Trade Unions

[djgordyp]

I am logged in but at the bottom of the poll results it says "you may not vote in this poll". Is the polll closed?

I belong to GMB at the moment. Don't know why I'm still there though.

[Allwood]

There is another thread about Trade unions could it be merged with this one please.:-|

[therafalution]

I am in the pcs (public and commercial services)

[68904]

NUR/RMT member for 27 years. All that time as a guard/trainman/team member.passenger and goods.

[iw61]

unite member. ex TGWU. Was a shop steward for many years. represented members at disciplinaries, grievances and pay negotiations

 

First post on this forum so hello to everyone.

 

Cant believe so many people here arent members of unions.

[mortlake]

iw61

good to see someone interested in employment rights. There's a new union called UDW.org.uk that might be good. But the problems listed on employees.org.uk apply widely and I guess that's why unions are out of fashion. For example their political party doesn't require them to sign-up to the financial services authority, have a contract, keep clear accounts etc. This doesn't stop volunteer work between colleagues but it tempts unions to behave as in spicester's post on this thread. It's also quite difficult to have an internet thread about unions because un-backed assertions like Silou's below come round and round again.

cheers

Mortlake

 

PS Just seen there's an advert for travel insurance next to this post. It says something when people are willing to advertise pet insurance and travel insurance commercially, when union services that are helped by volunteer stewards and member good will can't even get around to advertising

Edited August 30, 2009 by mortlake
just seen an ad

[iw61]

Mortlake.

 

In my view unions are pretty much in fashion again. I have heard 100s of people from IBM have joined Unite due to the pension changes and the aggresive performance management the company are engaged in. That is happening locally though so it might be different your way. I live in Southampton BTW.

 

Not to sure about the insurance bit about unions. Yes we all get advertising from LV now and then but the people in my branch join because they want to feel stronger against the employer. TBH I dont think many people take up these services.

 

thats just my view and experience mind, it might be different elswhere.

 

Im a self taught union rep. I stopped moaning about work and then read a few books. Then I got on union courses and now my boss has to get advice before they deal with us.

 

As a rep I make sure the members are prepared before disciplinaries and grievances and I go and support them. There is very little interference from the union full time officers because our branch get things sorted. No complaints so far(phew)

 

Dont know about UDW though. Never heard from about them. Were they set up by two sacked TGWU officers? Or is that a different union?

[mortlake]

Hi

I don't know if UDW are ex T&G: I just came across a new web site of theirs today and checked it out. They seem to be two or three regular part-timers and some volunteers. United Independent Union in Scotland are ex T&G staff sacked after running a postal ballot that was handled by the candidates, which sounds just like the T&G I got very bitter about after being let down a few years ago.

 

Just wondering whether to go-on about my usual gripe before going down to dinner. The problem isn't about the self-help and volunteering part of trades unionism, it's just sad that when linked to the big famous merged unions, there's a really huge gap between the £120+ a year paid in subs and the amount of lawyers (except no-win no-fee paying commission to the union) and the amount of officials (except a tiny ratio of official's time per member - just enough to co-ordinate volunteers). Public sector quango employers like the one I had are happy to spend most of their time plotting against their employees and have nothing much else to do except fiddle the grant proposals, so if there's not a lot of professional help to write a tribunal bundle or advise members day-to-day about the gamesmanship while the other side have an human resources department and guaranteed posh legal help however weak their case. The whole thing gets unbalanced, even when the law is on the member's side. Junior staff have to do the difficult jobs while keeping track of employer's games, and junior staff have to do it in the lunch break if they get one.

 

The same sort of complaint could be made about private legal insurance - that it tends to use no-win no-fee lawyers and pay everything to the broker - but in my experience the T&G south london branch, the region's official that they passed messages to and the no-win no-fee lawyer the region allocated were so bad that the system looked beyond mending. I suppose I can say without anyone threatening the web site owner that the lawyer was Edwards Duthe, and that Thompsons now do the work. ED could say they were put in an impossible position being asked for too much cashback and that they're not bad lawyers, or some such and the union could say they are in the process of merging into a more efficient structure.

 

Anyway, I've gone-on a lot. If you set-up a proper union I'd be interested in joining

Mortlake

Edited August 30, 2009 by mortlake

[iw61]

Im in a union already, as I said, Unite.

[Allwood]

I was with Usdaw as they were suppose to help people in the retail industry but they were hopeless. I left them and went to GMB on advice from a poster on here but they are also appear to be useless.

 

I wrote to GMB months ago and sent my correspondence via email to the regional office, after a couple of weeks I got a reply asking me for my membership number, which I had put in the subject box along with my name.

 

I had to then write back putting my membership number many times in bold in my reply email so it would be pick up.

 

Got an email back a week later with an apology advising that they sent my queries to my rep and would hear back shortly. After a month had passed and not hear anything back from their rep., I sent another reminder to the regional office stating that I hear nothing back from rep asking how long was shortly and how long more would I have to wait for a reply from the rep....got no reply to this email from the regional office.

 

I then wrote again to the regional office stating that if I did not hear back from them or the rep., I would rescind my membership. Got no reply back from that either.

 

What good are Unions when they cannot be bother to reply to their members after many request had been made by them. GMB is taking my membership money from my account...what for.....I am cancelling it now for good, no more unions for me and I think it is better to pay a little extra for home insurance where you can get legal advice included as well.

Edited September 5, 2009 by Allwood

[djgordyp]

I left them and went to GMB on advice from a poster on here but they are also appear to be useless.

 

Couldn't agree more. A couple of years ago the company I work for wanted to change our pay structure. The guy who was shop steward at the arranged a couple of meetings with the union rep. If the rep couldn't make one of the meetings, the shop steward always insisted that another one be arranged. At one of those meetings the rep handed us all copies of a greivance letter to take to our employer and told us he would support us through the procedure. A meeting was arranged for just before any greivance hearings took place.

In the meantime we had a change of shopsteward (a mouse took over) On the morning of the next planned meeting I was told by the new shop steward that the union rep couldn't make the meeting. Needless to say that was the last we heard of the rep or the promised support.

I took it on myself to phone the rep a couple of weeks later. I just can't remember what was said then but I do remember that he couldn't wait to get off the phone.

 

I have to say I am still a member. I don't really know why, because the company don't recognise the union. I suppose it's better to be in some union.