| Author |
Message |
Gabrielle Le Cras
Guest
| | Posted on Wednesday, April 21, 2010 - 02:13 pm: |   |
RE. SEWAGE and water up for commercialisation.
Our States are once again attacking the lower paid public sector in their effort to save money with no forethought of how it will affect scores of men and their families. I have no doubt that when these men joined the States work force they considered they had job security and a pension, which they pay into and it certainly is not given as some members of the public would believe.
To attack this section of the Guernsey workforce is a betrayal beyond belief as all employees enter into a contract, which is bound on both sides - so only the States would be permitted to change such an agreement because employees certainly couldn't.
The water and sewage departments are a public service to the island and should not be considered as a business so they should remain being administered by the States of Guernsey and not sold off to others who would run them solely for profit.
Am I correct in assuming after three consecutive terms in office as States deputies, members receive a pension thereafter whether they serve the people or not and yet manual workers will stand to lose their pension through no fault of their own? Perhaps that's where some savings should be made, if this is correct.
Water and sewage personnel spend many hours working in horrendous weather conditions throughout the winter months to provide this island with an important utility service and support for them should be more important than saving money. Where would we all be without them?
GABRIELLE LE CRAS |
A. La Joie
Guest
| | Posted on Friday, September 04, 2009 - 04:10 pm: | |
PLEASE help me to find some new friends. You see, I used to have lots and lots of them. Now I have none. They always allowed me to buy them drinks at the local and often took up my offer to mow their lawns and even let me pump up their bicycle tyres, including those of their children. Where are they now?
My lady suggests that it is because, no matter what the subject of the conversation, I always brought in items such as 'do you know that the cost of cesspit emptying has gone up by 10%?' I could tell that they were interested as they were sensitive to my feelings and always averted their gaze in sympathy with my grief at this cost and couldn't bear the pain in my eyes.
Yes, I am certain that was the reason, because on another visit some of them said that the yellow lorries emptied the cargo into the main drain anyway so why was I complaining? My response was that I was paying for the main drains out of my general rates in the same way as those that had connections to them and my complaint was that the lorries were an extra cost and most unfair to we who are forced to use holes in the ground. At this some of them turned away from me, obviously to hide their shame at not realising the situation, thus reinforcing my belief that my lady did not understand how my friends felt about this problem. Some even left the pub, surely to spread the word of this grossly unfair situation.
Then, one night, I arrived when the pub was full of people.
This time I told them that last year's cesspit bill cost two weeks of my state pension and that meant the pensioner at the top of the road on main drains had, in effect, the benefit of two weeks' pension more than myself.
Now, fully comprehending the situation, the drinkers all rushed out as one, even breaking down the door in their speed to tell the rest of the world of this sorry tale.
Ah. The publican, a gentle man, who used to play cricket and has a bat that had been signed by all the team when he scored a century against the crapauds. This I did not know until that evening for, as his clients hurriedly departed on their mission, he leapt over the bar to show it to me. He must have seen how the unfair burden was wearing me down because, as he held the bat in front of my face, obviously to show me the signatures, he said that it would be better for my health if I stopped drinking in his pub. What a considerate man.
So, if anyone does wish to be a new friend even though I no longer drink at the pub and my lawnmower sadly developed a puncture the day after a yellow lorry backed over my bicycle pump... ?
A. LA JOIE |
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