply 10

turbocharged

When are the public sector going to realise that the rest of us do not give a **** about their pensions? We've been paying more than them to get less than them for ages now and it's about time they did the same. The Tories are completely immune to all forms of left-wing protest. Unless there is an enormous protest on the scale of the poll tax riots (which there won't be), the unions are wasting their time.

Reply 11

adamrules247

We never did use those water cannons on the rioters, did we? Me thinks they may have a use now :colonhash:

Reply 12

HarveyCanis

I'd like to be the first to offer a positive reaction to his announcement.

But I won't.

I follow the opinion of the above. He's a scumbag knob (see what I did there?!!!1111!!!!!).

Protesting at the Olympics would be an incredibly stupid thing to do as the public will not sympathise.

Reply 13

KingGoonIan

They won't be very popular with the public if they do disrupt the Olympics.

Why interrupt an event which is set to bring in so much money? Some of the money will be used for public services.

Reply 14

Historophilia

I thought that Bob Crow was the Union Leader that I loathed the most.

I think we may have a new contender for that position.

Reply 15

Square

hopefully this will push through some new strike legislation that will be the bullet in the head for moronic union leaders like this, who are a bunch of self serving self preserving ********s.

Reply 16

MagicNMedicine

Problem with calling for this is he will end up having egg on his face.

He's not leader of a large scale militant trade union that has the will to bring the country to its knees. The most you can get these days from British unions is the odd one day strike where members will have a march through city centres, it will be debated for a week on Question Time, the right wing press will run some articles saying public sector gets massively better pay and conditions and pensions than the private sector, the Opposition will "urge both parties to get back to the table".

The Olympics won't be disrupted by unions. Terrorists and/or anarchists are a bigger threat to the games, but we do have high quality security services and policing so we're as well capable of dealing with that as any country.

Reply 17

H.JJJ

I don't think he understands how useful the games will be to the economy. Huge increases in consumption due to travel, hotels, food, beer etc need to cover those expenses for the games. It's only going to drive growth, why would anyone want to disrupt that?

Reply 18

GunnerBill

Len McCluskey reminds me of the kind of substance that causes you to throw away a pair of shoes after standing in it.

Reply 19

secondtimearound

Whether I agree or disagree, I think it's important to point out that only one Olympics for many years has actually proved profitable, and that was derided for minimal facilities and too much advertising (I think LA, but could be wrong).

As for the strike point, it will just reduce sympathy for public sector workers. They have been told, around East London, that they can't have any time off for the Olympics, conveniently AFTER being encouraged left, right and centre to buy tickets, and perhaps this is a better issue to address as its related to the event they are disrupting, but the recent past has shown the public doesn't care about pensions.