Brexit -am I stupid or what

I didn't think for one second that you were @Freddy, sorry if I gave the impression that I thought that; and yes, there are many good shop stewards/union reps up and down the country, but currently there also seems to be many that are thoroughly disillusioned with some of the internal goings on of their unions, and how more emphasis seems to be being placed on political stuff rather than the stuff that is really important such as workers rights, where they have made such great strides in the past. If our unions got back to doing what they do best, I would rejoin (and will when they do - I actually have the form sitting in my desk drawer ready to go). The final straw for me was people at a Unite organised rally when Trump visited battering an old fella to the ground, just because he chose to support Trump. Personally, I think Trump is an eejit, but folks are entitled to support him if they wish -- to do that to an old guy just for his views was utterly wrong, and I wanted no part of it.

I know of a few who have chucked the union, but will still go in and bat for fellow workers are workplace colleagues, and do a mighty fine job too.

 

Sorry @Freddy - wires crossed again

Aye, I suppose that to a degree I can understand the political involvement, but latterly it seems that it has gone way beyond that and the union is a political animal first, and the members are merely there as an afterthought.

Maybe it is an industry thing - our industry seems to have a lot of disillusioned reps, for whatever reason and that certainly doesn't help when we are seeing events such as those that I mentioned; sadly, that was one of quite a few very similar events at the time, and as I say it was the straw that broke the camels back for me - - other events were certainly local to me, some of which are ongoing with myself and others, but suffice to say that the union proved to be about as much good as the proverbial ashtray on a motorbike. As I say, I retain the form in my drawer ready to go - I work in a unionised industry and I also believe that there is strength in numbers, I just need to see some changes in the union and have them behaving as they were before.

 

In the past I have been a member of two unions. With the first one I got involved in running our local section but it was mainly social.

The second one was a Closed Shop union (remember those?) and was made illegal 29 years ago.
I attended most of the meetings that I was around for and supported most of what was done - but opposed it being a closed shop. It seemed wrong to have a union that was there to look after the rights of the union whilst not giving them the right to make their own decision about whether to join or not.

It was 56 years ago when I caused trouble in the union when, on examining my union documents, I found out that my union subscription also included a 'political donation'. I kicked up a fuss about it and asked why I hadn't been asked whether I wished to 'donate'. I was told not to rock the boat (literally, as it was the National Union of Seamen ) and received a visit from two rather large gentlemen who gave me the message! It was rather late for them to do that as I had asked whilst receiving my stamps in my Seaman's Book with a room full of other seaman receiving the same, before we could go on leave. I asked for my contributions for the last year to be refunded (hence the visit from 'The Boys') but I understand that over 200 of the crew also asked for a refund. I wasn't allowed into any union meeting from then on!

After that, as the boss of my own company, I always made sure that my staff (varied from 12 to 26 over the years) got the best deal possible and I always consulted with them before making any proposed changes. My staff were all told that they had the right to join the union but none of them ever did.

I still support the idea of unions but, in my opinion, they have definitely become too political.

 

Well that's the speech out the way... who's up for an election? Everyone except the leaders of the opposition parties I expect!!

 

Well, Tom Watson was, yet again, absent from the front bench for the Queen's Speech, which is just further evidence any moderates in the Labour Party are being squeezed out. Boris actually pointed out that the Labour Party is being purged by the extremists, even calling McDonnell "Lenin"

 

Only slightly off topic.

The Queen's Speech: in there was the proposition that for all future elections we must have photo I.D. It doesn't bother me as I have a driver's licence and a passport, but it doesn't help if I have a postal vote!

 

We've been trialling photo ID for voting for a few years in Woking. It seems to be generally issue-free but yes, not sure about the postal vote works in this case!

 

The suggestion is that the local authority should give photo I.D. free (where are they going to get the money?) but nothing yet about postal votes.

 

Someone has suggested that people pay for them but I don't think that would work. It goes back to the argument about everyone carrying I.D.

 

Just to keep this (quite interesting to me!) sideline away from the Brexit table I'll create a new thread...
Voter photo ID