National Grid’s plans to offshore jobs strike me as being socially irresponsible, as well as the epitomy of corporate greed. Unemployment in the UK is now up to 2.38 million. Why should a company that has recently made such vast profits exploiting UK energy consumers with huge price rises be allowed to add to the problem of rising unemployment?


This beggars belief, and I think it raises two important issues: what political pressure can be applied to this company, which makes its money in a market dominated by only a few giant companies, and what is the regulator Ofgem doing? If National Greed are happy to make vast profits from UK consumers they should be told by the UK Government to show some loyalty to their workers and offer them security of employment (like their competitor Scottish and Southern Energy has done), and Ofgem should also intervene and force National Greed to behave in a more socially responsible manner.

I totally agree. It looks like Gordon will do his usual disappearing act, though. What ever happened to "British Jobs for British Workers?"

You really should get your facts right before you start commenting on what National Grid does. Visit the offical website WWW.NATIONALGRID.COM which explains the companies operations which do not include selling gas or electricity in the UK.

I wonder how much the Directors will get paid in bonuses for letting our grannies freeze and throwing us on the dole this Winter? If we could we would boycott them and their services in protest. But they've got us over a barrel haven't they? This is an out of control gang of bosses abusing their monopoly power to rip off consumers and workers alike. What was that about "Rip off Britain" Gordon?

I really think the fact that National Grid do not buy or sell gas or electricity in the UK is missing the point. They are a vastly profitable company that according to their website, owns and maintains the 82,000 miles of pipeline that pipes the gas “safely and efficiently” for the gas suppliers. It also owns and maintains the high voltage electricity transmission and operating systems that cover England and Wales. I don’t imagine for one second that they do that for free!

Betty,

In response to your request to get the facts right, here are some facts:

1. National Grid made over £2.9 billion profit in the last financial year.

2. The staff at Newcastle whose jobs are under threat have identified £3 million in cost savings, but this isn't enough to satisfy National Greed, despite the company's huge profits.

3. There are now 2.38 million unemployed people in this country.

4. It is irresponsible of this company to sack the workers in Newcastle, thus adding to the number of local unemployed workers, in order to offshore the work to a low-wage economy.

Interesting question that Wolfie. Whilst the staff in Shared Services face redundancy unless they can identify 7 million pounds worth of cost savings, the senior management have recently awarded themselves bonuses in excess of 9 million pounds. Am I alone in thinking this is immoral?

Interesting question regarding bonuses Wolfie. At a point when the staff within Shared Services face redundancy unless they identify 7 million pounds worth of savings, the senior management have just woted themselves bonuses in excess of 9 million pounds. In addition to this the company made a profit of around 3 billion pounds last year. Am I alone in thinking that against this backdrop, the treatment of the Shared Services staff is immoral?

The Directors bonuses in totality are in excess of £9 million - disgraceful to think that if they didn't take a bonus this year that could guarantee 180 plus jobs for more than 2 years!

They clearly haven't learned from all of these other large UK companies bringing work back from India - they've proven that whilst it can appear cheaper and they can throw many more staff at the jobs due to poor salaries, the quality and customer focus is just not there.....just ask BT!

The whole thing is a disgrace and I hope all our fellow colleagues will support us in the fight to keep our jobs - UK and US colleagues alike.

wonder how many FREE shares the Directors and management have been awarded this year, bet that value could have saved our jobs for another couple of years (probably more)?

I strongly agree with allof the above blogs and gordon Brown should buck up his ideas. KEEP NEWCASTLE OFFICE OPEN

Well as a member of one or other of the contributing Unions for over 28 years and working for National Grid for the same period what a lamentable step the Trade Unions have taken with setting up this site.

Its OK to protest and OK to do it publicly but to rip the name off of the business that employs thousands and gives us all a fair income in this way will only prove to be negative in the campaign to save the jobs in Newcastle.

Good Luck but better tactics are needed from the TU in this fight

Sadly it is not only Newcastle which is having its jobs off shored. The company has also been to Poland and recruited people from the Polish Gas Industry to work in the UK. Are there not people in this country who could use those jobs?

"Rip the name off" ! What a strange comment to make. Are you suggesting that somehow National Grid has some competitors that might somehow gain market share at our expense if our "brand name" is tarnished? Where are our customers going to go to get their elecy if they dont want to get it from us anymore - France?

