Solly:
Juddian:
Well i’m in a unionised job, every good job i’ve had and the current one is the best of all have been unionised, thats over a period of 37 years, my first job was unionised even then.Yes unions have changed but on the shop floor level nothing has really changed.
The most important decison you will make as a collective is who is to be your spokesperson/shop steward, take time over that one for your majority terms and conditions are at stake.
A good steward has to wear two hats, one to negotiate strongly but fairly with the management, this means having the balls to stand up for whats right yet unable to be bought/bribed by being fed the right work to keep himself sweet.
The other hat is required to keep discipline in the ranks, once you negotiate (full sick pay for example) benefits then there is a sizeable minority too stupid not to take adavantage and milk the situation, which will eventually destroy the job from within.
This other hat is also needed to stop silly demands from ever reaching the ears of the management, you simply are not going to get a 20% raise in one hit combined with 20% reduction in hours, get real.Choose a steward who is principled and has the majority of the members at heart not just themselves and their merry mates, i cannot stress this highly enough.
I’m really not interested in the political slant of the union bosses,[/b] they with certain exceptions are far removed from the workers they might once have been or presume to represent.
In many cases they have assisted the Blair govt in particular (the o present cabal no better) into unlimited immigration which has systematically and ironically destroyed millions of working peoples livelihoods, though they themselves like turkeys voted for their own Christmas and still do.
It is worth establishing a good union where you work, you only have to look at the RMT train drivers who have never allowed their jobs to be undermined like ours have over the last 25 years, they have stuck together and earn around £40/50k for a 40 hour week.
Oddly enough the companies concerned haven’t gone bust and they haven’t brought in thousands of often incompetent underskilled flip flops to take over as and where necessary because the union boss and his members put the members first, makes sense to me.
[/quote]
^^This 100% with the exception of the highlighted text.
I think “Union Bosses” need to be politicised, as many are.
Union members need their bosses to have knowledge of the parliamentary and “Business” system so they can be on level terms with “Employers Unions” and politicians so that they are less likely to be hoodwinked by those with the power to erode pay and working conditions.
[/quote]
That’s actually been their biggest mistake being that the party political dogma which you’re loyally following is not only the wrong direction but can suddenly turn against you in addition.It’s ironic that once it was misguided workers and their union leadership that looked up to the Socialist/Communist system for inspiration and now it’s an alliance of ‘New Labour’ and the Tories who’ve sold out the interests of western workers to those economies while living standards and terms and conditions fall here in order to remain ‘competitive’ in the ‘global free market economy’.Which is actually all about making the communist regimes like China etc better off and more powerful at western workers expense.
The fact is for any union leader all that should matter is keeping income levels and living standards growing and they won’t do that by following the bs idea of socialism.
Latique:
those of you reading this and seeing the RMT as a strong union may like to know that they are actively recruiting in the transport industry’s many bus & coach drivers are now represented by the RMT so maybe they could be approached to represent usoh and for the record iam a former railway signal man who saw his wages increase from 11k to 23 k in five years and my hours lower from 40 to 38 hours a week whilst staying in exactly the same position and doing exactly the same job all thanks to my union negotiating on my behalf so it can be done
My bus garage tried to go over to RMT a few years back, but the RMT did not want us.
Carryfast:
Solly:
^^This 100% with the exception of the highlighted text.I think “Union Bosses” need to be politicised, as many are.
Union members need their bosses to have knowledge of the parliamentary and “Business” system so they can be on level terms with “Employers Unions” and politicians so that they are less likely to be hoodwinked by those with the power to erode pay and working conditions.That’s actually been their biggest mistake being that the party political dogma which you’re loyally following is not only the wrong direction but can suddenly turn against you in addition.It’s ironic that once it was misguided workers and their union leadership that looked up to the Socialist/Communist system for inspiration and now it’s an alliance of ‘New Labour’ and the Tories who’ve sold out the interests of western workers to those economies while living standards and terms and conditions fall here in order to remain ‘competitive’ in the ‘global free market economy’.Which is actually all about making the communist regimes like China etc better off and more powerful at western workers expense.
The fact is for any union leader all that should matter is keeping income levels and living standards growing and they won’t do that by following the bs idea of socialism.
C/F mate, why don’t you learn to read a comment properly and comprehend what it is trying to convey instead of putting your usual slant on it and coming to the wrong conclusion, which always brings you into conflict with other forum members?
Solly:
Carryfast:
Solly:
^^This 100% with the exception of the highlighted text.I think “Union Bosses” need to be politicised, as many are.
Union members need their bosses to have knowledge of the parliamentary and “Business” system so they can be on level terms with “Employers Unions” and politicians so that they are less likely to be hoodwinked by those with the power to erode pay and working conditions.That’s actually been their biggest mistake being that the party political dogma which you’re loyally following is not only the wrong direction but can suddenly turn against you in addition.It’s ironic that once it was misguided workers and their union leadership that looked up to the Socialist/Communist system for inspiration and now it’s an alliance of ‘New Labour’ and the Tories who’ve sold out the interests of western workers to those economies while living standards and terms and conditions fall here in order to remain ‘competitive’ in the ‘global free market economy’.Which is actually all about making the communist regimes like China etc better off and more powerful at western workers expense.
