What are your views on unions & strikes?

And mine ??

???

I was very involved in trade unions in my youth as a shop steward fighting for workers rights. Including supporting the miners raising money and distributing boxes of food. If it wasn’t for unions little children would still be slave labour and working conditions would never have improved.

When I was teaching the PSA staff in my school went on strike for better pay, which they certainly deserved.

The management (much to their annoyance) had to undertake playground supervision to cover their absence. The HT called a staff meeting to villify the teaching staff for not covering playground duty, to allow her to get on with her own duties, in the comfort of her warm, cosy office.
Everyone of us, as members of a teaching Union told her were were supporting our colleagues, because their strike was lawful and justified.
Boy did she make our lives miserable for weeks afterwards.

My full support too.

Any transport strike has a knock on effect…

Doctors, Health care professionals, Emergency service workers, teachers, shop staff etc will be unable to get to their workplace, including students taking exams.

I could go on but hopefully you get the picture.

Anyone expecting routine surgery next week don’t be surprised if it’s cancelled.

They have my full support, I was involved in the Ambulance workers strike in 1989/90 the camaraderie of colleagues and support from the public at that time was wonderful.

I'm a supporter of trades unions and the right to strike but am very conflicted on wide-scale transport strikes.

From Tuesday to Sunday many low-paid front-line workers who can't work from home will be badly affected in London as Transport for London services are also involved. This is from the TFL website:

Tue 21 June-Sun 26 June

TfL services and national rail will be affected by strikes from Tue 21 to Sun 26 June.

•London-wide strikes affecting Tube and other TfL services on Tuesday 21 June and services until mid-morning on Wednesday 22 June
•National rail strikes on Tuesday 21, Thursday 23 and Saturday 25 June affecting Elizabeth line and London Overground services, and some Tube services, on strike days and until mid-morning on the days after strikes

On Tuesday 21 June

•Avoid travel if possible
•Most TfL and national rail services will be severely disrupted or not running, including:
•The Tube
•London Overground
•The Elizabeth Line
•London Trams
•National rail (nationwide)
•Buses, the DLR and any other services which are running will be extremely busy with queues to board
•If you have to travel, finish your Tube or rail journey by 18:00
•London Overground services will run 07:30-18:30

On Wednesday 22 June

•No Tube services will run before 08:00
•Avoid making Tube journeys until mid-morning - disruption is likely to continue
•Reduced service on the London Overground and Elizabeth line until mid-morning

On Thursday 23 to Sunday 26 June

•Strikes on national rail services (nationwide) on Thurs 23 and Sat 25 June
•Reduced service on the London Overground and Elizabeth line (where TfL uses national rail assets) as well as parts of the Tube on Thurs 23 and Sat 25 June
•London Overground services will run 07:30-18:30 on Thurs 23 and Sat 25 June
•Disruption following strikes likely on the Tube, Elizabeth line and London Overground on Friday 24 and Sun 26 June

tfl.gov.uk/campaign/tube-strike

How will the army of minimum-wage Carers get out and about to their 15-minute assignments with the most vulnerable?

I used to be union rep in my workplace. We need strong unions, not weaker.
If strikes weren't disruptive they wouldn't succeed.

Growing up in Scotland I was told by my parents that the first thing to do when I started work was join a union. Unfortunately strikes are sometimes necessary - especially with the current government.

I am a firm believer in unions. I have been a member of one since I was 16, and was a rep for a while in my last place of work. As others have said, without them we wouldn't have weekends, paid holiday, sick pay or all the working conditions we take for granted.

Striking is never something people do lightly. For one thing strikers lose pay, for another thing, as often as not they still have to do whatever they would have been doing on the strike day when they get back, and in very many cases those on strike care about the people they help (passengers, students, patients, customers, etc). All the same, it is often the only way 'ordinary people' have to fight against losing the conditions that they, or others, have fought for, so when they do it they have my support.

Unions like the RMT can cause chaos, yes. This shows how important their members are to society. People complain when others strike for more pay (although as I understand it the rail strike is also about changes to contracts and job security).

When dentists took millions of people off NHS lists and increased prices to patients tenfold, people might have muttered about the cost of a filling, or cancelled non-urgent treatments; but there wasn't the condemnation of them that the track maintenance workers are facing. Did people cry out about carers on minimum wage being unable to afford treatment to ease the pain of toothache, or those with no money who had to pull out their own teeth, saying that dentists were holding the country to ransom?

There is no difference in morality - both are groups of people looking out for their own standard of living and that of their colleagues, and putting the welfare of their clients below their own. The material difference is that dentists are often self-employed, and can determine their own charges outside of the NHS, whereas the railwaymen are employees who earn wages which are determined by managers responsible to shareholders.