This isn't Coca Cola versus Pepsi. The whole point is there are no market forces, or competitors in our business. We are a private monopoly who's managers have decided to hold the taxpayers, our customersrs and our own workers to ransom. Is Dick Turpin a Director these days?

Loyalty cuts both ways - people up here have supported this outfit for years and worked hard for less than we were worth to make it so successful. This is our reward. And you expect us to be so grateful that you once gave us a job that we say nowt when you sling us on the scrapheap?

No. Its the NG Directors that are damaging the good name of this organisation not the staff's' unions.

Wolfie,

I have just read the reports and from what I can tell half of National Grid's revenues come from the US where the name National Grid is a brand name and the company is not a monopoly.

If you are currently working for less than you are worth, why an earth are you fighting to keep the jobs? I work for a company that only gives the statutory minimum redundancy pay, I have heard rumours that National Grid gives a very good payment.Lucky old you - being paid to leave a job that you don't like by an employer that you despise.

The key players amongst the board of directors of this company should hang their corporate heads in shame. We recognise that high achievers who deliver shareholder value and who Captain successful companies should receive good remuneration but this latest round of troughing is an insult to the many dedicated workers in this company who have seen cuts,cuts and more cuts and have been driven harder and harder to be more productive.

We have ex NG workers who worked for the company but who were sold off and TUPE'd to other companies under network sales,we have Polish workers working in the UK ,we have jobs being offshored and exported..whatever next?

NG keeps banging on about its employees being its greatest asset but this is just sweet talking and singing the latest tune for The City. In reality,they are quite happy to axe jobs that need to be done to save costs and deliver what they describe as shareholder value.

Do shareholder want the company they invested in being held up to global ridicule and do they want their company to be one which participates in the offshoring,cheap labour economy? Do they want their company to be known as one which ditches British workers and hires foreign workers becuase they are cheaper and maybe easier to exploit?


You have to know when to draw the line and actually practice what you preach instead of dishing out soundbites on the corporate global website.

Trwat your employees fairly and with respect and they will deliver the goods for you. Make people redundant if absolutely necessary but be honest about it.

Dont betray them by selling their jobs abroad and also by bringing migrant labour into the country .

CYBER WARS

I notice that national Grid intellectual property dept have bought up other nationgreed domain names !

I wonder if NG will provide a response via one of those domains or are they just running scared?

I too have been employed by NG for many years in a specialist role. I have no qualms in fully supporting what the Unions are doing. The NG executive show no ethical or moral leadership in the way they mismanage the company, unprincipled career minded opportunists comes to mind. If they succeed in closing Newcastle what next for the rest of us poor foot soldiers, and what of the long term future of NG in the UK?(NG is already £22 billion in debt!). Good luck and best wishes to all who support this campaign.

I believe the shares holliday alone got this year are in excess of 320000 which times 5.5 equals about £1,760,000. Not sure of the number of emplyees left in NG, but that must be £100 each.

Whilst I appreciate the comments made on behalf of the Company - can I just state that we are not about selling NG down the river as being greedy and that we do not hate the Company. Up until recently we had little cause for complaint, we have been paid good money and benefits for the work we do in Newcastle. But the union fight for this on our behalf it is not a benevolent gesture of good will bestowed on us from on high!! And now, we in turn must back our union, and help them in this fight..... the chance to prove that we are the right people for the job. Make no mistake about it, that is why we fight. We want the opportunity to prove ourselves over a lengthier period of time - to show we can be cost efficient, and still deliver the A* service that is given out from the SSC to the whole of National Grid.
We ask that people "put their money where their mouth is" and back their unions - whatever profession you are in and help us to keep the "Great" in Great Britain!!

Now I know why I have never joined a union. What do you think this blog will actually achieve?

Minnie, I agree that it is important for the workers to support their unions but my concern is that this is not always a two way process. UNISON was the only union with membership based in Newcastle who didn't send delegates to the AGM. This was a perfect opportunity to raise awareness of the situation in Newcastle, yet UNISON let it slip through their fingers. This union is happy to collect subscriptions from their members in Newcastle, yet couldn't be bothered to represent them. No doubt if Newcastle is lucky enough be saved from the axe, UNISON will be quick to claim a victory also!

