caledoniandream:
It makes no difference in the amount of moans if you pay a driver GBP 8,00 or GBP 15,00 per hour, what’s enough? When is it enough?
I have been reasonable successfully in Transport, not because I am that great, or that good, but because I worked hard for it, did what was asked from me, would do any job, finish it of and after that I would tell them that I was not keen on it if I didn’t like it.
I wouldn’t run away before I fulfilled the task, how rotten it would be.
I worked for big bucks, and I worked for small money, and learned that the big bucks was not always worth it.
I always made sure that I worked my way up to the biggest money in that company (or at least in line with the biggest earners) relating to my capacity.
Never minded to start at the bottom, but always found the way up.
BUT never looked back, never needed a Union or somebody to talk for me, but always remembered the words my old gaffer whispered in my ears " work here like it is your own business, that will give you the pleasure and the day goes much quicker"
That has brought me where I am now.
And yes please call me selfish, because I am, 100% sure, like I know for 100% sure that a Union never will be a solution to anything.
In Holland there is a saying; if it rains for the boss, it will drip for the employee.
And you can believe that or not, but if companies are successful they will start to pay higher rates, not because the are forced by some Union boff, but because they want the best workforce, and they normally don’t consist of moaners, strikers, and followers, but out of people who can stand up for their own, who have the future in vision and are ready for the next level.
Unions in general are still floating in the 70’s when they where powerful and had a big following.
And if I see from a personal experience what they do for the individual, I will use my most hated word LOL
So you’re saying that the unions did zb all in dragging the economy out of the early 20th century into the more civilised world of the 1960’s and early 1970’s and you’re also saying that the British economy is in much better shape now,since Thatcher zb’d it all up than it was at that time.The fact is Thatcher’s ideas don’t work whereas strong unions do and the facts related to the actual figures concerning the two types of economy of that time compared to now say it all.
However the only way that you could have ‘personal experience’ of all that would have been by having a working life that was spread over around 100 years.In the absence of that possibility I’ll trust in the next best thing to that in hearing the story as handed down by those that were there at the time.
That Dutch saying has always applied just as much here but that ‘drip’ was (a lot) smaller in the 1920’s than it was in the 1960’s and 1970’s,in real terms,for most workers and the reason for that was all about the strong unions and relatively high employment levels of the 1960’s and early 1970’s.The ironic thing is that you’re arguing in favour of a system that history has proved wrong both during the Victorian era and the early 20th century and for the last 32 years since Thatcher’s ideas took off. 
The fact is most working people in the country,regardless of what industry they work/ed in,would have been a lot poorer without union action over the years and the policies since Thatcher have actually reduced living standards and set the economy back in real terms.