BF2S Forums Modern unions

BVC wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

BVC wrote:

Because its fairer than simply allowing non-union members to reap the benefits of union negotiations.

If I join a union which negotiates a good pay increase on my behalf, why should a few people who aren't members of my union reap the benefits of said negotiations?

As a former union member who has worked in said situation alongside freeloaders, I may be a little biased however.

Why should anything be fair?

Whats next, forcing everyone in a company to pay gym membership so the ones who want to go to the gym can negotiate a better deal?

Unions should be voluntary associations, the compulsory ones - eg the UK Police - are the ones which really can just fuck around doing whatever they like.

Why should anything be unfair?

I agree, unions should be voluntary - but the benefits of union membership (that includes wage negotiations handled by the union) should also be a consequence of voluntary membership.  Unions aren't charities.

Dilbert_X wrote:

With modern workplace laws in most countries unions are mostly redundant.

Its an irony that in most places its the unions which have got them pushed through. These things go in cycles.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Minimum wage, statutory wages according to jobs, statutory overtime rates, compulsory healthcare, anti-harassment and victimisation laws, wrongful dismissal laws, statutory hours, statutory sick leave, statutory holday, compulsory pension contributions, racial equality laws.

I could think of some more if I tried.

The Ombudsman ordered the Government to release documents about the deal it struck to ensure the Hobbit movies were made in this country.

The CEO of a U.S. tire maker has delivered a crushing summary of how some outsiders view France's work ethic in a letter saying he would have to be stupid to take over a factory whose staff only put in three hours work a day.

Titan International's Maurice "Morry" Taylor, who goes by "The Grizz" for his bear-like no-nonsense style, told the left-wing French industry minister in a letter published by Paris media that he had no interest in buying a doomed plant.

"The French workforce gets paid high wages but works only three hours. They get one hour for breaks and lunch, talk for three and work for three," Taylor wrote on February 8 in the letter in English addressed to the minister, Arnaud Montebourg.

"I told this to the French union workers to their faces. They told me that's the French way!" Taylor added in the letter, which was posted by business daily Les Echos on its website on Wednesday and which the ministry confirmed was genuine.

"How stupid do you think we are?" he asked at one point.

"Titan is going to buy a Chinese tire company or an Indian one, pay less than one Euro per hour wage and ship all the tires France needs," he said. "You can keep the so-called workers."

Taylor has built Illinois-based Titan over 23 years into a global brand in tires for tractors and other off-road machinery. Proud of being "The Grizz" -his group's logo features a cartoon bear and its website opens to the roar of a grizzly - Taylor has clashed with unions before and ran for the White House in the 1996 Republican primary, campaigning on a pro-business ticket.