Posting from Scotch Lad, retrieved from Just Retired and put where he intended:
1 Sep 2007 11:45 AM I don't wish to create any slanging match regarding Unions, I recognise that in certain cases they can be beneficial. I also fully support the principles on which they were founded, namely to protect the rights of workers.
However, where I may offer disagreement is in the fact that in many of the last 40 years Unions have done more harm than good. Closed shops, restrictive practices, blackmailing of the general public, they have done it all. Yes, there have been many cases of workers getting the full pensions to which they were entitled, but there have also been instances where the negative approach by Unions to a failing Company, have reduced the final payout offered to the workers. The Union bosses in the meantime walked away with their full salaries intact.
I did work for 4 years in the public sector, and of course was 'encouraged' and I use the word very loosely, to join the Union. I refused as I did not feel that their ideas matched my own , and I felt that I should retain a personal choice. This was in the time when it had only just been made law that mandatory joining was no longer required, much to the Unions displeasure.
For various reasons I swopped to the private sector and from then on, never had any contact with Unions. I felt that I had the freedom to negotiate my own salary package depending on the personal worth I felt I gave to my employers. If things went wrong and I was made redundant (3 times) then well, it was back to the drawing board and start again. However, each time the redundancy package I received was more than I would have received under a Union negotiated deal. Some may say that was due to the fact I kept 'quiet' and possibly true. But when you have kids and a mortgage I took the best deal I could get.
I think what has really 'soured' my opinion of Unions is the way they entered politics in the 60's and 70's and tried to be unelected leaders of the country. That was outside their remit and merely progressed the careers of a few sad officials. That led to the 'Maggie' era when the pendulum swung probably too much the other way.
The other factor nowadays is globalisation. The public sector is probably the only instance left where a Union can sit down face to face with employers. Therefore they can bring more pressure to bear when their actions can possibly directly affect the constituents of the MPs sitting opposite. If the boardroom is in another country the result is more likely to be acceleration of the plans to move the operation to another country and pick up a relocation bonus from the new country.
The original Post regarding the Prison Officers action is valid, but it must viewed that their action reflects a general failure of expansion of the prison capacity despite a rapid increase in prison population, due to many reasons, and that the salary part of it is just a small factor. Again, the root cause should be addressed not just a 'patch' by paying more money out of the public purse, or as I mentioned previously, there will be a knock on effect and we will all end up paying more taxes.
Facebook
Twitter