Len McCluskey Unite

mcfisco

TBH - £11.99 is peanuts for what you get

God knows how much it's costing me each month to keep bankers in the style they've been accustomed to - and look what they've done to us all

TBH - the money is worth it just to see the hard of thinking knuckle draggers with their panties in a twist over it

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I am convinced that all these union leaders are cunning right wing plants, working relentlessly to undermine the concept of trade unionism in this country. Could it be possible to design someone more annoying than Crow or McCluskey?

- immensely punchable face
- thick as pigshyte
- overpaid

I'm fairly lefty and support the right of unions and appreciate the efforts they have made for the workforce over the years. However, as soon as Crow opens his gob I immediately disagree with everything he says. It's quite a skill, really.

chewmylegoff

BobQ wrote: »

A union cannot stop non-members from freeloading on the efforts of the union in its collective bargaining. But there is nothing to stop a non-union member negotiating directly with an employer, in fact with your attitude maybe you should try it?

a non-union member can of course try negotiating with their employer directly, but it doesn't get you anywhere because the employer cannot contract on separate terms with the non-union member. so, for instance, i once had to wait well over a year to get a payrise which the union rejected again and again before eventually announcing victory when the employer budged by 0.25% (which of course, given inflation was running at 4% at the time, meant that the union had negotiated worse terms for me despite me not being in the union). at least i didn't have to pay them £12 a month to get that amazing result though, as that would have been more than the 0.25% they negotiated.

non union members do not "freeload" on the back of the union's collective bargaining power. they are obliged to take what the union negotiate whether they like it or not.

Of course there is more to being being a member than collective bargaining. Non-union members do not get support from the union if they have a problem like a disciplinary incident.

unless you go to the union and say "i'm subject to a disciplinary, can i join please" and they say "yes" which is what happens in practice.

Its right that all members get the same support for something that happens when they are a member. Suppose you take out house insurance today and next week your house burnt down. Would you think it fair if your insurer paid you less favourably than someone who had been with them for 40 years?

my point was that you can retrospectively insure by joining the union after the "something" that happens, and they will welcome you with open arms. so the correct metaphor is your uninsured house burns down, and then you phone up an insurance company and arrange insurance at the normal price which pays out as if you had been insured at the time.

i know several people who have done this, including my mum who joined NUT after the local authority announced they were making her redundant.

in those circumstances, why would you bother paying them £12 a month. i don't get it. there just doesn't seem to be any upside to being a union member. (another point being that you don't have to go on strike and lose pay).

PaulF81

yet ANOTHER rabid socialist scouser.

Fella

Wookster wrote: »

There is only one word to describe unions in this country: Dinosaurs.

To be fair I can think of another word...

sheffield_lad

PaulF81 wrote: »

yet ANOTHER rabid socialist scouser.

Interesting someone else has realised they are 99% Scouse with the other 1% filled with the Scotts lol

Rochdale_Pioneers

A classic own goal by Unite, but it does raise some valid questions. Why are the Olympics off-limits for strike action?

Fella

No sane union would strike during the Olympics. It would destroy all public sympathy for them & damage their cause irreperably.

JWF

If the unions arrange strikes during the Olympics expect Thatcher to return to finish off the job she started in the 80s.

mcfisco

JWF wrote: »

If the unions arrange strikes during the Olympics expect Thatcher to return to finish off the job she started in the 80s.

An old lady with dementia would truly be a an upgrade from 'Call me Dave'
We'd at least get more coherent policies