Are The Unions Now Irrelevant?

[ToraToraTora]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44346991
Finally the snowflakes get something right!

[Old_Geezer]

No. And new generations of working class who can't work that out will find that they are in their own when employers treat them as a disposable resourse that they can do more or less what they want with. Another example of age creating lack of experience which in turn results in poor conclusions.

[Gromit]

Yes.

Which is a pity as they are more needed now than they have ever been.

[cassa333]

They haven’t been more needed now than they have ever been. That dismisses the Victorian labour market that was exploited.

We have some very robust employment laws in this country and where there will always be some rouge employers and those skipping close to the wind it pretty much works.

Unions in the past have tried to over play the down trodden worker theme to such an extent that they almost stopped the country working. In some cases actually did.

Come Brexit we won’t get rid of employment laws wholesale and things will pretty much carry on as is. But if there is a problem there are enough people to shout about it.

Unions have their place and can be a change for the good but when they became so heavily politicised they lost my membership.

[Gromit]

// when [Unions] became so heavily politicised they lost my membership //

And when precisely weren't they politicised?
TUC's Labour Representation Committee formed in 1899 led directly to the formation of the Labour Party. The two have been closely linked ever since.

[gulliver1]

Have to agree with you on that one Gromit, more than ever, now.

[cassa333]

Yes I agree they have always been politicised but during the 70s/80s they over stepped the mark for me. Which was why I said ‘so heavily’. It sort of quantifies that extra push.

[Zacs-Master]

You must be a fan of MrsT then cassa?

[youngmafbog]

I am a fan of TGL, she did was was needed at the time.

However I too believe there is a place for unions and as Cassa has said for me the issue is extreme/heavy politics that often verge on bullying so making them no better than the type of management they are supposed to protect them.

[ToraToraTora]

the unions were needed at a time when there was real exploitation. The Labour Party was their organ. Sadly the unions got too powerful and they paid the Labour party to do their bidding. In the end they alone created the need for the cure. TGL was a product of militant unions who made it necessary for someone, if not her, then someone else would have stepped up. They correctly needed to be crushed. Crushed they were by their own stupidity primarily. Cheers MrsT we all owe you one.

[cassa333]

Yes I am a fan of Margaret Thatcher.

[ABerrant]

For several years TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady has been undermining her own position by proclaiming that leaving the EU will be disastrous for workers rights. I thought that workers rights was the essence of her role and that of the unions she oversees, not to expect Brussels to do the job for her.

What have the Unions been doing for the past few decades if her assertion ahead of the EU Referendum that “the bulk of the rights at work that matter to us originated in Europe” is correct?

[cassa333]

Ah, so stay in the EU = end of unions. She doesn’t want her job much does she.

[gulliver1]

In the days of Thatcher , Did the evil womans nickname TGL ,
stand for The Great Liar?. I know some of her male MPs refered to her as TBW. which I think meant That Bloody Woman, or what.?

[Bazile]

If it wasn't for my union - myself and around 12 other of my colleagues , would have been out on the streets

[gollob]

Of course they are .Ask anybody from Waitrose or The John Lewis Partnership. They sort their own problems out and do not bother with unions

[jlcm]

Ah that question again over the years have seen and heard it many times ,my opinion is no not unless they change with the times the mistreatment of employees is hopefully a thing of the past,however having experienced a good company closed down[yes it was loosing money but it was an engineered loss] and all the loyal employees booted out and production transferred to a newly bought company,if unions are to survive they have to sort problems like that and concentrate on the lads and lasses on the shop floor getting what the directors get like the private medical insurance and things like that

[cassa333]

And.... once again Gulliver doesn’t contribute to the thread in any meaningful way.

Quite agree jlcm. Work in partnership with employees and employers for a better workplace and understanding of that particular business. It’s almost as if the unions have forgotten the workers in their push for political clout.