Strike at London Area Dealerships?

[Dippo]

I've just come across this.

Hedin Mercedes-Benz technicians balloted for strike over pay dispute

Technicians employed at Hedin Group’s Mercedes-Benz dealerships across London are being balloted for strike action in a dispute over pay, according to the Unite union.

www.am-online.com

 

[neilrr]

Out of the £200ish per hour service work rate that MB charge how much does the technician typically get?

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

Out of the £200ish per hour service work rate that MB charge how much does the technician typically get?

Difficult to generalise but headline based rate is around £40k, which ain’t great for someone one living in the South East and working in a sector where demand has gone crazy post-Covid-19

Certainly less than £30 per billable hour.

 

[Pontoneer]

Difficult to generalise but headline based rate is around £40k, which ain’t great for someone one living in the South East and working in a sector where demand has gone crazy post-Covid-19

Certainly less than £30 per billable hour.

A lot more than many earn .

 

[markjay]

I've just come across this.

Hedin Mercedes-Benz technicians balloted for strike over pay dispute

Technicians employed at Hedin Group’s Mercedes-Benz dealerships across London are being balloted for strike action in a dispute over pay, according to the Unite union.

www.am-online.com

From the article:

"Unite says the ballot follows the company's refusal to table a pay offer for 2025, despite rising inflation and cost-of-living pressures.

Unite claims that the workers received a 2% pay rise in 2024, at a time when RPI inflation averaged 3.6% pointing out that RPI for April stood at 4.5%.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Hedin cannot expect its workers to keep swallowing real terms wage cuts. Unite defends our members’ jobs, pay and conditions to the hilt. Hedin’s workers have their union’s full backing in fighting for a fair pay rise." "

They do have a point - if the public sector and NHS had an inflation-plus pay increase, why not the private sector, too?

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

They do have a point - if the public sector and NHS had an inflation-plus pay increase, why not the private sector, too?

Inflation linked pay rises fuel further inflation and it becomes self-fulfilling, which of course isn’t in the long term interests of the employee, employer and economy.

Not an easy thing for an employee to accept when they’re struggling to make ends meet, but true. At some point the cycle must be broken.

In real terms some of the things which have the biggest impact on real-world outgoings on the average family or individual have have fallen - or are falling - in price.

Thankfully (variable) mortgage & loan repayments, car & home insurance, petrol & diesel, and (variable) gas & electricity are less expensive than they were a couple of years ago.

 

[Fastcar155]

If the dealers mechanics don't like money they are paid , leave and get another job.
I am a poor old pensioner and have little or no control over my pension.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

A lot more than many earn .

For sure. Most aren’t so stupid as to live in the most expensive part of the country.

Choose to live in Scotland, Wales or the North West and you’ll earn less but have FAR more in your pocket after income taxes, NI, housing and food costs.

Apparently in some parts of the country you can buy a two bed flat for less than a quarter of a million. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but they say it’s true

 

[MSG2004]

Out of the £200ish per hour service work rate that MB charge how much does the technician typically get?

The one on our side of the Thames was charging 220 per hour last year.

Anyone know what a junior and senior mechainc at MB earn in londonse england or other places?
The MB showrooms belong to MB and were sold to the above-mentioned group a few years ago - I guess
they have to pay for the plush showrooms and men in suits.

Once i got a glimpse of a backroom office it was about 25 25 feet max and more than a dozen very young men, looked like just left school/college types on the phone whith headsets - TBH, no offence, it looked like a battery hen farm

 

[Pontoneer]

Inflation linked pay rises fuel further inflation and it becomes self-fulfilling, which of course isn’t in the long term interests of the employee, employer and economy.

Not an easy thing for an employee to accept when they’re struggling to make ends meet, but true. At some point the cycle must be broken.

In real terms some of the things which have the biggest impact on real-world outgoings on the average family or individual have have fallen - or are falling - in price.

Thankfully (variable) mortgage & loan repayments, car & home insurance, petrol & diesel, and (variable) gas & electricity are less expensive than they were a couple of years ago.

A prime example is the price of petrol which , just a couple of months ago was in excess of £1:40 per litre ; yet nowadays I see , and pay £1:24 per litre .

I'm not conscious of anything else having particularly gone up .

 

[Pontoneer]

The one on our side of the Thames was charging 220 per hour last year.

Anyone know what a junior and senior mechainc at MB earn in londonse england or other places?
The MB showrooms belong to MB and were sold to the above-mentioned group a few years ago - I guess
they have to pay for the plush showrooms and men in suits.

Once i got a glimpse of a backroom office it was about 25 25 feet max and more than a dozen very young men, looked like just left school/college types on the phone whith headsets - TBH, no offence, it looked like a battery hen farm

A good reason to go to approved M-B specialists who do not have the same overheads , yet can still do routine servicing and warranty work , carried out by qualified MB master technicians , and update your electronic service book etc ; an example being Merparts in my part of the country , and no doubt others elsewhere .

 

[Pontoneer]

For sure. Most aren’t so stupid as to live in the most expensive part of the country.

Choose to live in Scotland, Wales or the North West and you’ll earn less but have FAR more in your pocket after income taxes, NI, housing and food costs.

Apparently in some parts of the country you can buy a two bed flat for less than a quarter of a million. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but they say it’s true

I bought my two bed semi detached for less than £100K - a house , not a flat . It is ridiculous that prices elsewhere are so much more .

Two bed flats can be had for well under £50K , sometimes less , if you don't mind living in a remote area - but many people are looking for exactly that .

