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 says it all
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?
which one would you prefer from your representative?
while i agree with being polite, you need someone with the balls to stand up to the boss. that was the problem with rank hovis. the drivers rep was gutless which is why most things got sorted out by 2 drivers. the only 2 Scots there hence we were loudest and always argueing when the supervisors were wrong
while i agree with good manners between management and workforce at this company there were never any pleasantrys drivers were lowlifes and treated as such this company had the highest turnover of drivers except for another one i had the hounour of working for there attitude being if we take 10 drivers on there should be 2 left standing after 6 months or maybe not plenty more out there and when supposed union represetitives are in the bosses pocket /think about there own skin whats the point and theres plenty out there that think about themselves first its called 21st centuray im alright jack see my previous post easy jobs/ good runs
Whilst it is true that there are plenty of ineffective shop stewardsthere is also another side to that coin.
Namely the workers that expect a steward to simply work miracles and then don’t see any reason for themselves to back him.
I have seen several good shop stewards pack in because the members are not prepared to support them when they are in confrontation with a boss but
the same members are the first to criticise the steward for not getting results
In the same vein plenty drivers simply expect any union (be it TGWU, Urtu,or usdaw) to wave a magic wand and that the bosses will simply give in.
In real life the only strength any union has is the solidarity of its members and them being prepared to take action if needed .
The union can only negotiate on the members behalf and use the laws when bosses transgress.
I have been a Union member for 40 years and during that time I have received support in courts, tribunals and insurance claims and firmly believe that without unions the Road haulage industry would be even worse than it is .
its better to paddle your own canoe these days if job dont suit jump quite happy to represent myself if i screw up which i dont and if effort for job doesnt suit money jump better than listening to all the monkeys on the tree saying theyll do this do that then end result no one stands up to be counted as for being forced to join a union make youre own mind up (have had a few intresting discussions in various yards)
Mike-C:
[ Still, ASLEF do seem to be pro active in getting better conditions etc for their members. !!
This is because they are a proper, old fashioned Trade Union, like the URTU, not a wannnabe multi national all-fits-one-size conglomerate created for the agrandisement of overblown little Hitlers.
Most unions these days fall into this latter category. Even in the old days T&G was useless, representing as it did conflicting sections of the workforce, ie, drivers and dockers - guess who lost out time after time (not finally though, containers saw to that.)?
I take your point, I meant that no one can be forced LEGALLY to join a union
Although this may be true, back in the 60’s I was asked to leave a company because I refused to join the union. I was told it was a union shop and conditions of employment were that all employees would become union members. I did not want to pay any money out of the pittance I was paid to a union that I did not want to belong to I left.
I have always been of the belief that Unions became the very imbodiment of what they were originally formed to fight against. ie, the overbearing employer became the overbearing Union - dragging workers out on strike whether they could afford it or not and crippling both companies and private lives in the process.
I am very anti union - always have been and always wil be.
Mike-C:
[ Still, ASLEF do seem to be pro active in getting better conditions etc for their members. !!
This is because they are a proper, old fashioned Trade Union, like the URTU, not a wannnabe multi national all-fits-one-size conglomerate created for the agrandisement of overblown little Hitlers.
Most unions these days fall into this latter category. Even in the old days T&G was useless, representing as it did conflicting sections of the workforce, ie, drivers and dockers - guess who lost out time after time (not finally though, containers saw to that.)?
Exactly right. The Dockers in Hull signed their own death warrant due to childish and stupid strikes. Many hauliers were forced off the docks and trying to get a load was like negotiating with a terrorist.
For that reason I stopped paying union subs and went my own way.
That is until 3 months ago when I joined the T & G for the driver sickness package. I have now studied the smallprint and the subs to the union will be cancelled again next month.
I have been with the T&G since 1988 when I had to be, with Esso.
Since then I have kept up my membership, for the driver care alone. Also the free legal advice for the whole family where you can talk to a solicitor directly. Also the free legal cover as prevously mentioned on this thread.
True the Unions do not have as much strength as they used to, but its the other benefits that count for me.
del949:
When was the last time any union brought drivers out on strike?
No idea, but the last national strike was in the winter of '79/80. Except that it was a rolling regional strike which meant that drivers not yet involved were pitted against those already out. How useful was that?
I was a steward with the T&G and spent pounds running round organising picket lines only to be told after the strike that the union wouldn’t honour my expenses claim because I was on injury leave at the time. From work but not, apparently, from the union. Cheapskates.
But why would you want to strike? I was condemned by colleagues at another depot (who were already out), condemned by the local union (Leicester) as ‘a communist agitator’ because I (against personal will) voted for strike on behalf of my own drivers along with the steward of another local firm also with members pressurised by their head office depot colleagues, and then the both of us suffered the brickbats from those same N.Eastern drivers (Econofreight and Cawthorns) when we were still out when they had slunk back.
And as if that wasn’t bad enough - it was bloody cold.
BTW Mothertrucker. I too suffered in the 60s and 70s from unions trying to stop me working.
Dropping my trailer at Marshall’s depot at Liverpool because the dockers refused to tip me and one of their drivers took it in for me. When I got back the boss of our small 6 wagon firm went down to the T&G and joined us all - with him as the shop steward.
Told at Alexander Duckham’s in Brum that I wouldn’t be allowed in next time if I didn’t have (the right) card.
And many more. But who put a stop to all that and released us from this legalised terrorism?
Maggie.
So there you are, the last time drivers went on strike was 25 years ago.
Not exactly coming out on strike at the drop of a hat .
AND the union didn’t bring the drivers out, the drivers voted for it.
And it did acheive something, a 10% pay increase , after bosses had refused any increase.
Yes , you are right,it was bloody cold on the picket lines.
says it all
