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Trade Unions! Do They Still Have A Role To Play?

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Originally Posted by VARB

When I started my present job the union rep approached me about joining I agreed but said I wanted to opt out of the political levy as I did not want to fund the Labour party he looked shocked and when I told him I was a BNP voter he just walked away saying that I was not welcome in his union .

It is not for individual shop stewards to decide who can and cant join his union based on political affiliation, I would have thought there would be a change of heart if you took the matter further.

Is somebody who votes Monster Raving Loony Party excluded as well, I don’t remember filling in any question asking what party I voted for.

:confused::huh:

The Unions were, and in some cases still are, just clubs for left wingers who love to perpetuate the 'them and us' culture that has for so long been a rotten, festering divide in British industry.

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Thanks for all the comments everyone, I started this thread for personal reasons as at work our contracts are all coming to an end & we all have good reason to believe this is because it's going to be contracted out to private companies to save money, however we all joined the same union but they now seem powerless to save our jobs and have done nothing other than state what is already EU law, so now none of us can understand what the role of unions play today?

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Thanks for all the comments everyone, I started this thread for personal we all joined the same union but they now seem powerless to save our jobs and have done nothing other than state what is already EU law, so now none of us can understand what the role of unions play today?
A very, very good point.

With or without the unions, and the subs they demand to fund the Labour party, you have the same legal rights and will be given the same support at tribunal.

More than ever, employers are paranoid because, believe it or not (and I know the lefties won't), the employees have a very unfair advantage in that the laws and regulations are stacked up in their favour and employing people is in itself a challenging business.

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Originally The Unions were, and in some cases still are, just clubs for left wingers who love to perpetuate the 'them and us' culture that has for so long been a rotten, festering divide in British industry.

 

 

 

Is there such a thing as left wing or right wing politics anymore, they have both met somewhere in the middle.

 

Unions today are unrecognisable from the 70`s anybody who thinks otherwise as clearly got blinkers on or are stuck in a time warp.

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A very, very good point.

With or without the unions, and the subs they demand to fund the Labour party, you have the same legal rights and will be given the same support at tribunal.

More than ever, employers are paranoid because, believe it or not (and I know the lefties won't), the employees have a very unfair advantage in that the laws and regulations are stacked up in their favour and employing people is in itself a challenging business.

 

I am very thankfull though for the equality unions & other organisations have had to fight for in the past but maybe the unions need more influence & power to carry on making it more fair for everyone so that the obviously unfair situation were in now doesn't re occur!?

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I am very thankfull though for the equality unions & other organisations have had to fight for in the past but maybe the unions need more influence & power to carry on making it more fair for everyone so that the obviously unfair situation were in now doesn't re occur!?

Indeed good chap - power to the employers!!!

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Originally Posted by VARB

When I started my present job the union rep approached me about joining I agreed but said I wanted to opt out of the political levy as I did not want to fund the Labour party he looked shocked and when I told him I was a BNP voter he just walked away saying that I was not welcome in his union .

The Unions were, and in some cases still are, just clubs for left wingers who love to perpetuate the 'them and us' culture that has for so long been a rotten, festering divide in British industry.

 

Have you read the papers or listened to the news since the 70s? :suspect:

 

StarSparkle

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Indeed good chap - power to the employers!!!

 

So the unions do have a role to play!;)

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With or without the unions, and the subs they demand to fund the Labour party, you have the same legal rights and will be given the same support at tribunal.

More than ever, employers are paranoid because, believe it or not (and I know the lefties won't), the employees have a very unfair advantage in that the laws and regulations are stacked up in their favour and employing people is in itself a challenging business.

 

And yet we still have a small but significant minority of unscrupulous employers (or managers within otherwise OK employers) who try to get away with bullying, illegal redundancies, unsafe working practices, discrimination etc

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Indeed good chap - power to the employers!!!

Why does someone who works for an organisation, in which you never have a chance to be anything but an employee, no matter how far you may rise, admire the employers so much?

To them you are just cannon fodder and easily replaced.

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Why does someone who works for an organisation, in which you never have a chance to be anything but an employee, no matter how far you may rise, admire the employers so much?

To them you are just cannon fodder and easily replaced.

 

I suspect many managers mistakenly think they are 'up there' with the capitalists, rather than 'down there' with the workers....

 

Such fools! They are just cannon-fodder to the owners, the same as everyone who is employed by someone else. Being workers of so-called 'brain' makes them no less expendable.

 

StarSparkle

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Thanks for all the comments everyone, I started this thread for personal reasons as at work our contracts are all coming to an end & we all have good reason to believe this is because it's going to be contracted out to private companies to save money, however we all joined the same union but they now seem powerless to save our jobs and have done nothing other than state what is already EU law, so now none of us can understand what the role of unions play today?

 

A lot of people these days miss the point of unions. A union is just a collection of individual workers - the idea is that if you act together, you have more influence than if you act alone. Too many union members (and I speak as a former shop steward) just expect their union to sort everything out for them; a very passive viewpoint which is symptomatic of a lot of things these days - people don't see why they should do anything to resolve problems or change anything, just pay someone else to sort it.

 

This however does not work with a trade union. If members want something changed, they will have to accept that it probably involves them doing something collectively. That can be a work-to-rule, a strike, or just complaining en masse. Passivity will get you nowhere in a situation like the one you describe.

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