What do you think of Trade Unions ■■?
1/ Will they back you up to the hilt
I was gonna post summat up about this as our shop stupid keeps badgering me to join the T&G■■? All I ever hear about unions are strikes… Can someone give us any idea whether its worth our while 
maybe im being judgemental,but seems like your ‘fishing’,any-body over the age of thirty nows that Thatcher destroyed the unions in the 80’s…now i hate and despise Labour by the way…though i always vote…but im not telling who for 
but all i will say is look at the ‘bigger picture’ we have had over 50 years of liberal politics in this country,low and behold we are on the our knees now…buttttt…i dare say one of our more ‘herocic liberal’ drivers will put yopu right 
chrisy boy:
any-body over the age of thirty nows that Thatcher destroyed the unions in the 80’s…now i hate and despise Labour by the way…
Funny isn’t it. When maggie was recently asked what did she think her greatest achievment was she said “New Labour”.
Mike-C:
Funny isn’t it. When maggie was recently asked what did she think her greatest achievment was she said “New Labour”.
Yep…New Labour…New Conservative…
Spot the difference!!
Stan
unions they are not clever enough in this game.never have been.this is why we still work to many hours quite legally though.thousands of extra pounds can be found for a budget fuel price increase .but only a few hundred for a wage rise for the driver ■■■■ nightwatch security guard
chrisy boy:
but im not telling who for
Yeah, I’m voting for them too. Enough’s enough.
Save your union subsciption money and when you have saved enough, buy yourself a new pair of boots and walk to your next job.
Enough said.
Pidger:
Save your union subsciption money and when you have saved enough, buy yourself a new pair of boots and walk to your next job.Enough said.
Trade unions have no power and only serve to make things more complaicated. Lets face it, i have had no contact with a trade union official for around 8 years. They have meeting, take notes and - well - that appears to be it.
I used to work for “An international satalite broadcasing company names after the thing we see when we look up”
When it was suggested to the austrainian owner that there should be a trade union installed at that location, the replay was - if that happens here, i will ship the whole call center to india.
So there you go.
we have no rights - we cant complain, and if you want a union, you have to live in india.
nice - i no longer know who to vote for - we have been [zb] by labour and conservative.
[zb] it, im running for government - who wants to vote for “The get the counrty out of the gutter party”?
(If you have to use odd spellings to get a word passed the auto-censor, take it as a hint, that word isn’t allowed. Simon)
BIGNUTS:
What do you think of Trade Unions ■■?1/ Will they back you up to the hilt
These days I doubt it.
I’m not a union man myself but have to admit that there are company’s where the workforce do well by being in a union, I don’t know how much the unions play a roll, I think in a lot of instances the union is a focal point that keeps the workforce united and so able to present a united front in negotiations.
I know of one firm (about 50 drivers) where the united unionised workforce have been so successful that to the best of my knowledge the company hasn’t taken on any new drivers for at least two years apparently preferring to use agency drivers instead 
I was in the Teamsters. It was a farce. Our boss only had to give our union delegate a brown envelope and magically the members votes favored his pathetic new contract offer. I left .
What goes around comes around though.The boss is now under house arrest
awaiting trial for skimming around 10 million gallons of oil from his customers ,plus tax evasion,plus pocession of an unlicensed fire arm. 
BIGNUTS:
What do you think of Trade Unions ■■?1/ Will they back you up to the hilt
Depends upon the Union and unfortunately your job. USDAW represent Tescos staff and from what i’ve seen they don’t do much for them and do not like to go against Tescos. Tescos drivers have a different one i think? The Tescos drivers never seemed to get any support from anyone (ref: recent threads on here and elswhere). The concensus was they where ‘spoilt’ i seem to recollect. Even a Tesco driver on here said or inferred thay had it too easy.
Now a complete contrast is ASLEF the train drivers union, when there was , or looked like there was going to be a Tube strike everyone was up in arms how it would inconvinience them? Still, ASLEF do seem to be pro active in getting better conditions etc for their members. Check out their latest newsmagazine
aslef.org.uk/Shared_ASP_File … _Oct07.pdf
And check out the job offer for “Freight Train Managers”, 41k per year for a 4day week doing 35 hours.
Some people say there’s not much money in Haulage. They just miss out the bit on the end…“for drivers” !!!
I’m off to read my book on trains, that 41k per year would do me great.!!
I was in the URTU when 2 off duty coppers overtook me on the inside on a roundabout crossed lanes in front of me and forced me to emergency stop, after I showed them by various sign language exactly what i thought of their driving they got one of their mates to pull me over a couple miles down the road and reported me for dangerous driving.
4 court appearances later I walked away with all my costs refunded. The two coppers chief constable got a letter from the judge complaining about them abusing their powers as officers
Could I afford a lawyer and barrister ? No
Would I have got off without a decent barrister? probably not
the URTU provided the legal team, helped me with travel expenses and helped gather evidence- photos of lanes/road markings etc.
Unions are not only there for strikes, they are a specialised insurance scheme for legal help and support. I for one got a lot more back than the subs I paud in, and kept my licence.
Free legal help. That was my incentive to join but still not got round to it.
URTU were brill with me when I had an altercation with a pallet truck (I lost 
…a finger).
Didn’t want megger bucks compo, just didn’t want to lose out. URTU respected my view and sorted it all out.
Longman:
Free legal help. That was my incentive to join
It was my incentive too.
I had two complaints about an agency I worked for, years ago. On both occasions the union I was (and still am) with got the problems sorted and I got money, which I was entitled to, out of the agency. I wouldn’t have otherwise.
It’s all well and good with the “walk out and start with another company tomorrow” argument. But if they owe you money, why let them keep it ?
Speak to your Union, they’ll put their lawyers onto it, you’ll probably get the money you’re owed. If not, you’ve lost nothing, unless you want to count your union dues as lost…
Finding out you have a problem, then joining a union to get it sorted, is like crashing your car, then insuring it to claim the insurance money.
The insurance company won’t want to know, neither will a union.
Im in T&G .
You can say all you like at my workplace but no-one will listen to you unless you are in the union .
I.e
Work regulations
Shift changes
Pay deals
Changes to Terms and Conditions
etc etc
If you aren’t in the union you don’t get a vote on any of it so your opinion isn’t worth anything.
I also took the extra driver care cover …
It’s the first time in my working life that I joined a union …I only joined because I wasn’t happy about not getting a say or a vote on my working conditions and pay deals .
It does work quite well , when this Night shift WTD thing came about they had to pay to get a 10 hour deviation , they thought they would get it for pence , it cost them a lot more and took nearly 3 months before an agreement was made and they only got an agreement just in time , before they didn’t get a choice if we were deviating .
The boss starts his negotiations early , he knows it’s going to take time
Our Night Drivers now get paid more than the Night shift managers
Strange but true .
my experience of unions has been shop steward either being driver trainers or getting the most appeasing runs especially when pay negotiations were taking place a shop steward even told me how he appologised to a company director once when the ballot went against accepting a pay offer 
says it all
scania245:
my experience of unions has been shop steward either being driver trainers or getting the most appeasing runs especially when pay negotiations were taking place a shop steward even told me how he appologised to a company director once when the ballot went against accepting a pay offer
So a shop steward being polite to a company director is wrong ?
“Really sorry boss, the lads say you can shove that offer right up yer [zb], we want more”
“Oi you, you can [zb] right off”
Which one would you prefer from one of your employees?