John Robertson
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How can we best build a vibrant, growing trade union movement? - 18/07/2007 11:47
This thread discusses the Content article: How can we best build a vibrant, growing trade union movement?
This makes me angry.
Luckily it is so boring that nobody else will read it.
If anyone has worked for an employer, been singled-out for say taking maternity leave, having a face that doesn't fit, raising suggestions or any of the hundreds of reasons why the employers HR and legal teams could make life difficult, then they'll need a first class HR and legal team at the union to fight back.
None such exists at the T&G which has a very few officials and conditional fee lawyers sometimes provided as though as a favour at the last possible minute. Maybe the official quoted has something to do with the poor service. The service is so bad and so different from the one advertised that unions are occasionally sued. Unfortunately, those who have been let down are usually too tired and busy and under-insured to take the cases on.
The reason why a bore who talks about meaningless words can think he has a role in the union movement is that the voting system is rotten to the core, allowing several political hobbyists to call themselves a branch, elect themselves in a dingy office and claim to represent a thousand members, several employer's shops, and of course the branch bank account. The scandle of political bores infultrating a service organisation is one that should be illegal and I hope soon will be.
On a personal note, readers might be interested to know what happens when a hobbyist who likes passing motions and quoting solidarity actually meets a disgrunted member who has been bullied out of work and is them let down by their union, for example in failing to provide HR advice or failing to provide a good lawyer. The face of the activist goes rather blank. The activist comes-up with a plattidude, said in a rather slow deliberate way like the old headmasters who used to say "this is going to hurt me more than it hurts you". The plattitude is usually "the union movement is about solidarity", which is obvious nonsense because it's a paid-for service advertised as offering help at work.
I hope people like you sleep well at night and I hope I never meet you.
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