What is the union culture like?

23 comments

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2. I’m generally up for supporting the worker, the current rail system is dog shit and the nob head private owners need to sort their lives out.

3. Industrial action which inconveniances people: unwelcome.

   Otherwise: fine.

4. Really I am pissed off with the rail workers asking for a 10% pay rise and keep going on strike. Where do rail workers think their extra money is coming from? Taxpayers or raising ticket prices? Or they think the rail industry is so profitable it has never been profitable and last couple of years hit by covid. They think they are suffering but really their pay is ok they just have the opportunity to cause disruption

5. It’s probably about 50/50.

   A lot of people me included think it should be about bringing people up to a level, giving people what they deserve and not turning worker against worker. Instead of thinking about “hurr they get paid enough anyway they should be grateful I only get half that” it should be about “they provide an essential service and should be paid well and/or not given bad working conditions, and come to think of it, my sector also deserves a look in here”

   The other half are like “just get on with it and stop moaning and stop acting so self righteous, loads of people earn way less than you and get by ok and you’re just lazy / entitled”

6. Some history

   [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Orgreave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Orgreave)

   Margaret Thatcher potentially committed treason, when she brought in the army, dressed in police uniforms, to break the miners’ strike in the 1980s. Using military troops against a civilian population is an act of treason, under British law, but of course it / she / the police / military were never investigated

   If you interested in the current climate, look up Mick Lynch. He’s very well respected, has massive public support and makes journalists, politicians and any other critics look poorly informed

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asp-dO3OwmE

7. Once had a Union bod try to stop me from finishing my break 5 mins early to relieve my friend for his break. He said it wasn’t fair on everyone else that he got an extra 5 mins …

8. This is only one side of the coin though. You’ve also got ‘Staff Unions’ and no unions.

   A Staff Union is where there is a pretence of a union (often one that is only for the employees of one particular company rather than a proper union that is usually multi company or across the industry).

   This gives a fig leaf or looking like there’s collective bargaining and protection but usually they are just there to counter sign what the management want (on their members behalf often without consulting them ). Basically it just saves the management time in having to deal with every member of staff individually, they just get the ‘union’ to rubber stamp what they want.

   Eg. We asked for 2% raise but management said you could only have 0.5% so we agreed on your behalf without consulting you sort of deal. Will also be at any disciplinary hearings but pretty much shrug their shoulders in a ‘there’s nothing we can do’ sort of way. Basically just pass messages between the worker and the manager

   Then a lot of places there’s no union at all and it’s everyone for themselves (often pitted against each other in a divide and conquer strategy by the management).

   I support those who (unlike me) are fortunate to have a strong union

9. I think it’s easy to be taken in by all the union hatred spread in certain parts of the media, but if you step away from that, and think what would I do if my salary effectively shrank 8% a year whilst the salaries of those at the top have grown hugely despite their underperformance?

   I do have a lot of sympathy for strikers, I certainly don’t think they are doing out of greed as is being suggested.

10. I support striking, but bloody hell it is starting to inconvenience me. I’m trying to remember that it’s the government at fault, not the unions.

11. Just went past a Royal Mail office and two guys
    were outside it looked like a strike of some sort.

    I’m all for it. Minimum wage needs to be higher, big cooperations make too much compared to how much the workers are making, they are struggling to stay warm and have a good meal

12. I’m a member of Unite. Management are taking the piss all around the country. Workers are demanding to be treated fairly. And out of 100s of disputes the union has won the vast majority. This benefits not only those directly involved but also everyone that works for a living.

13. My thoughts on the unions are mostly that they are unnecessary and industrial action harms the public more than the company. I think certain jobs should be banned from going on strike.

    For me it comes down to, if you don’t like the job, quit and go do something else

14. Its not. Unions are tolerated not accepted. Thatcher make sure of that. The only reason unions are able to do things at the moment is because middle class people are starting to become homeless or try to move a small family into shared homes because everything costs too much.

    Once the cost of living crisis is over. They’ll go back to basically not being a thing in the UK. Possibly completely if the extremist Brexitors get their way.

