Facebook Anomaly

Because a union can kick you out if you're upsetting other union
members or because an employer will always get rid of someone they
perceive to be a problem?

It's a double hit really because if you're a right **** but play the
union game they'll back you up whereas you can be a thoroughly decent
bloke who's simply fallen out with one of his bosses and the union
will let them **** you if you're not a member.

I won't let any union tell me which paper I can read but for the sake
of an easy life I'll read it at home rather than get into a
confrontation.

 

I think you misunderstand - it's not the union that dislikes the Sun it's
train drivers.

Less so now but certainly was vehement a few years ago.

 

you're not really trying to claim that the working man can form his
own opinion, are you?

pshaw!

 

I've been a Union Man pretty much right through from age 20.
I think you can figure out why.

 

You say what you think; that the company stinks?

 

If it was the ETU, or it's affiliates the tax breaks.[1]



[1] They did a deal with the (Heath?) gummint about having the costs of
the laundry of working clothes as a tax deductible expense which
effectively meant that if you was a member and I was, the gummint paid
your union subs.

 

You worked for companies which already had a large enough union
representation for them to actually count for something in a
negotiating position?

 

You like scaffold?

--


Nige,

'That's shot the fox'

Eunos Roadster (for summer)
Grand Cherokee (for winter)

 

Well yes, and I'm not one to hold my tongue, being the other

 

It was The Strawbs, you fucknugget!

 

Heh, and it was certainly true of BT

 

It was working at BT that put me off unions for life. All the warehouse
bods went on strike for more money, & got most irate when I drove
through the picket line. They spouted all this bollocks about
supporting fellow workers, even though they knew I was a temp & would
lose my job in an instant if I joined them. They didn't give a shit
about that though - getting more money for themselves was more
important than me keeping my job.

 

Same for me when I was at RR[1].

Bugger. What you needed was some sort of representation to ensure that
you couldn't be fired...

[1] Two events spring to mind, firstly, just before I moved into
Computer operations, the operators (members of ASTMS) were in dispute
and were "locked out" by management. Computers were kept running by
their bosses, who were also in a union... the same union. FFS.
Second one was a year or three later when 'we', i.e. the union
membership, at least as represented by the shop stewards, turned down
the pay offer of around 15%[2] and went into a 3-month period of
dispute, during which time we did absolutely nothing. Eventually we
got fed with it and accepted a revised offer... of around 13%[3].
[2] Remember when inflation was running at around 20%?
[3] numbers may be wrong but you get the idea.

 

can we move on to the '80s today, because after all, ridicule is
nothing to be scared of.

 

Charming.

 

Heh. Not really an option on a weekly temping contract. Their total
disregard for my job came back to haunt them a few years later though,
when I was a project planner on the team deciding which warehouses to
close.

 

as long as we're not letting down (y)our standards.

Good old Stuart - he used to live just around the corner from me, but
I don't know where he is now - last I heard he'd become a pirate or
something.

 

Indeed. Fucking Unions. While I were an apprentice with the GPO (as BT
was called back then) there was a strike and us "yoofs" weren't allowed to
join it and were expected to turn up and do our jobs as normal. So there
was me and the AEO in charge of Basildon telephone exchange making tea for
our mates on the picket lines and making sure that if so much as a single
scab crossed lines the union rep could be called out of the betting shop
to deal with it except I wasn't allowed to let the boss stir the tea cos
that would have been strike breaking activities. Fucking bastards. I could
swing a pick axe handle as well as any of them, it wasn't fair.

 

Well I was a fairly senior PCG grade and the Onions had negotiated some
pretty fucking good protection and for retirees some excellent packages. I'm
very glad I was a Connect member.
The company in all its arms was being ruined by some awful executive
management and I'm sure that even at my grade, without the Unions, those who
wanted to leave and those who were canned (many) would have been in line for
SFA.

UKAEA was somewhat the same as I recall. I legged it at the Chernoble
milestone but others who remained were not badly done by, considering the
standards of the time.

 

I have been quite lucky during my working life with regards union
activities. In general I have worked in industries where the employees
were, in the main, literate and numerate and the management were promoted
from The Ranks. Negotiations were fairly civilised affairs where the only
real differences were between what we wanted and the augment were prepared
to offer. Compromise generally ensued.

I am just grateful I didn't work in the shipyards or steel industries.
Although the 6 months I spent working on the line at Frauds in Daggerham
was a fucking eye opener in terms of how NOT to manage industrial
relations.[1]


[1] Drinking one day in the pub with the shop stewards after work I was
told to expect a strike in a week or two. "Why?" said a naive little me.
"Look at the overflow car parks," was the reply, "Full as a full thing on
national full day they are. The management will provoke a minor dispute
that will escalate into the whole place shutting down for 2 weeks." And
they were right. 2 weeks later one of the door hangers (a shitty job even
by shitty job standards) was clocked for coming back 10 seconds late from
a piss break and 5 thousand of us were all out in the street being
militant, just as predicted. Blessed be 1970's management methods.