dubmeup wrote:
If they really meant it, they'd be saying we're calling everyone out on strike, and fuck your union laws - arrest the whole fucking country if you like. But they've got a nice house and a nice car and have far too much invested in meaningless posturing. And far too much invested in not being seen to stir things up which they have the power to do - instead they act as gatekeeper and tacitly encourage everyone not to do anything about anything.
And this creates a vicious cycle - people leave unions because they're a waste of time, so less people are in them, so they get even weaker. So you're on your own in a call centre or wherever and have no sense that you can band together with other workers and demand better. And if somebody else wins a pay rise you feel all resentful and bitter, going on about bloody whoever they are they-have-it-better-than-me-moaning-bastards rather than thinking I'll support them and then they can support me.
Being on your own makes you weak and is scary - being united is incredibly powerful.

I think we agree then that a modern union is actually a tool for disunity.

dubmeup wrote:
I think we can agree the major unions are essentially a subscription for discount car insurance coupons and the like.
But maybe we should look to different kinds of union e.g.
www.solfed.org.uk/
or start our own. We should maybe think of "union" in the sense of "uniting together". Like if people go on strike locally, as they stand outside with their banners, take them a flask of tea and show our support.

If you talk to young people today, they tend to have literally no concept of the potential power of organised labour or that the boss should be scared of the workers. I think that's scary.

I have no experience of union working in the u.k. but here in the united states they are the only thing holding up the quality of life for some. My union is far from strong. I live in Georgia after all. I make almost twice what a non union painter makes once you figure in insurance and pension. Union jobs are safer certainly in construction. The training is better and free. I can only imagine how much better things would be if we could get back to our glory days.


From experience scabs are the problem with unions.

dogsmilk wrote:
Nowhere near an answer, for that we would have to abandon the entire economic paradigm.