Going Miffic

I am a miffed Traffic Warden. Tony Blair and his cohorts are the people who have incurred my extreme displeasure, and the displeasure of a lot of other local authority workers. Let me explain;

My colleagues and I were hired to enforce the parking regulations that were taken over by the local authority under decriminalisation. We were hired at a particular rate of pay, which is just about a reasonable working wage.

Today when I walk into the mess room I was handed an envelope by my line manager, detailing the new wage structure as laid down by this bunch of complete fuckwits in government. Like my colleagues, I was pretty pissed off when I read that we were all getting our wages cut. That's right. Cut.

Our Union Shop steward was physically hauled out of the toilets and asked WTF is this? He said "Don't ask me - I'm as fucked off about it you are." We relented and let him regain his dignity and trousers when we found out he had only just been informed of the new pay arrangements. Next we turned out attention to our line manager, who had only just held onto her current wage packet by the skin of her teeth. The word shot up to Senior Management, who immediately came rushing over to see what all the dark mutterings of mutiny and walk outs were about. Senior Management weren't all that impressed with the deal (They had only just found out ten minutes before us) and promised to find out what on earth had possessed Personnel to send out such inflammatory letters. Rockets were sent flying into the bureaucratic ether, promises were exchanged and a wildcat walk out averted.

Turns out this has been going on all over the country in local authorities where parking has been 'Decriminalised' i.e. turned into a civil rather than a criminal offence. Not just parking either but all through local authorities. While the arguments flew between departments a couple of our guys made some calls to mates in other councils. Some had gained, some like us had lost and weren't too damn happy about it. We heard of one poor sod in the midlands who had lost to the tune of a quarter of his salary. All those years of service - sorry mate, doesn't count under the new pay structure. God knows what he did after that. Me, I'd have been going through the phone book for a decent employment lawyer. All the training, all the extra work we've taken on in good faith.

I fucking hate Tony Blair.