Member Info for NDNIC00

Weather forecast. Looks like another weekend of hot air for London and South East. So more thermals to lift those wings…

Opps. Son…

All the hot air over the last few days has really put, the wind beneath your wings, Aus. You have managed to pick fights with anybody over many subjects. Your insight is truly vast, I really am impressed. You go get em sun…

Well the VM/02 story did not impact on the price for long, well done for all who bought into BT on that lovely dip. As the old saying goes, it’s the pennies not the pounds, thanks VM/02…

The only problem with TUPE is, you only have your rights guaranteed on day one. After that the new employer could turn round and say, we are not able to continue with the rights you have, these are the new ones, take it or leave it. Chances are the new company would have to recognise any existing union for the employees, which they probably would not want to. For TUPE to be accepted by any existing union the chances are BT would need to offer a redundancy package for staff who did not want to move to the new employer. BT did try this sort of thing in the past, in the end they backed off as they realised that at the end of the day it would not benefit the company in the long run. Forget the current situation for a moment, in a few years BT will not need the staff numbers it currently has in Openreach. Once FTTP is done the head count will reduce dramatically. Fibre just sits there transporting services, it’s not affected by weather or corrosion, the kit on the ends just dose it’s job year after year with no problems. Then you could look at using contract staff to run the network day to day. The dead wood, are people with more knowledge of telecoms and networks than you may give them credit for…

I see this as a disruptive story to see how the market might respond to a deal between the two. Talk Talk is singed up to Equinox, with discounts for reaching new FTTP connection targets through to early 2030s. So VM would be purchasing an ISP that uses BT for its services to end users and will do for years to come, especially considering Equinox discounts. Until VM had enough UK coverage in there own network to pull out of Equinox and move TT customers onto VM fibre, they would be putting a lot of there TT earnings straight into BTs pocket. It will probably take until late 2020s for them to build a full UK network, which at present they are looking for cash to do. It would make better sense to try a take over in 6-7 years time but not now, with high debt and even more to come to build there network. As an aside, it’s about a month away from dividend holding date, force a sudden price drop now to get shares cheap that will be at least 10p higher than today after taking the dividend, especially as nearly 60m were bought yesterday according to this site, umm…

Rod. Was as surprised as you, but there are some here who quickly run to mummy. Not my doing you are entitled to your response however you word it…

Predictive txt and a bit of dyslexia, must apologise, but haven’t had my post deleted eh…

Rod. Perhaps it’s time to rain it in a bit, eh. Your grip on the real world is slipping away faster day by day. Just look at your last two heroes. Gavin Patterson, aka, golden locks,kicked out of his job by the share holders because he was useless. The second Boris, again eventually found out and kicked out of his job by the members. Looks like you keep backing the wrong people, perhaps hence your warped view of the world. Empathy lessons may do you some good…

“ Perhaps bt should look at the future and use solely contract companies no unions involved ”.
Well that’s one way to win a race to the bottom, ending with a network in such a mess it would take years to resolve even with direct labour employed to resolve the issues contractors would likely cause. Not to mention what impact that situation would have on the share price. Unions are not all about industry action and arguments with management, they are about cooperating and improving a company for the good of all. How about we send children up chimneys to clean them again…

It’s the Boris Bounce…

“ There’s really little point owning shares in a company if you feel that way.”
Is it not an ironic comment from a poster who in the past has ramped up VM/O2 to the detriment of BT .

“ those call centres better watch out...Artificial Intelligence is gonna replace you, the more expensive and fussy you get ... AI doesn't get flu or COVID either ! “
There was a program on TV last night, 5 I think, AI is not all it seems to be, it’s easy to confuse so it puts you through to a REAL person quicker. AI is used on online chat and phone to assist in call directing and in the end sends around 90% of contact to a real person to resolve the issue.
How is AI going to help ? with nobody to take the call. It’s just a filter and buffer to eventually pass on to a real person…

Have never worked in a call center so, don’t know. Engineering, well, every day a vehicle check, risk assessment on every job, taking breaks when they should be taken, lots of little things that people should do all the time but in the real world that dose not happen. It can be very easy to become stuck in traffic , not be able to respond to a phone call instantly, replenishment of stores when you should instead of when you can. Many other little things that can add up to delays or jobs not getting done that day. Let’s be honest, we can all make things difficult in a situation if we feel we need to , to benefit our personal position in life. You know as well as I do that we don’t follow every rule all the time in the workplace. Hopefully it will see a deal sooner rather than later…

Fleccy. Just experience really. Having lived through several battles between BT and the CWU some of which have come very close to getting out of hand, in the end a settlement was reached. I don’t know how the ballot was worded but in the past it has been, up to and including strike action, if so then other things may be implemented by the CWU before strike action, work to rule etc, believe me just that can cause major issues. I honestly hope and believe that there will not be a strike, even if there is, I would hope it is short lived…

sp, error should be, up

Winning a ballot for strike action, does not mean there will be strike action. No doubt there will now be new talks between BT and the CWU which hopefully will result in an agreement before any action takes place. As for the comment, staff will lose money by striking that they may not get back, well in 1987 there was so much overtime for nearly 6 months that staff ended sp with more in there pockets that year than they likely would have had if they had not gone on strike…

So let us assume that there is a strike, what will the real world impact be. Last national strike in BT was February 1987. A preposition of the network was on fibre, but the vast majority of services were on copper or coax cables. The majority of exchanges were not fully digital, many still using relays and selectors. Both of these required a lot of maintenance and manpower to keep things running. The weather that February was typical , cold, wet and as the strike started heavy snow storm’s, resulting in a vast increase in faults above the norm. All of which played into the hands of the workforce, the network was falling apart quite quickly with nobody to resolve this. Today the vast majority of the network is fibre, it is resilient to weather, systems are fully electronic and self healing, there is only copper in the local network only affecting phone lines and BB for those still waiting for a full fibre link. Most of the network and systems will just sit there doing there thing needing no intervention. Yes orders will be delayed, some things will fail, there will likely be outages , but nothing compared to 1987. This time it is likely that management may have the upper hand. Time will tell but hopefully, as in the past, BT and the CWU will come to a deal before people withdraw there labour…

I think those who have not been employed by BT and some who are just anti employee rights, should also consider all the work the CWU has done over the last 40 years to bring about benefits for the company as well. It’s not all about strike action, demanding more for less. BT and the CWU have worked together far more often than against each other. That relationship has given us the company we have today, and after this little scuffle is resolved, will continue to work with each other to move the company and it’s employees into a bright future…

Oh dear. Here we go again. The price drops a bit and out come the na sayers. Today it’s, let’s split it all up. For a short term gain and a long term loss. HoHum…