I’ve been in URTU since leaving the army. They’ve been a big help to me on several occasion since then.
One of the weirdest reasons I hear for not joining a union is - they’ve got no teeth, or words to that effect.
A union, any union, can only have teeth if it’s supported by the majority of workers in it’s sector.
So in saying I won’t join a union because its got no teeth, you are saying I won’t give a union teeth.
limeyphil:
‘…if a road transport union said it will be holding a one week strike against, fuel, pay, health and safety nonesense, speed limiters, and hours regs. then i would join…’
Other than pay, what has the rest of that got to do with drivers Phil ?
OK, I know everything is connected, but everything else falls into the gaffers hands, not the employees.
Fuel, the boss pays for that, if his rates are ok the cost of fuel will be built in and covered.
Elf n Safe tea, ok, you’re right, a lot of it is nonsense, but it’s the nonsense of - the road to hell is paved by good intentions. They are busily paving away.
Speed Limiters and hours regs. Again that’s down to safe tea and a supposed leveller playing field, the WTD is in there too. That’s supposed to have us working less unsociable hours. In theory, I approve, I should be paid a reasonable wage for fewer hours. The fewer hours I have to work the better.
Fighting to sort these out though is down to the gaffers and their groups, the FTA, RHA etc.
If they ever agree to do something useful, like a reasonable minimum milage rate and abolish ‘backload’ rates, we could all be on decent money for a reasonable amount of work. But if someone decides to ignore their rate, what sanctions will they have? Kicking a company out of the association?
That’ll be a concern I’m sure
As far as I can tell, wages are poor for 2 main reasons.
1 Rates are poor, cut to the bone, so costs have to follow suit. One of the few costs in the bosses control is wages. If the boss puts up the rates he charges, to give us a pay rise, someone will come in at the old rate and steal the work. You’ll then be out of a job, unless you work for the new company on the same old rate for the same old pay.
2 Wages have almost always been low, it’s the culture of driving, long hours at a low hourly rate. We end up with a liveable wage, but only from putting long hours in. There have been times when certain jobs had good wages, but it’s never lasted very long.
Fuel tankers for eg. When the big fuel companies ran there own vehicles and drivers, the drivers were on good money. Then the big logistics companies got interested. They bought all the tankers, ‘streamlined’ working practises and bought in their own drivers on a much lower rate. Did drivers stick together and say ’ we aint working for that?’ Nope, these new tanker drivers were glad to get a job that paid a wage, bugger the rest. Unions might have helped, but the gaffers were wise to that one and bought in none union drivers, the ones who say, ‘I ain’t joining a union, they’ve got no teeth!’
We’re back to square one.