Are any AAMers, in a union?

T

thedaras

Registered User
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Following on from Caveats very personal question.:D

Just wondering..you dont have to say which one either!!:p
 
Yes , I am in a union and have been since 1975 and furthermore I get fed up of union bashing on this site. Of course there are problems with unions , I would not be a militant trade unionist but I as a worker have gained from being in a trade union. I remember contributing as a union member to the collection organised by the union to help fund the court case so that married women would be treated equally under the tax code, I have seen people who would have been treated very badly were it not for the trade union.
I think that some of the behaviour of trade unions is not right and brings into disrepute the majority of trade unions but I have no doubt whatsoever that many more employees would be treated a lot worse were it not for the rights and protections that they have due to the work of unions in the past. A lot of employment rights like maternity leave, unfair dismissals act, redundancy rights , equality etc came, if not directly, from the trade union movement and none of us in this imperfect capitalist society should forget that.
I am not and never have been militant and think that workers have duties and responsibilities and I have voted and spoken out against proposed actions. Consensus is always better than militant behaviour and I also agree with posters who suggest that some occupations should not have the right to strike ; so maybe I'm not your typical trade union member. However my membership is worth every penny!
 
Excellent post.
Yes, I'm a member of the union in work. I wouldn't be militant about things, but most union members aren't.
 
Brianne said:
so maybe I'm not your typical trade union member. However my membership is worth every penny!
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+1 everyone else's comments. However, I'd say you actually are a typical union member, it's just the more reasoned members get drowned out in the militancy.

I've enjoyed my fair share of union bashing, but it's out of respect from where they came from to where they are now. When working in the UK my dad would have been heavily involed in Unions and I remember his friends (comrades) spending time in prison for the dispicable act of picketing a construction site for better safety standards after a run of fatalties every day. I remember the cuts and bruises (and more serious injuries) after the police broke up pickets and riots that they inflamed before "getting stuck in".

And after all that things actually changed, things did get fairer. The end of the world and business predicted by the right didn't actually happen. But even my dad lost faith in his comrades when the economies did improve. It was more about grabbing their "share" than maintaining employment and standards. I remember one of my dad's last union meetings where he was disgusted that after all he'd faught for, the sticking point was whether there should be a walk out because it was a bit chilly in the office.

Sorry, hi-jacked thread there.
 
Was forced to join a union years ago when I worked part-time in Quinnsworth. I worked a couple of evenings a week after school and got about £35 for my 18 hours. The union took my subs every week. No choice in the matter. When it came to meetings though, I was not allowed to attend as I was not "full-time". I was only 16 years of age at the time and decided that I had enough of unions. They wanted my money and nothing else.
 
VOR said:
Was forced to join a union years ago when I worked part-time in Quinnsworth. I worked a couple of evenings a week after school and got about £35 for my 18 hours. The union took my subs every week. No choice in the matter. When it came to meetings though, I was not allowed to attend as I was not "full-time". I was only 16 years of age at the time and decided that I had enough of unions. They wanted my money and nothing else.
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Ditto. EXACTLY the same experience. I was incensed that they saw fit to take my money but not me. They wouldn't even give me a card, it was repulsive, offensive and it gave me a true distaste for trade unions. I know all union experience is not like that and I am aware of the great debt that everyone in this country and around the world owes the trade union movement but all too often it seems to me now that it has degenerated into a self-serving parasite rather than a genuine response to a need. Perhaps in certain industries unions should be forced to disband once they have achieved the honourable aims of empowering their workforce. For example, why should employees need a union where they have part ownership of the company?
 
Brianne said:
.. were it not for the rights and protections that they have due to the work of unions in the past. A lot of employment rights like maternity leave, unfair dismissals act, redundancy rights , equality etc came, if not directly, from the trade union movement
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My uninformed view is that the EEC deserves first thanks of such changes to social policy.

When I became an employee, I was bullied into joining a union. Thankfully I never had a need to avail of their services. Some years later, I left the union as I believed they were acting against the best interests of my employment, and have not missed union membership in the intervening 17 years.

From the outside, I regularly despair at unions that they have not come up with anything less crude than a strike as a lever to get their way. The Gardai Blue Flu and the Dublin Bus no-fares seemed to me to be the rare exceptions to the stereotypical 'tools down, all out' approach.
 
I wouldn't agree re the 'blue flu'. At least a strike is honest as opposed to claiming to be sick and getting paid (by the taxpayers) for staying at home.
 
TarfHead said:
My uninformed view is that the EEC deserves first thanks of such changes to social policy.
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You make a valid point. Unions were needed a hundred years ago. However, we now have strong employment laws to support employee rights. I now view them as a protectionist lobby group.
 
vor said:
you make a valid point. Unions were needed a hundred years ago. However, we now have strong employment laws to support employee rights. I now view them as a protectionist lobby group.
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+1
 
VOR said:
You make a valid point. Unions were needed a hundred years ago. However, we now have strong employment laws to support employee rights. I now view them as a protectionist lobby group.
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But the Unions are always consulted when new employment rights legislation is being proposed and drafted, and also when new policies on various labour issues are being considered. I know there's a lot of hot heads calling strikes because someone moved a chair and it wasn't part of their job etc, but there's also a lot of good people who make a real contribution at a policy and legislative level.
 
Yes. i joined a union in our workplace about 10 years ago after our new boss was very bullying to a lot of our department. We had to have a meeting with HR to sort it out and as a result all our dept joined the union. Would not have joined only for this former boss but am reluctant to leave it now. Our workplace would be 50/50 union membership/no union membership.
 
VOR said:
Was forced to join a union years ago when I worked part-time in Quinnsworth. I worked a couple of evenings a week after school and got about £35 for my 18 hours. The union took my subs every week. No choice in the matter. When it came to meetings though, I was not allowed to attend as I was not "full-time". I was only 16 years of age at the time and decided that I had enough of unions. They wanted my money and nothing else.
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Fair point, VOR, but I reckon that the Tesco workers in Douglas, Cork were glad to be in the union when Tesco re-opened the new mege store and wanted all their long term workers there (who'd worked in the original store on the same premises) to tear up their old contracts and sign new ones, paying them a lot less.

It caused a lot of anger down here. I haven't gone in there since. Same for a lot of people I know.
 
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