I fully support the actions taken by the 3 sovereign trade unions within the Grid and the consultative ballot now being held for support of colleagues at Newcastle.The result of this will show the directors the strength of feeling of staff from across the company. The company must understand that this is also a moral issue

I hope Betty, Albert and the other trolls enjoy their weekends because, guess what, unions fought for the right to a worker's weekend off (before that workers worked a full week!)- Albert is proud to have never joined one but I think he enjoys the benefits that unions have brought?. Just as the unions secured National Grid's/Greed's workers a decent wage they now campaign to save their jobs. I wish the workers of National Grid (and their unions) well in their campaign to stop the jobs disappearing overseas!

A point that seems to have been missed is that the jobs involved are in personel areas as it used to be called, so employees personal details, NI numbers, next of kin, medical history will be exported abroad should we not be worried, I certainly am.

The national grid and the gas infrastructure were bulit by tax and energy bill payers. They were established to deliver a public good.

Now this privatised monopoly is run to line the pockets of Holliday and the rest of the carpet bagging directors, it is shameful.

The incompetent senior management team pay to park Ferrari's in "dehumidified garages", whilst claiming that the business is enviromentally aware. They are not just greedy and incompetent they are hypocrites.

Paul Routledge's column in Friday's Daily Mirror was spot on.

By the way Minnie, you may have done ok with the company but what about the hundreds of long term agency workers employed by Grid, some of them have been working for up to 9 years without proper contracts of employment.

this is not a public utility, under Mr Holliday it has become a cesspit of greed.

I have worked for NG for over 20 years and some would say i have been lucky to have such secure employment, up to a few years ago i would have agreed. The overall feeling from the colleagues i work with is that this is now the final straw and a stand needs to be made. I am not a staunch union supporter but do believe this fight is one that has to be had.

NG has already tried to send the IS support overseas to India and i think this is now biting them on their backsides as anyone working for NG who has has been unlucky enough to have to try to sort out an IS issue with the Indian technicians will no it is nigh on impossible and takes forever. I find it hard to beleive that even with the labour savings that will obviuosly be achieved that this will not be obliterated by the problems that will arise.

So i for one will be standing shoulder to shoulder with my colleagues in Newcastle as you never know when it might be my turn to rely on colleagues from another part of the business.

Has anyone noticed that the statement made to all the Grid staff by the Griddies little helper Helen Mayh in relation to their little 3 year escapade to catch a monkey (slowly slowly) the replacement Co Secretary , was factually incorrect in what she says !!!! they state that he fraudster engineer received a 2 month suspended prison sentence after the completion of their witch hunt - the real truth of the fact is they spent inexcess of 10 million pounds to get basically nothing back - the other guy has gone bankrupt and the prison sentence if you read fully related to a contempt of court action by the fraudster and not due to the outcome of the court case - come on you Griddie management - get something right for a change ! and stop runining peoples lives just because Mr Holliday fancies a new Ferrari or perhaps a helicopter - we are all aware of Roger Irwins little trips in the helicopter..

When National Grid was privatised, alot of employees made alot of money from sharesave schemes, and continue to do so.
Senior management seem to think we are all frightened of the share price implications of a protest.
But whats the point of worrying over the share price when you stand to lose your job and have to cash in your shares to make end meet.
Why is there so little covergae in the press, this should be making news headlines.

just like to mention that it has been spotted that some people are posting using other names already used in the blog. try and be more creative with your names please.

Where were the furious union 'army' when the worlds greatest HV research and testing operation was shut down back in 2001 (Leatherhead) and the most skilled scientists and engineers the field of transmission were thrown out?
Where were the cries for action when the field force asked for equal pay and conditions?
No where. No one listened to their cries. No one cared.
Why should you expect those people to rally to your cause now?

As a strategy for dominating a situation, divide-and-conquer has a storied history.
The slow descent into chaos gathered pace this week when self preservation showed its ugly face.
Colleagues need to heed the lessons from history - learn to stand shoulder to shoulder with eachother (and fast) or the politics being deployed to divide and conquer you will win. Stop being so naive, you won't protect your job by elbowing a colleague out of theirs !

