Do you support the RMT?

[Gareth Barry Conlon]

 

[metalblue]

I get the argument, I’d argue a fair amount on the extreme tend to only be well read on one side of the argument though as reading and understanding both tends to bring people away a bit from them. Not all granted, but those that it doesn’t tend to be that emotionally invested in a particular ideology, they lose sight of how to bring people along with them and so reduce the chance of it ever happening, which I’d say is a sign of lack of emotional intelligence at least.

Been quite a few examples of that over the last decade!

I think that’s a pretty fair thought process.

 

[Vic]

So go on. Tell us all how joining a union in an industry such as the one I work in benefits us in the small firm I work for if we decide to go on strike, which in turn halts production, which then pisses all of our customers off to the extent that they fuck us off completely and go to another supplier?

Oh, and I never said that unions are evil. Just that in many private sector industries they're unworkable as given in the example above.

How many SMEs are like that? If a company is that precarious, in a labour seller's market you'd be better off looking for a more secure job anyway.

It's a situation that isn't that relevant - and if it is true that unions can use their bargaining power for better wages and better conditions (like the weekend off), in the end that becomes the expectation for employees in other sectors.

 

[Vic]

Wouldn't the owner of the firm shit their pants at the thought of losing their custom and negotiate with the union?

You missed the scenario. The firm is not making a lot of money, and the owner is working for nothing (no pay, no dividends) to keep it going and the poorly-paid employees are loyal and committed - and no doubt their loyalty would be reciprocated by the owner in better times.

Now in the real world...

 

[Postman Pep]

Quality but not true. It was a piss take by a left shitposter.

 

[Magicpole]

Absolutely brilliant post.
I admire someone who has the balls to say what he really thinks and by the number of likes you got, your not on your own.
Unfortunately for you and the many on this thread who share your views, in order to achieve your dream in a Democracy, you need to attach yourself to a major political party.
It’s never going to be the Tories so it only really leaves Labour.
Moderate Joe Public, fear there are just too many with extreme views like yours (and others on here to be fair to you),who have infiltrated the Party is the reason why they struggle to get in to power.
The extreme left inflict more damage on the Party than the Tories could ever do.

There is no extreme left in it. And as for extreme? How is it extreme to want a fairer distribution of wealth? A properly funded NHS? An education system that meets the needs of the country both for social and economic reasons. To pay a pension to people who have worked their whole lives in jobs that pay is so bad they don’t have enough to live on. To ensure no old person needs to choose between heat and food? That no child lives in poverty? That no worker lives in poverty. That our transport system is up to the job and doesn’t require you to sell a kidney to take a train journey? That 1200 food banks are consigned to a shameful part of our history with those who wilfully caused them reviled for their greed and disdain. These things are not extreme. What is extreme are the forces that would rather we kept millions in poverty, old people scared to switch their heating on and workers getting paid wages that puts them in poverty.

That extreme left wing is a creation of extreme right wing drip fed propoganda used to put fear into people who then vote against their interests.
Nobody is talking about Factory Farns, Five Year Plans, worship of the Party. Project fear has worked and the only extreme thing going on is the absence of compassion by those who have all the wealth and want to keep it that way. I am not extreme, I am fucking angry our people have been turned into docile subservient serfs, tugging their forelock’s and they get bent over a bare table and shafted.

 

[west didsblue]

You missed the scenario. The firm is not making a lot of money, and the owner is working for nothing (no pay, no dividends) to keep it going and the poorly-paid employees are loyal and committed - and no doubt their loyalty would be reciprocated by the owner in better times.

Now in the real world...

That sounds like it's an unfair reflection of the situation. Most small firms have struggled because of the pandemic so it's not unreasonable that it would take some time even for a decent firm to get back on to its feet.

 

[M18CTID]

Wouldn't the owner of the firm shit their pants at the thought of losing their custom and negotiate with the union?

Possibly. Like I've said though, it's a decent place to work at regardless of any general moaning about whether we're getting paid enough so there's never been universal discontent amongst the workforce. Sure, there have always been individuals who have been pissed off for one reason or another and I think my boss has been too naive down the years when we were owned by a large French firm - there were times when we made an absolute fucking fortune (around £1.5 million profit on a turnover of less than £5 million in 2008 for example) but none of us (including him) were rewarded for it half as much as we were. He's also missed out on tens of thousands of additional pension revenue, possibly even into 6 figures, because for years he didn't get his pension contributions increased due to being too busy trying to make money for the company.

 

[bluethrunthru]

People like you just need to realise that not every single sector of industry and the way those industries function are all identical.

Nor are unions

 

[M18CTID]

Going on strike is and should always be a last resort. It's in your employer's interest not to want to piss off customers even more than the workforce's. As @bluthrunthru says, having a unionised workforce can be as beneficial to the employer as the employees, as long as the balance of power between employer and employees is not skewed too far either way. No one wants to go back to the ridiculous strikes that happened regularly at British Leyland in the 1970s because the unions ended up too powerful, but it's even more important we don't end up with a Victorian style workforce with an underpaid, overworked workforce that exists only to make the mill owners fabulously wealthy. That's the path our current government seems to want to take.

I totally agree. There has to be a balance. While I have my reservations about this strike, those reservations are only down to the many ordinary folk who will be inconvenienced by it. On the flip side, I'm loving seeing Mick Lynch ripping the politicians and various other clowns to shreds plus from what I can see the RMT aren't asking for anything particularly outrageous. 7% is below the inflation rate so it's not like they're taking the piss.