Unions

Unions: the people who brought you the weekend. And capped working hours. And employment rights and protections. And fair wages. And pensions. And ended child labour. What a bunch of greedy *******s!!!!

 

Too many take workers rights for granted,what gets me the most is the i'm alright jacks who keep calling anybody with the guts to stick up for themselves looney lefties.

 

Well done to the unions for ending Victorian working conditions over 100 years ago. Less well done for making British industry completely uncompetitive during the 1970s. Even more well done for producing complete cnuts like Bob Crow.

 

I think you will find that OxBridge produces far more than any union!!!!!!
Of any Political Colour I may add.

 

nothing to say about the millionaire chief execs then? Pay themselves fortunes the'yve robbed from workers wages then go on about workers ruining country

 

I thought the topic was unions?

 

Both posts are correct, unfortunatly many working class people believe everything they read in the right wing press, they fall for all this demonisation of the unions, when they believe these attacks they are actually condoning an attack on the working class. What these people fail to realise is that the unions were set up for the workers to fight for their rights, the unions belong to the members and a union is only as strong as it's members, all this 2h1t about union leaders bringing members out on strike is pure 2h1t stirring, under Thatchers anti union laws it is illegal for union officials to even advise their members to strike never mind tell them to. Before a ballot can even be called it has to be proposed from the floor of a meeting and seconded from the floor, the only thing an official can do is to advise on the legality of any proposed action. Some unions may allow a degree of autonomy with regards to calling ballots without a proposal but even then they cannot tell their members how to vote, rightly or wrongly those days are well in the past.

 

it is. But you brought it up about why british industry wasn't competetive and ruining the country just thought i'd mention the real bandits.

 

I believe a union should only be allowed to strike if a majority of the MEMBERSHIP vote in favour

 

And I believe a government should only be allowed to tamper with pensions if they gained the support of the majority of the country in an election.

 

i thought that was the case and thats why they're striking.

 

Flash a lot that went off in the 70,s re uncompetive industries was down to bad management, that caused a lot of trouble, also , the classic example was British Leyland, if you research it you will find that the demise of that once great company was caused by a number of catastrophic bad decisions on models and styling and insisting on using the existing parts bins when designing new models, ie Marina, maxi, allegro etc. I was a member of the Triumph Spitfire owners club and they ran articles with interviews from high ranking staff and some the things they said made me angry because it was obvious that massive mistakes had been made by the guys right at the top but the people at bottom suffered, that has quite a contemporary ring to it don't you think.

 

Do you believe that a government should only be allowed to Govern if the receive a majority of the total electoral roll, not just the ones that turnout to vote?

 

There is a big difference between a majority of those who vote, and a majority of the total membership.

 

which is why I asked the question!

 

so what you want then is compulsory voting? Tories would never go down that route flash as they would never get in government again.

 

I sometimes wonder if some people ever made it out of the 1970's.

 

out of the seventies? I think we're going back to thirties.

 

Probably about the last time we faced similar economic conditions yet what we have now in terms of living standards is a world away from then yet we're on the brink of major strikes to protect gold plated pensions that simply cannot be afforded or maintained. I spent around ten years in the public sector but have spent the last decade and a half in the private sector and see the argument from another perspective. I would love a pension half as good as what an equivalent worker in the public sector is entitled to but that's a pipe-dream so I pay what I can afford into a private scheme. Time for a dose if reality in the public sector.

 

yeah but mario the pensions were part of payrises over years instead of full pay rises they took some in their pensions. you can't say to other workers we're gonna take back your payrises so why their pensions.plus theres a big argument over whether it can be afforded or not. and we can't afford pay rises for workers but bosses pays gone up 1000s of % i think this is the time we need unions.