UKtramp:
The subs are the most important thing to the officials, like votes for an MP.
Indeed, but you don’t have to be in a union to be solid. Too many people approach unions as being like an insurance policy.
Like £10 a month means “I won’t lose my job” - when really the nub of not losing your job, is the willingness of colleagues to take industrial action to prevent it, and your willingness to take industrial action to prevent others from losing their jobs (even when yours is not immediately threatened).
Or £10 a month means “I’ll get a pay rise worth more than the subs” - again, the real basis on which a pay rise is gained, is industrial action if an agreeable pay rise is not forthcoming.
You pay for the bureaucracy in order to facilitate your own organisation, and because it gives legitimacy to certain industrial actions you might take as a result of solidarity, like striking.
If that collective consciousness and solidarity is absent in your workplace, then you might as well burn your tenner a month.