The additional £4M in savings could have been realised in a number of ways
1) By reducing the dividend by £0.04 as there are ~25M shares in issue and
2) The board reducing their bonus pot from £9M to a mere £6M or
3)The board reduce their bonus pot to £5M.
Other major companies have reduced dividend payments and frozen bonus's (Willy Walsh BA) in the current market situation but not NG. If you think about why, the reason is obvious. 'De Management' have opted for no pay rise this year due to 'the economic difficulties' but insist the dividend must grow by 8% in real terms for the next 3 years. The board each have large NG share portfolios so they are giving themselves an additional bonus/pay increase under the radar, while the staff have jobs under threat and/or no pay rise so that they can line their pockets. The people who generate the profits no longer get a share.
If you have past NG reports take note at how much Steve Holidays package has increased since he took over from Roger.
Also It has come to my attention that the Prospect Union has just concluded a period of industrial action at the Electricity National Control Centre. They kept that quite especially if the ENCC was ever under manned during the period. It is clear the company do not want to negotiate or play fair they just want to get rich quick. I fear for my security of supply despite paying £900 a year for electricity for which 40% is for 'Transmission cost'. Com on NG keep jobs, recruit from the 2.4M unemployed rather than from abroad and tell the share holders their money is safe and will grow just above inflation but they won’t get rich with NG. It’s a safe stock so it should be a small dividend.

Just did a test issued from work with an emphasis on making money, but only where it is ethical. How dare NG preach ethical money making then do this!

After last weeks little "mishap" in one of the union meetings, there is a lot of rumblings going on about dividing staff and union bullying....... As a long standing union member, can I just say that we cannot divide and conquer - we must all stand strong against the one dangerous force here...our employer!!! And as for union bullying...... why people think union members would be happy about them crossing a picket line is anyones guess..... but you pay your subs you make your choices! Let's all do the right thing guys eh?

once again, national grid is out sourcing another part of the company, the IT service is totally useless, is it true the national grid is thinking of buying EDF?

For 18 years I served to protect Britain's seagoing lines of communication including access to natural resource. At what point will NG need the armed forces to protect that supply (and hence their profits) and is that any less immoral than the fiasco that is (was) Iraq...... I hope the shraeholders enjoy their 8% return given that someone else may have to die for it!

All Im going to say is they need to save £7million, if they are sucessful in closing Newcastle then who knows your job may be next. Yes we work for a good company but all we want to do is keep our jobs that we value and work god dam hard for!!
If it wasnt for the Unions and the support we give them, then we for sure would be out of a job by now.

NG is 'a great place to work'. Why then is it so surprising to some people (management) that the staff are prepared to challenge ill conceived plans for their work to be transferred to a foreign third party? Does loyalty count for anything these days ? If what NG has to offer is so good, does it not think that the staff will do whatever they lawfully can to keep their jobs ? It is not disloyal to be a member of a union, nor to ask the union to speak on your behalf. It is not disloyal to partake in pre-sanctioned industrial actions. Good lord, imagine the workplace without all the legislation brought about by successful industrial actions over the centurys. With management bullying and cronyism at unpresidented levels in NG, especially at the Newcastle site, its time our CEO really got to grips with whats going on in his Company.
Please Steve, there are many problems with the way your management teams are conducting themselves, but please don't give up on your loyal staff. Don't give our work to a third party.

I do think this is all rather sad to feel the need to create a website such as this by a Union I thought was professional I am only on it as I couldnt quite believe it when someone told me. Everyone has known for years the Newcastle/Killingworth sites were under threat and it would not be a case of sacking people - National Grid provide excellent redundancy and retraining opportunities be thankful you are not an employee at Land Rover or another manufacturing industry that has let it workers go - these workers have had no payouts and terrible pension terms and little prospect of transferring their skills into another job. National Grid has protected its employees for years from the real commercial world and it is time people woke up and smelt the coffee it is a hard world out there and all Steve Holliday is doing is trying to make the company successful by sourcing cheaper options to reduce OPEX. Yes my job isnt affected at the moment but if it was I wouldnt be as bitter as some of these comments and I would want an Union that worked with National Grid in a professional manner not by creating such a site and slandering executives reputations.

Haven't the unions done enough to ruin this country already,look what happened in the miners strike. Lets face it unions days are numbered, what percentage of shared services are in the union.
Steve might be on a large salary but lets face it in this competitve world if you want good leaders you have to pay for them.
Keep going Steve you are doing a grand job we are all proud of you

I agree with argument that the term NATIONAL GREED was ill conceived and will genereate little good will between the company and staff who, after all, wish to remain employed. If the company chooses to keep the office open will that change thier opinion of National Grid?
It might have been more appropriate to name the site National Grit to reflect the determination of the unions and staff to fight for the jobs and put a more positive slant on the initiative.

