Worth joining a union?

antonic

Jsacker said:

antonic said:

I am a PCS Rep in a Government Department where the majority of PCS Members have voted in favour of a fundamental reform of Terms & Conditions in return for a 13% payrise over 3 years.
Non-members where offered the chance to join PCS ( and leave immediately once they have voted)  to have a vote on the offer , because under Collective Baragaining only Union Members could vote, some didn`t and are now complaining because of the changes that come in on 1st June.
On a personal level I have needed Union help 3 times - one was a Gross Misconduct Charge - for which I was cleared.
I treat my Union subs as an insurance policy but it`s only you who decide if it`s worth joining a Union.

I know someone who works in that department and I helped them with making their decision.

As an outsider looking in, the whole voting system seemed unfair. It basically seemed like the union was soliciting "deal" votes by getting [generally younger] people to sign up solely for the vote, so that they could "out-vote" the people who WOULD be affected (older people mainly, who were on older contracts and who have probably been paying subs for 15+ years).

Part of the reason my friend approached me is that they caught covid last year, no thanks to the absolute inaction of PCS when it came to securing homeworking for them. They also weren't happy about their alleged involvement with the BLM protests last summer (I think they designed placards) whilst simultaneously ignoring them.

Seemed quite scummy from PCS, truth be told. Unions should be there for EVERY employee, and not strictly the "majority". But I don't know all the facts, so who knows...

When the offer was made the instructions were very explicit, because of Collaborative Bargaining rules you HAD to be a member of either PCS or ARC to have a vote and their was no obligation to remain a member once you had voted, so you could join, have your vote and then leave.
I have a feeling the reason why the vote passed is because any staff who joined AFTER 2005 are on a worse contract then I was (I joined wayyy back in 1988) and the new contract is an improvement on what they were on , so they voted yes to the offer.
With the new contract that starts today, in some ways I am actually worse off but when I read through the offer I realised that financially I am better of (7% rise in pensionable pay, 6% in non pensionable lump sums spread over 2 years) so I voted for it as it will make a difference to me financially as I have been top of my payscale for 29 years and I will stay top.
I agree with others who say that all reps have different levels of ability - when I rep I do the best I can and ask for help when needed.

Marvel1

Left mine 2 weeks ago, seem obsessed causing problems as a whole, don't seem to live in the real world.

I'm not wasting my money on them.

Nick212010

As mentioned, I use mine as an insurance policy. I have been dismissed in the past unceremoniously six weeks into a job working for a SME within the private sector, so when I joined the public sector I jumped at the chance - although in reality under the public sector I’d never be sacked in similar circumstances.

I’m a full member of one high profile trade union, and an affiliate to another (free membership). I find that the latter are only interested in achieving below inflation pay rises year on year, then complain the sector is under paid and under appreciated. The local branch recently negotiated a 1.5% pay rise for all staff which we voted for, then the employer announced a wave of redundancies (thankfully I was unaffected) - I’m not convinced the two weren’t connected. Although the staff affected are mostly admin and compliance staff I rely on to do my job, so I’ll have to plug the gap created making my job more difficult. Had we been made aware this world be the outcome, I think a few people would have not accepted the pay increase.