Greatnan I agree that this is the time for the unions to come together now or give up forever. I have no hope that they will.
For what seems like years my colleagues and I have been trying to fight proposed changes to our terms and conditions, and to the service we provide. We have tried time and again to use our Union to fight in any way we could. The union's response: we have to give priority to staff who are losing their jobs, and then we will come back to your concerns. So then we were threatened with job losses, and thought at least the union would protect our rights. After many many meetings, I sat in a meeting three weeks ago with a very committed and well-meaning union official and expressed my utter exasperation at the fact that the union seemed to have been unable to progress any of our concerns over the last six, seven, eight years. She replied that the union has no power, the employers will do what they like, as all the legislation is in the employers' favour. Oh and by the way, we can't protect your jobs either. The scales fell from my eyes at last. My dad, a lifelong shop steward, is turning in his grave.
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