Why is it that when the actions of one group cause suffering it is put down to 'market forces', whereas when the other group do the same they are accused of being greedy and selfish?

I would like to see this dispute resolved by discussion. However, I am convinced the government is happy for the strikes to ahead. They will then use them as a stick with which to beat Labour.

As always, the governments care for the general public comes a long way below their political needs.

I support the strike. I'm a firm believer in unions and was a union member until I retired.
I agree with everything that has been posted on this thread in support of strikes and unions.

and with this:

^Why is it that when the actions of one group cause suffering it is put down to 'market forces', whereas when the other group do the same they are accused of being greedy and selfish?

I posted this on an earlier thread, but I'll repeat it here. It's by the 18th C empirical economist, Adam Smith (whose views and conclusions have been extraordinarily misinterpreted by tories from Thatcher onwards)

No society can surely be happy and flourishing of which the far greater part of its members are poor and miserable. It is but equity, besides, that they who feed, clothe and lodge the whole body of the people, should have such a share of the produce of their own labour as to be themselves tolerably well fed, clothed and lodged

Obviously it has to be fleshed out a bit for this day and age, but the sentiment remains the same.

I, too, find it odd that the rich should be defended for acquiring more and more of society's resources, but the poor condemned for wanting a share at the very least adequate to sustain them.

DaisyAnne

I would like to see this dispute resolved by discussion. However, I am convinced the government is happy for the strikes to ahead. They will then use them as a stick with which to beat Labour.

As always, the governments care for the general public comes a long way below their political needs.

The government will indeed be happy for the strikes to go ahead - they'll invoke 'winter of discontent' memories and associate Labour with supporting strikes.

I have to say I'm really pleased to see support for workers rights and for the unions here on Gransnet... but it's probably true that a strike will give another stick to Johnson to bash people with.

I have been in a union all my working life and have had occasion to be very grateful to them in enforcing certain legal rights.

I’m pro unions and I’ve always been in a union. Without the backing of a union and without strikes, individuals or groups have little chance of success in the pay arena unless you are a politician!
Reactions to strikes often depend on how much you are affected e.g. most of us on GN won’t be massively affected by a train strike, but it will impact on our family members.
Reactions also depend on how you feel about certain groups of workers e.g. Teachers going on strike always brings the same response.
Perhaps these worker would have more success if they stop asking for pay rises and ask for a ‘salary catch up’ as one PM did.

good post doodledog

I am a supporter of trade unions and a retired member of Unison. My dad told me to join as soon as l started work at 18.
I was a Branch Secretary for Unison at my last place of employment. It was the only LA in our area not to recognise the union as such but still, had to include us negotiations.
I think that they are striking as a last resort, certainly not because they want to.
My son will be effected by the strike but fully supports them, he isnt in a Union as much as his dad and l tried to convince him to join one.

I was in a union in my first position not that they were any good. Haven't been in one since I was 21 but working for small private companies where unions didnt exist or were unnecessary
As for the strike won't personally affect me but have sympathy that are trying to go about their daily business.

They have my full support and always have.

Unions are entitled to ballot for strikes, and workers are entitled to withhold their labour.

But, I do think they are playing straight into the government's hands. Johnson wants to do a "Thatcher" and tighten up the rules around unions even more.

He also wants to push forward quicker with driverless trains etc.

I feel sorry for those affected by this strike though - they are powerless in all this, and left with the stress of trying to get to work, appointments etc.

Hopefully, both sides will get around the table fairly swiftly and thrash out a deal.

DiamondLily

Unions are entitled to ballot for strikes, and workers are entitled to withhold their labour.

But, I do think they are playing straight into the government's hands. Johnson wants to do a "Thatcher" and tighten up the rules around unions even more.

He also wants to push forward quicker with driverless trains etc.

I feel sorry for those affected by this strike though - they are powerless in all this, and left with the stress of trying to get to work, appointments etc.

Hopefully, both sides will get around the table fairly swiftly and thrash out a deal.

It wasn't a drivers' strike though, was it.? It was other rail workers. ASLEF were a bit later to the party.

I think that the UK should have a General Strike. I'm sure the tories inaction over the financial crisis for many has peed off a lot of people...

There’s a lot more going on behind the scenes than we know about and it’s probably been happening for a while. DH’s father had a huge argument with the then chancellor because he knew about the plan to close the mines. He, sadly, died soon afterwards and DH is convinced it’s down to the stress of what was happening. It wouldn’t surprise me if there are safety issues at stake behind this strike.