Believe me "employee" if they carry out this outsourcing to India, and you find yourself in a "back office" job at present then this will affect you in the future. Do you think that the Company will stop with just the Shared Services function? If the outsource to India of our jobs is deemed a success then it will be other back office functions next, so don't you make yourself too comfortable in that desk chair of yours!!
As for the comment about being thankful for the redundancy packages.... we don't want them mate! The majortiy of the workforce in SSC is young, and not ready for their early pensions deals.... plus... where are we going to be redeployed to? Have you watched the news recently, and seen what is happening to North East Companies? I am sorry to burst that delightful little bubble, but up here in the "REAL WORLD" we will fight for what we want. And lets face it, you say you think the site is appalling.... but you're on it, leaving comments! Job Done!!!

Well if that isn't the "party line" i don't know what is. However, may I suggest that whichever director / senior manager made the last comment leave the typing and use of english to a secretary.

0/10 see me after school.

What goes around comes around!! There was a load of support for the IS function (NOT) when it was onsourced to CSC, and further offshoring off those roles didn't so much as raise a murmur of concern with the folks remaining in NG sitting there with their smug little final salary pensions and gold plated index linked pay rises.

And all the remaining employees can do is moan about the quality of the service desk. Sugest you should do what I did and write to your local MP to complain about this action if you want anything to happen as the Union were about as useful as a chocolate teapot when it came to fighting the cause for the IS workforce. www.theyworkforyou.com
Annoying your local MP would probably have more impact..

If I didn't know better I'd almost suspect that this site has been infiltrated by our Board of Directors, who whilst condemning this, are not above using it to further their own ends. However, given the underhanded way in which the outsourcing of the work at Newcastle has been dealt with, why would we be surprised by that?
Having read the comments from 'An Employee' I am almost tempted to believe they were wtitten by Steve Holliday himself, or one of his minions, since he tends not to directly 'dirty his hands' himself, preferring to dispatch one of his drones to Newcastle to 'face the music'! In terms of the content of 'An Employee's' blog I must say that it holds little substance and is simply a work of propaganda. Firstly, if Steve is simply trying to source cheaper options to reduce OPEX, perhaps he could begin by sourcing a new board of directors who are not so hypocritical and greedy. Yes, that's right, greedy! To threaten 189 employees with redundancy for failing to achieve a cost saving of 6.5 million, whilst awarding themselves around 9 million in bonuses is pure corporate greed at its worst. No amount of spin or posturing can hide that! As for 'waking up' to the harsh commercial realities of life, the level of bonus applied to our top ten managers bears no comparison to the directors in the outside world who have taken pay cuts and freezes in recent months. Once again, no degree of spin can hide the hypocrisy of that. Finally, the comments made about the unions working with the management team, I think everyone would agree that that is the only way forward, however, how do the unions achieve this when management are hell bent on one course of action no matter how unreasonable this may be, as is the case with outsourcing.

What is more than sad is that the trade unions have been forced to wage this campaign in defence of the jobs of loyal National Grid employees whose livelihoods are under threat. The unions have been working with the company, and have identified £3m in savings already. The trouble is that the Executives have earned their poor reputations by not being honest with the workforce about the reasons behind the outsourcing/offshoring, and are going to do very well personally from the decision to guarantee shareholders 8% per year, as they have such large shareholdings themselves. If it was your job that was under threat, can you really be so sure that you would be as relaxed about losing it as you claim you would? It's no good relying either on the argument that Grid operates in a hard commercial world and Steve Holliday has no choice. Grid has no meaningful competition in the real sense of the word, and the point is that Steve Holliday has exercised a choice - to pay high dividends to shareholders by sacrificing the jobs of loyal employees who have all contributed towards making Grid a successful company. Success isn't just brought about by the board of directors or Chief Exec - all employees play their part. You sound like an apologist or spokesperson for the board.

It would have been nice if the TU had fought to save the Norgas House site in Killingworth a few years ago then we would all have had a better chance. I feel sorry for my ex colleagues and wish them all well. I really hope that the current TU reps have the bottle to truly represent their workers. Incidently, I hope none of them took holiday today to avoid striking!

so with all the money the board of directors are saving, is it any wonder they now travel 1st class, instead of business class on their little jollies to the US. We know what goes on, its a shame they havn't got the guts to come clean about it.