15. Work in construction.

    We had a fatality on site. Union rang top brass within 2 hours demanding to know if people were going to get paid while the site was closed….

    I’m pro union and proud of it but that was a bit distasteful I think

16. I accept and support my and the other unions.

    Currently Royal Mail is repeatedly dragging the CWU back to the table for “serious negotiations” and then dropping their original offer back in front of them like a box of chocolates, but each time they’ve replaced 1 or 2 with little nuggets of shit

    The shit-truffles being real deal sweetners like owner drivers, compulsory redundancies, banked overtime into additional annual leave, and a commitment to deliver that will see posties working 7-7 for the vague hope that their manager will log their overtime into their leave account, and not fudge the numbers in order to get their bonuses.

    Meanwhile they’ve got area managers bulldozing changes into offices and setting schedules for intense change over <6 month schedules including the 3 hour later start time

    Finally.

    It’s 2022. As a union member I have been disgusted by the vile militancy I have seen just in my office by union members and reps, there are only a handful of staff who have continued to work, one has a very new baby and requires stable finances, one works two jobs to support a critically Ill partner, and another had a major grievance with royal mail, and when he requested assistance from the union was screwed over and as such is no longer a member. The remaining staff that don’t strike have their reasons and I’m OK with that.

    However all of them have found themselves subject to taunts, childish acts like parking their vans extremely far away from the office, box keys being moved, some staff are just giving them the silent treatment, yet will shout mildly camouflaged slander about them.

    This has been my largest reason to think about breaking the strikes. My personal desire to have a confrontation with these trumped up old guard staff who would never survive in the real world because they’ve been glorified paperboy’s in their little circle-jerk of casual homophobia, misogyny and racism for up to 35-40 years.

17. I was the only one in my team in a union and it honestly shocked me because I worked in a student facing role in a university. In a lab specifically. And no matter what I would tell them about unions, they all thought it was just a thing for striking and there was no point joining.

    Even the woman who was on disciplinary for sickness despite the fact she had covid three times and has historic health problems and her line manager said ‘oh well if she has so many medical appointments can we let her go?’ didn’t see the point in a union. The union rep would not have stood for any of that discrimination.

    To me, unions are like an insurance on your job, and if anything happens at work – harassment, disability, bullying, accusations, unfair dismissal, bad working conditions, underpayment, so many things – you can contact your union who will look over your case and offer support in many circumstances. They can represent you in disciplinary meetings or employment tribunals, and give you legal support. I just like having that safety net because anything can happen.

    So yeah, I think there’s still a misunderstanding about what they do, and it should be taught in schools or at university more, rather than just learning from strikes because it makes it seem that’s all they’re for.

18. Some industries have quite strong unions and are willing to strike to get better pay and conditions. I used to work a transport company. management basically did whatever the RMT wanted. They would negotiate our pay rises for us to make sure they were above inflation every year.

19. In Merseyside we are very supportive of striking workers and pretty intolerant of ‘strike breakers.’ I’ve seen firefighters who crossed the picket line, ostracised for the rest of their careers.

20. Depends who you ask. Some unions/strikes are good, others bad. Somebody who “drives” a tube (a self driving vehicle) do not need to be paid the same, if not more, as a doctor.

21. Literally saw a Facebook post the other day from some woman going “The nerve of them, I’ve not had a pay rise in years and you don’t see me striking!”

    She didn’t see the irony.

22. Currently on strike today I work for royal mail and I’m part of CWU union our working conditions are being attacked on an unprecedented scale RM wants rid of the union probably so they can sell up the network to Amazon or Uber.

    Check out CWU live on YouTube if you want the latest from our union.

23. mostly good, but ive sat in a meeting or two where the union guy was a little wild and agressive about ignoring things the staff were doing (thef, fraud, pretty much anything to do with money) that brought on the meetings in the first place. it was clearer than clear and the managment was actually fireing ppl who werent lying about the fraud, which the union guy also ignored. then a case where the union was 100% just a shell for the company its self.

    when its good there is usually no story, but bad events are often a little interesting