Mrs Thatcher vs The Miners

I would love all the union knockers. (Those that don’t pay subs) . Would get first offers on the table. And those that are prepared to fight for better standards. Get the benefits.
Fckuing leeches.

I have many gripes with the union even as a shop steward., But it doesn’t stop me in my endeavours. To fight for members. If we all packed in. It will be a very sad day.

Biggest gobshites are those that don’t even contribute.
Take umbrage if I tell em to leave a meeting. Then have the audacity of wanting to know what’s gone off.
Don’t pay, Go away.
Even bleat that they can’t have a vote on an issue. Cos it may affect em.
Ffs.

 

Nothing worse than a member who you have recently represented in a misconduct case, crosses your picket line. It has happened to me several times. You just have to bite your lip and carry on and hope they can eventually see their hypocrisy.

 

And those that want to join cos they're facing a disciplinary. We used to have a rule they had to pay 6 months subs up front. In those circumstances. I think that's now been relaxed. Some even get represented then throw out. I would put em on a blacklist circulated throughout all unions. Scumbags.

 

Understand what you’re saying, but if they are members then they have a right to be represented by their Union. In fact, It used to be the case and probably still is, in my old Union (PCS) If a member who had previously crossed a picket line required representation, the regular workplace rep couldn’t represent them because of previous unfounded and incorrect accusations of them ‘throwing the case’ In these instances they would get representation from a Branch Officer or even Area/Regional Officer.
My mantra always was and still is, Your Union is only as strong as it’s members. There is no us and them.

 

When I was working that's exactly how I saw it & they were the laziest set of parasites to boot.

 

Still the same now in PCS, we've now got a new threat. Senior manager's who pay subs to gain Intel and try to gain strategic info. All so they can butter up SCS and get promoted. Children of Thatcher every one of them.
There are so many rogue departments within the civil service now its frightening. Our Group and branch bulletins are now very brief for that reason.

In the past 5 years I've never as many personal cases, all major breaches of employment and equality legislation.
Most get resolved but the departments make sure they drag each case out causing maximum stress for all involved.
Plenty of reps have quit due to the long hours volunteering to resolve issues, the stress and unacceptable behaviour they encounter personally.

We've used world leading educational establishments to undertake stress audits and workplace studies. They were taken aback by their findings.
Reports were then submitted to the cabinet Office and heads of unit. They refused to acknowledge the authors findings and their credentials on the grounds they didn't instigate studies etc.
A professor we commissioned was one of the best in world at reviewing workplace standards and cultures.

 

Yeah, I know people used the Union as a rung on the management ladder, which is fine and a good experience for them. And and in my experience it usually made for a decent manager. However, there were 1 or 2 who saw it as stick to beat you with

 

Anybody wanting to know more would do well to read "GB84" by David Peace for a great factional account, and "The Enemy Within" by Seumas Milne. The first one is particularly interesting on the dirty tricks employed by the secret state and Macgregor, the second one is good on the betrayal of the miners by the other unions and Kinnock.