A quarter of a million would buy a very nice 3 bed detached house with garage and a decent amount of land up here , I looked last year at a 6 bed , 3 storey house up North for under £100K .

Still looking at options for my retirement .

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

A prime example is the price of petrol which , just a couple of months ago was in excess of £1:40 per litre ; yet nowadays I see , and pay £1:24 per litre .
I'm not conscious of anything else having particularly gone up .

Scotland: it's fabulous, I tell ya.

My daughter's paying £3,200 a month for her two bed flat. Just moved in there from one that cost £2,500. Landlords are running away from the rental market as fast as their chubby legs can carry them, so rentals in the South East have gone up a lot.

And then there's the Consumer Price Inflation of 2.6%.
Rail and Tube fares are up 4.6%

And of course, a pint is somewhere between £5 to £6 in the South East, outside of central London. 175cl Glass of wine: about the same

 

[Pontoneer]

Scotland: it's fabulous, I tell ya.

My daughter's paying £3,200 a month for her two bed flat. Just moved in there from one that cost £2,500. Landlords are running away from the rental market as fast as their chubby legs can carry them, so rentals in the South East have gone up a lot.

And then there's the Consumer Price Inflation of 2.6%.
Rail and Tube fares are up 4.6%

And of course, a pint is somewhere between £5 to £6 in the South East, outside of central London. 175cl Glass of wine: about the same

Scary ; I'm so glad that my house is paid for and I just have council tax plus utility bills to pay .

I truly don't know what my daughter is paying to rent her private , ground floor , two bedroom flat in Polmont ( a very desirable suburb of Falkirk ) with private parking , railway station on the Glasgow-Edinburgh mainline 200 yds away and trains every 15 minutes at peak times , and within a development in the estate of a large country house , but I know it is low hundreds rather than thousands , and she has all the surrounding parkland to walk her dogs in , plus her own private back garden where her dogs can run and she has birdhouses , plus squirrels in the trees . Mind you , she has been a tennant there for about 10 years .

 

[markjay]

Car dealerships (and other businesses) do not operate like a manpower company - i.e. they are not hiring-out their mechanics at an hourly rate. .

In fact, the mechanics' salary is probably only a marginal factor in their operating costs.

Firstly, for every mechanic whose time is chargeable, there are an x number of people who get paid their wages but whose time is not charged to the customer by the hour - the customers do not pay an hourly rate for the time of the service advisor who deals with them, or the time of the service manager who sits in his office, or the time of the bookkeeper processing the invoices and payments in the backoffice, or the receptionist at the entrance, etc. etc. And this is before we even get to the cleaning and security staff.

Then, there's 15% employer's NIC, 3% workplace pension, and staff training and staff holidays (which is when staff get paid but no customer is charged).

And last, there's rent, business rates, electricity, heating, IT.....

And after all this.... the business needs to turn a profit so that the owners get their ROI.

Not making excuses for overcharging customers, just pointing out that the mechanics' wages is far from being the main factor in the hourly rate charged to the customer.

 

[TC350]

Scotland: it's fabulous, I tell ya.

My daughter's paying £3,200 a month for her two bed flat. Just moved in there from one that cost £2,500. Landlords are running away from the rental market as fast as their chubby legs can carry them, so rentals in the South East have gone up a lot.

And then there's the Consumer Price Inflation of 2.6%.
Rail and Tube fares are up 4.6%

And of course, a pint is somewhere between £5 to £6 in the South East, outside of central London. 175cl Glass of wine: about the same

And some people still ask me why I left London after 40 years.

 

[MSG2004]

A prime example is the price of petrol which , just a couple of months ago was in excess of £1:40 per litre ; yet nowadays I see , and pay £1:24 per litre .

I'm not conscious of anything else having particularly gone up .

We shop online at tesco's and physical shop at morrions etc for ods and
ends. The prices don't go up by a pney or ten its
often 20/40/50% a time.
Having stated the above, they do drop some prices.
My wifes buys Sure deodorant - 250ml bottel gone up from about 250/80 IIRC from about 18 months ago to around 450 a spray bottle - we wait for offers and buy in bulk anyhting and everything we need, the current price for their so-called 'clubsaver' is 290 - the previous price a few months ago for club saver was 260.

It is hard to keep track of prices/special offers but our average basket for shoppin ie everthing we eat plus bathroom stuff inc shamppos etc etc - plus drinks has gone up by at least 30% over 18% months - we do watch out for offers as I said, and we are lucky we can afford to stock up and store etc - so, those that can't afford to do that or can't be ****d will be paying a lot more.

 

[Fastcar155]

In Portugal decaf coffee sells for € 5.95 per bag ( approx 400 gms )

Same brand in UK was £9.50 three months ago.

 

[MikeInWimbledon]

In Portugal decaf coffee sells for € 5.95 per bag ( approx 400 gms )
Same brand in UK was £9.50 three months ago.

At the risk of pulling this thread completely off line....

I chuckle at cups of horrendous coffee in the South East for £4. Call it just shy of €5 if you will

Compared to €2 at Cannes Market and €1 sat in the sun across the Italian border in San Remo

Taxes: don't ya just love 'em

 

[Petrol Pete]

In Portugal decaf coffee sells for € 5.95 per bag ( approx 400 gms )

Same brand in UK was £9.50 three months ago.

IMHO De caffeinated coffee should be given away for free, what's the point of it ?

Just my opinion , and we all know what they are worth !