Have you been/are you a member of a Trades Union?

I was a member of one of the teacher’s unions. It was a complete waste of money. When there were problems in our school they were useless.

As a pert-timer in FE I was persuaded to join the FE Union (NATFE), but when the management informed me at a minute's notice, that I was no longer needed, the Union officers weren't interested. All they wanted was my membership fee.
Years later, when I'd been working full time in a different College, still a member of the Union, the College decided on redundancies. As no volunteers came forward, they made them compulsory and, about 18 months before I reached retirement age, I was compulsorily redundant, with no support from the Union - a very left-wing organisation who were more interested in supporting striking dockers than their own members. When, in retirement, I became a CAB adviser and learnt more about employment law, I realised that I'd had better grounds for appeal than I'd previously believed, but it should have been my Union's job to advise me about that. I'm not against Trades Unions - far from it - but there are some that are (or were) useless.

a pert-timer? no! a part-timer.

always been a TU member (45 years) and proud to be still.

I’ve been a member of a relevant union in every job I’ve had. I’m the workplace rep in my current job, and I regularly remind people in whole organisation meetings of the value of union membership. Some choose not to join, or just don’t bother - until it is too late.

Just this week a colleague came to see me with a complicated issue about a partial redundancy, and asked if he could join the union to get help sorting it out. I had to tell him that union membership is like insurance - you can’t join to deal with a problem after the problem has occurred. I’d encourage anyone in employment to join a union for the protection alone.