Over the years I have had quite a bit of success recruiting people to trade unions - the TGWU when I was a member of that in the '90s and latterly Amicus. Some of those people subsequently had support from the union in redundancy and other employment situations that made a real financial difference to the outcome of negotiations with their employer, and moral and legal support when they felt isolated and needed some solidarity.
The main obstacle I have found in persuading people of the value of being in a union is the perception that they will be endorsing people behaving like this:
Thankyou Bob Crow for another stupid, ignorant and childish blow to the reputation of trade unionism. With General Secretaries like Crow, who needs union-busting bosses?
Would you expect any different of the RMT?
ReplyDeleteBack in the days when Jimmy Knapp was Gen Sec it was a very sensible and moderate union that just got on with protecting its members' rights. Then the Scargillites and other assorted ultra lefts took over.
ReplyDeleteReduced to nicking pictures from your spoof site now are you Luke? Spoofy!
ReplyDeleteIt's always handy to have someone with time on their hands do free research for you...
ReplyDeleteTrade Unions still have an important role to play in representing members and negotiating on their behalf. Unfortunately the likes of Crow have given Trade Unions a bad name through their silly childish antics along with their association with the loony left fringes. Of course the war is just the latest convenient excuse for them, if it was up to them Saddam Hussain would still be in power ands commiting human rights abuses on a massive scale and the Taliban would be assisting Al-Qaeda in terrorist operations. If you want to look at reasons why Trade Union membership has declined, Crow is the ideal role model.
ReplyDelete