Union Power

So Labour’s getting more of its money from the unions and the unions are starting to ask for changes in policy. No, not surprising:

"They cannot carry on with this continual circus of reforms when all it
means is bringing the private sector in so they can make profits, while
trusts are plunged into deficit and our members are being made
redundant."

The important part there is "our members being made redundant". Unions, whatever the rhetoric, do not exist to benefit the general public, the country, the nation, whatever. They exist to benefit their members exclusively. As long as we remember that, we’ll be fine. They are as partisan as big business in asking for favours: however their demands and requests are wrapped up in the talk of the common good the aim is for their members to profit at the expense of everybody else.

So whenever we get asked, collectively, for some favour, whether it be to big business or via the imprecations of a union, we simply need to ask cui bono. As the answer will almost certainly be those making the proposal at our expense, the answer will similarly almost certainly be no.

4 responses

  1. Nowadays, Trade Union membership is about 7.5 millions, amounting to about 29% of employees in Britain, compared with 13.3 millions at the peak in 1979, or about 55% of employees then. See the graph on membership trends since 1995:
    http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=4

  2. I wish more people would realise this.
    Unions are still given too much credence, especially in areas like education (just listen to the nonsense which gets passed at teachers union conferences…)

  3. I agree, having been in a board meeting recently where the TU member lamented our focus on assisting small businesses and helping folks from deprived communities enter self employment – the TU member deplored us because they weren’t real employers (who would employ union members) and eroded workers (the self employed worker) rights! what a load of horse sh*t.
    I am member of at TU though. Where I work, you really need a quick source of resonably costing legal support at hand. My employer regularly skates close to what’s legal and what’s not, and there are quite a few bodies buried in the back yard to to speak… at £12 a month, its reasonable. My TU is actually quite rational in its suggestions for management and the running of the place, whereas the actual managers don’t seem to be rational at all.

  4. I’d say that unions aren’t for the people who pay their union dues. Instead unions are for a few people who run them to throw their weight around.
    Bullies or people with a personal agenda.

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