The fact is for any union leader all that should matter is keeping income levels and living standards growing and they won’t do that by following the bs idea of socialism.
C/F mate, why don’t you learn to read a comment properly and comprehend what it is trying to convey instead of putting your usual slant on it and coming to the wrong conclusion, which always brings you into conflict with other forum members?
If telling it like it is brings conflict with other forum members that’s their problem not mine.History proves my comments are the right conclusion.Union members from the lowest rank and file to the top general secretary all know what and who they are dealing with in the case of both the employers’ side and their representatives in government and the CBI.History proves that there’s no way that any government will ever have the interests of that rank and file at heart.The government will always be on the employers side regardless of that government’s labelling.The job of the union is to understand that and realise that the idea of politicising the union movement is counter productive.The only thing the unions need to do is unite and then use that unity to ‘make’ the government,and the employers who the government is always going to be on the side of,do whatever is in the unions’ interests by way of industrial action as and when required.To do that there’s absolutely no need for anyone at any level in any union to be involved with government level policy,nor to subsidise any so called ‘Labour’ government,nor to be paid government level wages to do same.
That situation would obviously only change when the government and the CBI eventually realise that the best way to create economic growth is by running a Fordist economic system in a protected,closed loop,manufacturing based economy.At which point the need for union militancy,as opposed to co operation,would be removed. 
Solly:
Quoting John Berger:‘…The poverty of our century is not as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied but written off as trash…’
I dispute that ‘…the rich impose priorities…’
My understanding suggests that those same priorities are sexed-up & made readily available for ‘…trash…’ to buy for consumption - which they (we?) do by the shovelful, ie:
1 Over-processed GM and junk food is brilliant
2 Gutter standards are brilliant
3 Diluted values make Britain brilliant
4 Diversification is brilliant
5 The EU is brilliant
6 Ultra-liberalism is brilliant
7 The tribal three (Lib/Lab/Con) are all alright since they’re all pro-EU anyway
8 Democracy is dangerous: Let Big Brother do such piddling stuff instead
9 Britain should be ashamed at having once been successful
10 The lowest common denomiators of many things affecting the UK zone of Europe is brilliant
However, I’m socialist at heart but dispute that none of the above do much good in the combination, volume or intensity that they’re sold/forced/co-erced/manipulated at us.
PS. I’m in Unite - but at my request they withhold my levy (apparently ‘for charity’) as McClusky & ‘that system’ (tribally?) disgusts me
I’ve only had to bother with a union once in my working life, 40 years man & boy. I went for a job at vickers engineering in Newcastle. At the interview I was asked if I was in a union, I said no, I was told I could not start then as they could only take on union members. So I went to the local union office and asked to join, I was asked if I was working, I said no, they said sorry but you can’t join unless you are working! That union was the transport & general workers union.
When I worked at ASDA they would only allow a union of their choice. That is the GMB union. The union HQ is at, drum roll please, ASDA house in Leeds. I never even bothered asking them if I could join.
The idea of politicising a union may be wrong, but then why does part of your union subs go to the labour party?
Slackbladder:
'… why does part of your union subs go to the labour party…?
Mine doesn’t, but maybe it’s a lot to do with lefties tribally pigeon-holeing us as one (spit) without appreciating that some of us simply don’t like the idea of being pee’d upon at work by gifted/lucky grabbing individuals and their undemocratically endorsed, EU diktat umbrellas 
There’s evidently zero appreciation for the diversity so beloved of Tony “Guilty” Blair yet as an activity, diversity is evidently despised should we demonstrate it - given the evidence provided without a thought for blanket-bigots by Gordon “Out-of-Touch” Brown or Grommit’s looky-likey mate, minipede 
Well the good news since my rep put me on work to rule last weekend is that as of 7 days the MotherF******* will have 28 days 'til the tribunal-I think the system works-Rant On All…
£13.52/month is a good investment?(it’s tax deductable %100)
I’m back in an organized workplace and very happy about it 
FLUNKEY:
Well the good news since my rep put me on work to rule last weekend is that as of 7 days the MotherF******* will have 28 days 'til the tribunal-I think the system works-Rant On All…
£13.52/month is a good investment?(it’s tax deductable %100)
Flunkey, after reading this and your post on another topic where you talk about your rep urging you to take a sick day I’m slightly alarmed for you. I’m not having a pop at you and obviously I have no knowledge of your grievance with your company, so can’t possibly comment on that. But I would be asking myself “has my rep got my best interests at heart, or is he working to his own agenda?”
Now, I’m hoping that I’m way wide of the mark, but I’d hate to see a guy get crucified at the altar of another mans ambitions if you get my drift?