Well done to everyone who turned out yesterday. It was very emotional to see so many people there willing to stand up and be counted. x x x

In response to ex employee, unfrotunately a lot of people did take 'holiday'......hope they are proud of themselves, the bloody cowards - sickening.

A lot of these people on 'holiday' managed to turn up later on for a drink - how very odd

Hope they can sleep well at night, taking holidays whilst the real workers lost half a days pay...congratulations - you should be ashamed of yourselves, and I sincerely hope, should the worst happen, you are the first to lose you jobs

At this stage, In still find it incredible that Steve Holliday does not have the balls to speak to the Newcastle staff. I have absolutely no respect for the guy at all....apparently he had no time in his schedule to meet cores staff within his company regarding their future, yet there was no problem flying to the US to 'preach' to his US shared services staff.

Embarassing, pathetic and cowardly - regardless of what happens now I would like to wager that the Newcastle staff will always look upon Mr Holliday as a total waste of space.

In response to Hmmmmmm. How disappointing that you feel able to make such remarks about colleagues. You are exactly the sort of person that will lose us all our jobs. That sort of militant, rabble rousing nonsense has no place in modern society. In such circumstances every individual has to act in accordance with their conscience and the choice made often has nothing to do with being supportive or unsupportive of a cause. For your information, a good many staff, even those of us who joined the protest, did not agree with the timing of the event (before the Company had reached a decision), the choice of day, the fact it was only a half day and that it was going to end up in a drinks session, in fact some folk got totally wasted. What sort of message do you think that sends out ? Please stop the slanging matches on this blog as they serve no other purpose than to make us all out to be crude, blinkered idiots from another time warp - the kind of employees that would serve some people for us to be. C'mon, it's time to grow up and be professional. We need to be beyond reproach.

The Unions should have supported Prospect when they and their members voted NO to to the start of all this 3 years ago.

Instead they ignored the bigger picture got the gains for their members and forced Prospect into abritration.

Now the decision has been made (A very bad one for the company may I add) I would hope that this country's government would think again about allowing these diabolical acts which do great harm to the British tax payers, destroying their way of life just so a mega bucks company making 3 billion pounds of profit each year can save a measly 50 million pounds over several years and send this much needed work to India. An absolute disgrace on the people who sanctioned this.

RE too little..too late....

I agree. The favourite game which NG management like to play is the divide and conquer game. They show preference for certain groups who are flavour of the week or who help their corporate image,whilst conveniently forgetting other groups.

They even invent schemes in which workers...direct NG employees..are paid different salaries despite the fact that they work in the same location and do the same job. This in turn leads to more divisions.

Until the workforce as a whole organises themselves then they are at the mercy of these people who,whilst creaming off vast salaries,are content to let their underlings loose their jobs or to squabble amongst themselves.

Why are the unions not united? No Prospect participation?

Unions nearly brought this country to its knees in the late 1970's. Those of us with long memories let's make sure we do not re-visit those dark days.

So finally, after all of the posturing, Steve Lucas and his colleagues have finally admitted to what we already knew, that Newcastle will close. Even so, I couldn't believe the arrogance of the man when he delivered the news. How fitting that his chauffeur was waiting outside Quorum Four to collect him. Was I the only one who noticed that Steve, Mark and John didn't seem to have fully thought out their position? There seemed a lot of blank faces and pregnant pauses to some of the questions they were asked!

Well it's over they have now said it is closing the Newcastle office.

I can't believe this has happened they have let the "people" down BIG time

Sirs,

Given the current economic climate and the financial position of the Company, for the CEO and his Board to make the decision just anounced is disgusting.

Compared to the £3bn in profit and an 8% shareholder return the savings made will be lost in the noise - not so the loss of those incomes to the staff, their families and the local economy and community.

In the running of an organisation the leadership has only one real tool in their toolkit, CREDIBILITY, and the Board of NG has lost that (unless you are a shareholder divorced from the effect of the redundancy programme and the horrors that go with it). They are morally bankrupt and should resign without further hesitation. Organisations are about people not just money ......

It's so sad to read all of the back biting and bickering in the past few comments on here. Since the announcement came out on Thursday last week, morale has been really low, and this sort of thing is not helping.

