9th October 2008, 05:40 PM
its about the proportion of staff, not the number. MoLAS is a lot smaller than a lot of people think, and has been very small at points over the last few years -six diggers anyone? A lot of Molas staff are on short term contracts, they took the risk and lost the pay, for the principal, and because they had all been mucked around so much and for so long. In small units you actually have a greater percentage of site staff than at say MoLAS, because a larger unit has far more support/admin staff who tend to have better contracts and/or market rate pay. So when it comes to action, they often outweigh the actual archaeologists. Except that at MoLAS outside of a few admin people on London rate admin wages, everyone was on sh*t money etc etc etc.
Don't say it's easy for others, make it possible for yourselves. Organise, educate and argue your case, it aint easy on short contracts, but does that mean you should give up? And when these tales of units victimising staff come out, let us all know and we can all do something about it.
If its something that seriously affects the entire archaeological industry, and needs addressing at the 'nuclear option' level of having a strike, then try and get a strike across the industry, although good luck trying to get that past Dave Allen
Don't say it's easy for others, make it possible for yourselves. Organise, educate and argue your case, it aint easy on short contracts, but does that mean you should give up? And when these tales of units victimising staff come out, let us all know and we can all do something about it.
If its something that seriously affects the entire archaeological industry, and needs addressing at the 'nuclear option' level of having a strike, then try and get a strike across the industry, although good luck trying to get that past Dave Allen