Also, I’d be soooo careful about what I post on a very public and very well read forum tbh. As has been said many times “you never know who’s reading”
the maoster:
FLUNKEY:
Well the good news since my rep put me on work to rule last weekend is that as of 7 days the MotherF******* will have 28 days 'til the tribunal-I think the system works-Rant On All…
£13.52/month is a good investment?(it’s tax deductable %100)Flunkey, after reading this and your post on another topic where you talk about your rep urging you to take a sick day I’m slightly alarmed for you. I’m not having a pop at you and obviously I have no knowledge of your grievance with your company, so can’t possibly comment on that. But I would be asking myself “has my rep got my best interests at heart, or is he working to his own agenda?”
Now, I’m hoping that I’m way wide of the mark, but I’d hate to see a guy get crucified at the altar of another mans ambitions if you get my drift?
Also, I’d be soooo careful about what I post on a very public and very well read forum tbh. As has been said many times “you never know who’s reading”
Let’s Make Hay…Inshallah-but I appreciate your concerns=Welocome the flip flops keep on Lorrying for less?!? Does it keep us all honest?-Sorry only those with the check books…us poor people have debit cards-Food 4 Thought?? 
tanker drivers,train drivers ect have strong unions as do teachers, fireman,ect this equals fair pay pensions an conditions and being treat like human beings.
fuse:
tanker drivers,train drivers ect have strong unions as do teachers, fireman,ect this equals fair pay pensions an conditions and being treat like human beings.
Moving right along £££ again-Solidarity? 
fuse:
tanker drivers,train drivers ect have strong unions as do teachers, fireman,ect this equals fair pay pensions an conditions and being treat like human beings.
It’s not just about having a strong union you have got to stick together something drivers cannot do. You can go from car licence to C+E in 1 month but you cannot do the above in same time that will never increase wages for drivers. I no a driver that got a bonneted scania a few years ago so he never went home for 3 years in case another driver went near it why should bosses pay more with staff like that, same as drivers living in cabs why would anyone want to live in a tin box for £20 a night drivers are there own worst enemeys
mac12:
fuse:
tanker drivers,train drivers ect have strong unions as do teachers, fireman,ect this equals fair pay pensions an conditions and being treat like human beings.It’s not just about having a strong union you have got to stick together something drivers cannot do. You can go from car licence to C+E in 1 month but you cannot do the above in same time that will never increase wages for drivers. I no a driver that got a bonneted scania a few years ago so he never went home for 3 years in case another driver went near it why should bosses pay more with staff like that, same as drivers living in cabs why would anyone want to live in a tin box for £20 a night drivers are there own worst enemeys
I have a “goodfella” who is doin’ 'da b’dness faw me…Watch this space…INSHALLAH. Please let me have the 28 mandate days to resolve this matter-then we can see if the system works?!?
fuse:
tanker drivers,train drivers ect have strong unions as do teachers, fireman,ect this equals fair pay pensions an conditions and being treat like human beings.
Really
Teachers and train drivers maybe but not tanker drivers and Firemen.
The firemen didn’t really achive anything on their strike neither did the tanker drivers.
It certanly never had the impact that was hoped for you could still get fuel once tha panic buying died down.
Any job that can be covered by the Army or other firms will never last on strike.
No point in haulage too many other firms waiting to nick the work.
Too many other drivers waiting to jump in look at the Doncaster Tesco thread on here were lads were bragging how much they were making.
Just wait a bit longer then and there won’t be an Army to cover a strike.
But then again I’ve never heard of any sheep or lemmings going on strike yet either!
Funny how all of a sudden the economical situation is looking better now too. It would be now - they’ve culled the workforce and massaged the jobless figures.
Keep voting the same way (or not at all) and you can have more of the same - crack on !!!
fredthered:
Just wait a bit longer then and there won’t be an Army to cover a strike.But then again I’ve never heard of any sheep or lemmings going on strike yet either!
Funny how all of a sudden the economical situation is looking better now too. It would be now - they’ve culled the workforce and massaged the jobless figures.
Keep voting the same way (or not at all) and you can have more of the same - crack on !!!
+1
Ah yes the increase in the economy of 0.6% according to the British Brainwashing Company, 0.6% of what Tax Takes?
One could be forgiven for thinking that there’s an election in two years time, so quietly urge the proletariat towards what they want to believe, so they vote for the same traitors crooks and liars again that they have been for decades.
Turkeys must vote for Christmas, its your duty so be good little drones and do as you’re told.
fredthered:
‘…Just wait a bit longer then and there won’t be an Army to cover a strike…’
That won’t be a problem
The (Former) UK zone of the EU will have quadrillions of Roma-Bulgars willing to observe it with indifference 
Slackbladder wrote:
'… why does part of your union subs go to the labour party…?
mainly because without the unions financial support it is unlikely that the labour party could continue to exist in the long term.
Wether you believe that the labour party is presently any use at all or not the fact remains that a viable opposition is essential to keep some control over the government.
The alternative is that political parties get financial support from the state via your taxes, which is exactly what both major parties are actively pursuing.
Equally, you may ask why some of your bills for your shopping and sevices goes to the Conservative party.
The main difference there is that with the unions you can opt out of paying to a political party but when shopping you have no option if the company decides to donate to the conservatives.