More strikes at the National Gallery? (ctd.)
February 18 2015
Picture: BBC/AP
And so it goes on: another five day strike has been announced at the National Gallery by members of the PCS union. The walkout will begin on 24th February.
According to the BBC, the PCS say the National Gallery has reneged on a promise to pay staff the 'London Living Wage'. But in the same story, Nick Penny, the Gallery's Director, says that the proposed organisational changes are designed to make sure staff can all be paid the 'London' wage. Who is right?
The second five day strike comes after AHN's new favourite troll - a gallery employee who I first mentioned here - continued to send me angry and incoherent emails. He first said that I had refused to look into the National Gallery's claims on the number of strikes. I had (here), but he just didn't bother to read the article. He's an insult-first-think-later kind of chap. He continues to claim that I, and the wider press, have been exagerating the number of strikes at the National Gallery. But I am making progress with him; he first tried to claim there had only been one strike in the last four years, but now he has ungraciously consented to raise that number to three.
Just for fun, here are some of the highlights of his most recent emails:
[...] You articulated a lie, from whence it came, gossip, hearsay or made up by you to score a cheap political point, I couldn't care. Please feel free to put this on your blog so that your readers can judge for themselves what sort of man you are.
[...] why would someone like you, who twists the truth to their own ends and born with life presented on a silver salve give a monkey's? As one of my colleagues put it when I showed him your blog, it's just as well he's an antique dealer and not a journalist. You disgust me. [...]
Although I know his identity, I am still inclined not to name him. But I'm pretty sure he appears in the above photo. See if you can guess which one he is.
Update - a reader writes:
Either far left or far right (no pun intended). I think I am leaning to the fellow on the left.
It’s been an amusing series of articles and I know it’s terrible but I hope it goes on for a while…
Another adds:
They all look the same to me (!)
Update II - another reader writes:
"Poor show”, as a certain Wooster might have said, but the only thing worse than (some) unions, is no unions, as recent history deomstrates.
Yes - some unions are more militant than others.