What is done is done, but I hope that the rest of the business who run "soft services" heed our warning....... make no mistake, because it will be you guys next.

National Grid seems to want to be an asset based Company, so if that is not you, then start getting a good cv together!

I only hope my 2 small children are understanding of Mr Hollidays vision when they get next to nothing in the way of treats etc... next year.

Does anybody know why this site hasn't been updated after the recent anoouncement of Newcastle's closure?...it's about 2 months out of date!!

Huge mistake by the way NG, you have absolutley no idea how much this business depends on the staff in Newcastle.

Do unions have no power at all these days? Many of my husbands work colleagues and us are left feeling very disillusioned. A company as large as this, still expecting its emergency engineers to work 16 hours a day with only a 30 minute break.Understandably if it was genuinely for emergency work. Hovever it is just to clear the back log of work left over from the day. The engineers have no choice but to reach 16hrs so that they are guaranteed not to be called out again. This has been going on for years and the unions are unable to do anything. N.G. has a big stick attitude and is passionate about using it. I feel awful for the employees at killingworth and their families. We all need to take positive action NOW.

The real villain of this is OFGEM,the industry regulator,which seeks to ensure that we employees of NG have pay and conditions which are commensurate with the lowest common denominator whilst helping themselves to fat pay packets,bonuses and generous pension pots.

The GMB pledged to step up the fight early in Octber following the closure announcement. Out of general interest, when exactly does the fight start? Or has it already started but nobody has noticed?

I whole-heartedly support all workers in Newcastle and other affected areas. However the GMB union do not have a good reputation within the Engineering roles at NG. GO21 2007 is causing no-end of problems with NG and the Unions agreed to it.

RE comments by tired Gazzas wife....

Agreed..the front line emergency service has become OFGEMs whipping boy. There has been practically no investment,men,many of them now in their mid/late 50s and older,are expected to worker longer anti social shifts and do callout becuase of fewer and fewer staff. In the mean time,the company holds the veiled threat of TUPE over their heads. Front line engineers have lives as well National Grid. We have families too. We are the scapegoats for everyone elses incompetence. If others do not work effectively or there is too much work/not enough staff,standards are lose pay is cut. Why not just sell us off/tupe us and be done with it? Why doesnt the company write to wives and families of front line engineers and ask them about the damage that is being done to your employees and their families by the excessive workloads and hours which you place on them?

Or is it out of sight,out of mind??

The US organization has just announced that it will be eliminating an additional 800-900 jobs within IS over the next 9 months. The positions will be outsource to 3rd world contractors at sup-par wages... "Global Transformation" It apparently is no problem for them to fire 20 year loyal employees and put them on the street, only to then give the same job to minimum wage contractors from terror nations. But...."Employees are our biggest asset"

The US organization has just announced that it will be eliminating an additional 800-900 jobs within IS over the next 9 months. The positions will be outsource to 3rd world contractors at sup-par wages... "Global Transformation" It apparently is no problem for them to fire 20 year loyal employees and put them on the street, only to then give the same job to minimum wage contractors from terror nations. But...."Employees are our biggest asset"

Once again, greed and the drive to cut costs, 99% of which are caused by bad management from the top downwards, means that the people at the lower end of the tree who have no say, no part in and in no way caused the increase in costs, have to bear the brunt and pain by losing their jobs, which doesn't only affect them but families as well. All for the mistakes made by the "higher-ups" in the tree! I would lay a bet on my life you are not losing your job, taking a cut in pay or if by losing it you would get such a golden handshake that the loss of a job wouldn't have the slightest effect on your life or your family! Those who actually make the money for the business, those who "produce the goods", and have the lowest wages by contrast, have nothing! Surely it is cheaper for the country to keep them in work than pay out unemployment benefits, which the country has to pay anyway! I have read the government response to the petition and it is full of words like: regrets (yea, right!!), aware, possibilities, avenues will be explored, could include, protecting customer interests (so the employees are not customers then?!),consults with companies and stakeholders (now they are going to opt for the closure because they are going to make more profit out of it! They're not going to say "keep it, open and running and we will accept a lower dividend etc! So what's the point of consulting with them?) And the last sentence says it all
"The steps companies take to improve efficiency are entirely up to them"

In other words, it's nothing to do with us, we have no control over it so don't blame us!which negates the whole process and incidentally THE COST! of which could have gone to these employees keeping their jobs! jc