redundancy-Too late to join union?

nation

As more weeks go by and dates changing i'm starting to worry about my job and being made redundant,We are a firm of around 200 people and the work load will go down
My question is if i joined a union now would they be able to fight my case ?

Comms69

Depends, possibly yes, but most have a 4-6 week period where issues arising wont be supported. 

GHolmesAdmin

When I was a union rep it was 3 months membership before we could help on a formal basis, I doubt any union rep would refuse informal advice. However, I would always encourage doing your own research and don't rely on others to give you the best advice. 

TELLIT01

I'm not saying don't join, but with redundancy it is the job which ceases to exist (in theory at least) so the union may have limited ability to change anything.  The other thing to consider is, if there are 2 people doing a job which is being reduced to one role and the other person has been in the union for years, which person is the union more likely to fight for?

theoretica

If you join the same union as your work colleagues it strengthens the union's hand when fighting for all of you together rather than individually.

Thrugelmir

Why is your individual case any different to that of your work colleagues? 

Socajam

I agree with TELLIT01 .  As a union rep I would most certainly be fighting for any long term member than for someone who primary goal is just to join to save their job.

oh_really

Why didn't you join when you started the job?

Socajam

Jsacker said:

Socajam said:

I agree with TELLIT01 .  As a union rep I would most certainly be fighting for any long term member than for someone who primary goal is just to join to save their job.

Meh, I don't agree with a Union rep taking such a position. If someone has paid their coin AND qualifies for the advice, they should get the same level of advice as someone who has been a member for much longer. 

In fact, if the Union has a presence on-site then they will actually likely give the poster advice WITHOUT the need to join because their bigger-picture goal will be to ensure that the redundancy process, where jobs cannot be saved, is fair (more so for a pool of up to 200 people; but less so if the pool is small, and potentially comprising of only the poster). It's the off-site Unions which probably won't give the free advice, but they equally probably also wouldn't "discriminate" based on length of membership when it comes to giving said advice (because they wouldn't really care either way)! 

The OP have been living off the other workers who are union members for how long.
All of a sudden, jobs are on the line, the OP wants to join the union for his own selfish means, otherwise he would not have bothered.
So yes, as a union rep, I would ensure that I fight harder for my long term members, than for someone who recently joined just to save their jobs.