Disclaimer: This post is all about trade unions, not student unions you guild lovers!
TUs have been pretty much screwed over the last 30 years. In 1979 their numbers were at a peak of 13.5 million. Remember this is during the winter of discontent so lots of union activity. They now have about 7 million. So a small proportion of workers. Unions, to survive, have been forced to merge. We have had the first ‘super-union’ in Unite come into existence.
Ok so the purpose of this is a simple discussion for unionists and non-unionists alike. There are two options for Unions to survive;
1) Become more conciliatory and offer a much better individualised service for members in focussing their efforts on one-to-one negotiations on a case by case procedure.
or;
2) Become more overt and aggressive in highlighting the growing gap in power between employers and employees. Organise more active participation and start posing a real threat to employers in the hope they start acting on concerns on a large scale.
Discuss……….
1 is a much better option than 2, as apart from public services, with the advent of the european economic area, if the environment in the UK becomes too hostile to employers, they will simply move elsewhere where workers are more passive, or employ migrant workers as they are less concerned about their rights as long as they get paid.
In addition, it seems to me that human nature demands that when one is aggressive towards another person, the other person tends to be aggressive in response and less willing to comprimise.
It is better in my view to be assertive without being rude, explain the issues to employers and mention that happy employees are much more enthusiastic and efficient workers, and that if the company is a good to those it employs it will automatically project a positive self image, which would effortlessly result in exemplary public relations.