What a waste?

Thames Water said on Tuesday it had notified the government about possible job cuts and opened talks with trade unions.

"We have notified the DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) of potential redundancies and have begun consultations with the relevant trade unions," Thames said in a statement e-mailed to Reuters.

Trade union GMB told BBC Television that Thames planned to cut 25 percent of its workforce over several years. The Thames statement did not state specific job cut targets. RWE declined to comment.

Thames Water, part of Germany's RWE, is the country's largest water and wastewater services firm with over 4,000 employees and 13 million customers in London and the southeast of England.

I have had a fair old bit to do with Trade Union activities in RWE. Although not generally to do with Thames Water . Although alas when I did last do the last round of joint Trade Union negotiations with them for joint issues , possible redundancies were discussed then too in both Thames and Npower and I found myself as the single rep negotiating with RWE of the 3 unions involved (Unison, GMB and Amicus) then although that was relevant for about tens of jobs not hundreds maybe thousands as in this case.

It is a heavy load on Union negotiators to try to save jobs especially in such a heavily regulated and "in the spotlight" industry as the Utilities industry where profit margins and consumer and environmental and global corporate pressures often conflict on a daily basis. However it is one that myself and fellow negotiators in RWE do with the employees and customers best interests at heart.

Just a reflection though, that economic efficiency through job losses does not always mean the best deal for everyone especially the company proposing them and I hope my colleagues fight as hard as I know I have for them in the past.

For when you have nowt better to do....

have a go at this - nudist trampolining

Happy Birthday Eric!

Totally addicted to

this .

but I am useless at it..no comments about women drivers purlease! Yep I still only have my provisional licence so the pavements of Stoke are safe.

Still waiting for a reply from the Pope about the dead Trade Unionists and from my MP about banning Greyhound racing... maybe I should reverse over them...??? hummmm... nah I bet I couldn't even do that properly!!!

Today I have been mostly............

emailing the pope. Yep even though I am not Catholic. I was hoping he could intervene in the government sanctioned Trade Unionist murders that are happening in the Phillipines. I also emailed the UN sadly I got their out of office reply.... no wonder Israel took the offensive then... maybe whilst I was at it I should have asked his holiness to have a word with him upstairs on my behalf. I wish to ensure that the next attempt at ending my mortal life is not done by a Tesco value pineapple falling on my head... good grief a girls gotta go out with a bit of class. Please Lord if I do get killed by a fruit can it please at least be a Tescos finest fruit.... and I thought it was meant to be all the chocolate I ram down my neck that is bad for my health.