Industrial collapse in Sheffield
Late signer | 29.07.2004 16:42 | Sheffield
Unemployed turned away from the Jobcentre today
Sign in Cavendish Court job centre
I had to walk to Sheffield to sign on today because of the bus strike and when I got there I found I'd wasted my time. The dole workers were on strike too!
At the entrance to the Cavendish Court Job Centre was a woman turning people away, except for a few special cases. I asked her what the strike was about and she just said pay. I suspect there is more to it than that. About a month ago the workers there were taking action over new rules so it may well be the same thing.
Then Sheffield Star's web site has two articles on how the bus strike is crippling businesses in Sheffield.
In the first [1] it quotes Jonathan Stone, Chief Executive of Sheffield Chamber of Trade. He says "If the strike goes on for another couple of weeks, then we will see some small businesses disappear. The problem of being a smaller business is that a reduction in trade can slash into your profit and have a huge impact. Losing 50 per cent in trade is devastating."
Well I don't know how true all this is but I imagine Stone is likely to be on the side of First management rather than its drivers so he may well be exaggerating the effects of the strike here. The town centre appeared about as busy as any other weekday to me. There wasn't a noticeable lack of people anyway. I also think the problem of small businesses has much more to do with exorbitant rents from greedy property owners. If the rents were more reasonable there businesses would be on such a knife edge.
The Star's second article focused purely on economic impact of the strike. In fact every Star article I've read has been about economics of the situation - a clear indication of the Star's neo-liberal agenda. As if money is the most important thing! It was told the story of various small traders on their way to bankruptsy because of the strike.
The first paragraph however was about Zionist supporting company Marks and Spencers who lost £40,000 in the first four days of the strike. This is down from an earlier report which claimed they'd lost £400,000.
Interestingly the same article used another quote which claimed some stall holders in Castle Market were, "already are in debt by about £40,000." About the same as M&S then? Hmmm.
Anyway personally I support the bus drivers all the way. The figures quoted elsewhere say that First buses made a £160 million in profits last year while the strike will cost £368,000 pounds to resolve. That means it will cost them less than a quarter of 1 percent of last years profits. So why won't First get on with it and pay up? And why didn't the bus drivers get their annual wage rise on April 1st anyway?
Anyway the good news is that for all you Doley's out there if you've got to sign on tomorrow you don't have to bother.
REFS:
[1]
http://www.thisissheffield.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=830208
[2] http://www.thisissheffield.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=830205
At the entrance to the Cavendish Court Job Centre was a woman turning people away, except for a few special cases. I asked her what the strike was about and she just said pay. I suspect there is more to it than that. About a month ago the workers there were taking action over new rules so it may well be the same thing.
Then Sheffield Star's web site has two articles on how the bus strike is crippling businesses in Sheffield.
In the first [1] it quotes Jonathan Stone, Chief Executive of Sheffield Chamber of Trade. He says "If the strike goes on for another couple of weeks, then we will see some small businesses disappear. The problem of being a smaller business is that a reduction in trade can slash into your profit and have a huge impact. Losing 50 per cent in trade is devastating."
Well I don't know how true all this is but I imagine Stone is likely to be on the side of First management rather than its drivers so he may well be exaggerating the effects of the strike here. The town centre appeared about as busy as any other weekday to me. There wasn't a noticeable lack of people anyway. I also think the problem of small businesses has much more to do with exorbitant rents from greedy property owners. If the rents were more reasonable there businesses would be on such a knife edge.
The Star's second article focused purely on economic impact of the strike. In fact every Star article I've read has been about economics of the situation - a clear indication of the Star's neo-liberal agenda. As if money is the most important thing! It was told the story of various small traders on their way to bankruptsy because of the strike.
The first paragraph however was about Zionist supporting company Marks and Spencers who lost £40,000 in the first four days of the strike. This is down from an earlier report which claimed they'd lost £400,000.
Interestingly the same article used another quote which claimed some stall holders in Castle Market were, "already are in debt by about £40,000." About the same as M&S then? Hmmm.
Anyway personally I support the bus drivers all the way. The figures quoted elsewhere say that First buses made a £160 million in profits last year while the strike will cost £368,000 pounds to resolve. That means it will cost them less than a quarter of 1 percent of last years profits. So why won't First get on with it and pay up? And why didn't the bus drivers get their annual wage rise on April 1st anyway?
Anyway the good news is that for all you Doley's out there if you've got to sign on tomorrow you don't have to bother.
REFS:
[1]
http://www.thisissheffield.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=830208 [2]
http://www.thisissheffield.net/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=58&ArticleID=830205
Late signer
Comments
Hide the following comment
Sheffield Chamber of Trade - Comment from Chief Exec
03.08.2004 13:30
Firstly, the quote attributed to me saying, "Losing 50 per cent in trade is devastating." is taken slightly out of context. This was in reply to the Star reporter telling me, during my telephone interview, that some retailers they [The Sheffield Star] had contacted were saying their trade had dropped by 50 per cent. This is not directly what the member companies of the Chamber of Trade are telling us. The worst reported downturn is in the region of 40 per cent by traders in the Castle Market and, with and the strike in its third week, we would estimate that trade in the city centre is down by and average of 10 percent.
The supposition that I, and therefore the Chamber of Trade, am on the side of First in this matter is not true. We are on the side of our members and the retailers within the city centre; all we aim to do is represent our members fairly and with integrity and are guided by factual reports given to us by the members.
The comment in relation to exorbitant rents for small business retailers would curry some sympathy from the Chamber but to say this was a problem and indeed the norm throughout the whole of the city centre would be very untrue.
The earlier reported figure of the downturn suffered by Mark & Spencer on Fargate, of £400,000 was indeed a misprint and therefore was corrected in the latter article to the true figure (reported to the Chamber of Trade by M&S) of £40,000. This figure is accurate and for clarification is the approximate deficit for M&S Fargate for the first 4 days of the strike only (Tuesday to Friday).
The quote about some market traders that, ‘already are in debt by about £40,000’ is attributed to Andy Ward, the Sheffield Markets manager, and is an overview of how far some of the markets traders are in overall debt within their business. This figure does indeed just happen to be the same as the loss reported by M&S.
Jonathan Stone
Chief Executive
Sheffield Chamber of Trade
Jonathan Stone
e-mail:
jms@sheffieldchamber.org.uk