The Navigators Page #6

- Excuse me, mate.

- Hello?

No, Jonathan, it's pretty clear.

Yeah. No, as the train operating company,

we're gonna come out of this

absolutely scqueaky clean.

Aye, absolutely.

Yeah, there's no doubt about it. We're gonna

stuff the track company on this one.

I'll get back to you when I get some more news .

- Well, the wagons have come off...

- Excuse me, mate.

And they've, er, top pled over

and taken the signal cables .

But I'll tell you something.

Gilchrist are gonna get screwed on this one.

Come on, boys .

He's down here, the Gilchrist bloke.

Cheers, mate.

Heard a few things

about the track widening... to gauge.

You know, that section that they mentioned,

that they couldn't maintain any more?

We'd have to, er, he'd have to pay to renew.

Did they ever come up with

the money for that job?

No, I thought they hadn't.

Have you been on to the lawyers yet?

Right. Get on to them

soon as they get into the office.

- Are you in charge, mate?

- Depends. What did you want?

Well, we've been sent up to find out

what all t'damage is about.

- And who d'you work for?

- Same as you, Gilchrist.

- You can look round but don't disturb anything.

- All right. No worries .

- Is anybody doing any work round here?

- Come on. We are. Let's get going.

Not meant to be

a bloody Cruft's dog competition, is it?

Whatever competition it'd be,

he wouldn't f***ing win it.

- Lennie! F***ing Lennie!

- F***ing hell!

- How are you doing,mate?

- My, a likely bunch of workers I've ever seen!

- How's it going?

- What are you doing here?

- Working like thee.

- I thought you'd finished work.

- I'm working for agency now.

- Eh?

- Working for agency now.

- What agency?

Well, they wrote to me

about six or eight week ago.

See if I could get a gang together.

Have a look. It's here.

- I kept letter. So I got lads together and we...

- Thanks for thinking of us(!)

Listen to this, listen to this .

"We are looking for skilled technicians."

"Very good earning op portunities are available

to those willing to work flexibly."

- What's all that about?

- Well, that's us .

- When did they know you were leaving?

- Haven't a bloody clue.

Like this morning. Just got a telephone call.

"Get lads together, get tha tackle on

and get down here."

- How much are they paying you?

- Must be seven or eight cquid an hour. Is it?

- Go on, tell us. How much are they paying you?

- How does 1 5 sound?

- F***ing 'ell! 1 5 cquid?!

- An hour?!

- These lads are on 1 2.

- F***in' 'ell!

- Wayne's on 1 2 cquid an hour?!

- Him? 1 2 cquid an hour?

- It says "skilled technician" here!

- Yeah, top man.

Anyway, what's tha bloody crew

doing here this morning?

We're here to sort out f***ing stuff,

all t'damage assessment.

Well, we've both got same will, then.

Has thee made a start yet?

We've only just got here.

Ah, well, see, we've been at it

about an hour, us lads .

Anyway, I'll give you a bit of a clue, look.

I reckon there's six sets of track cable to replace.

There's about ten yard of troughing torn up ,

with two 48-cores, a power cable,

a bit for telecom...

Lennie, Lennie. We'll start at far end, you'll start

up there and we'll meet in t'middle, mate.

We'll get us notes out then, see how job's gone.

Well, tha do a little bit less than us ,

cos we being on 1 5 cquid, we feel we ought to...

- (Laughter)

- F***ing cheeky bastard!

See you in a bit, lads .

You'll get yourself

some prize lookers now, won't you, Len?

- Well, what a waste of time that were, eh?

- Aye, a right f***ing circus, weren't it?

Right then, Jim.

Your turn to put kettle on, innit, mate?

Oh, 'ey, give us a chance

to get me bleedin' coat off, will ya?

(Chatter)

Slips are here, boys !

Paul.

Mick. Geraldo.

Yours is down here, Jim.

- Oh, that's f***ing typical, that is !

- What's wrong? They overpaid you again?

No, they've taken 1 1 0 cquid off me.

- Who has ?

- Child Sup port Agency.

Well, you were expecting it, weren't you?

Ah, f*** it, lads, I've had enough.

Where's that letter?

Can't live on that.

Oh, come on, Paul.

Surely you're not gonna sign that.

- I've had enough, Gerry. I've had enough.

- Oh, come on!

- Nowwt to stay here for, is there?

- 9,670... 9,670 cquid!

- How much did Len say he's getting an hour?

- 1 5 cquid.

- 1 5 cquid.

- But that weren't a guaranteed 40-hour week.

- It's a damn sight more than we're getting.

- That's for being in charge, an' all.

- It's more than he got for being in charge here.

- Yeah, but it were a regular wage.

Yeah, on bare time!

I haven't got any money, have l?

Eh? I've gotta buy a flat. I've gotta get furniture.

They've just taken 1 1 0 cquid off me.

I can't live on that, can l?

I'm signing it. Gi' us a pen, Jim.

- You can sod off. I'm not giving you a pen...

- Just give us a pen!

..to sign for voluntary redundancy.

Any road, what gives you right to sell a job?

Gi' us a pen, John.

- What about you, Mick?

- Oh, I don't know, Webby.

It's a big step chucking a job.

It takes some thinking about.

- Well, I've been thinking about it.

- Aye, me an' all. Give us that pen after you.

What's tha want it for?

Tha's not been here long enough.

Look, a few thousand cquid's better than nowwt.

Might get nowwt here soon.

And, on top of that, twice hourly rate.

- Are you gonna sign it or what, Mick?

- Paul, you know I can't just pack a job in!

- Why not?

- I've been made redundant twice before!

You know that!

I'm just beginning to clear me debts off!

Yeah, but if you take your redundancy,

you'll be able to clear 'em off!

I've only been here three years .

I haven't been here as long as you.

- I'm due about two-and-a-half grand.

- I'm gonna hand it in.

- Are you coming, or what, John?

- Yeah.

- Listen, think about what you're doing. Just...

- I've been thinking about it, Gerry.

What... You're just giving

everything what you've got here away.

- Why, what have we got?

- What have you got? I'll tell you what you've got.

- You've got your depot, your holidays .

- Bloody depot's gone to sh*t, ha'n't it?

- I'll tell you what you're giving up .

- No, hang on, hang on, hang on.

Hang on, hang on. There's five of us here

and there's not enough work for us .

But there's plenty out there getting enough work

on double pay.

How... How many times have you s poke to us

about how low us wages are? A lot.

- Just let me...

- And we can get double wages .

- Don't you think that's an improvement?

- You might only get 1 0, 1 5 hours a week!

And we might not. You might get nowwt here!

- Are you coming, or what, John?

- I'm coming!

- Mick, are you gonna sign it, or what?

- I've got to think about it.

I'll tell you what I think. I think that you're playing

right into their bloody hands .

- This is exactly what they want us to do.

- Exactly.

They want us to leave.

The... They're putting us in a position now

- where we've got no choice whatsoever.

- Exactly. We've got no choice.

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