political commentator * author * publisher * bookseller * radio presenter * blogger * Conservative candidate * former lobbyist * Jack Russell owner * West Ham United fanatic * Email iain AT iaindale DOT com
Monday, May 22, 2006
Trade Union Threatens to Blackmail Labour Party
Now I know this might be considered an old-fashioned view, but I always thought that trade unions were supposed to act in the interests of their members. It's interesting to note therefore that the Communication Workers Union has blackmailed threatened the Labour Party with the withdrawal of its financial support (worth several hundred thousand pounds a year) if the Government doesn't withdraw plans for Royal Mail to issue shares to CWU members. Perish the thought that trade unions would actually rather like to own shares in the business they work in!
You're an idiot. They don't want the Royal Mail privatised. It's not that hard to work out.
ReplyDeleteThey already do, Iain - as do you, I and everybody else.
ReplyDeleteEr, I had actually worked that one out. It's still blackmail, whichever you look at it.
ReplyDeleteas a former posty I can assure you that the CWU will do whatever suits those who make a living from it .
ReplyDeleteEmpowering the working man is the last thing they want.
I worked for Parcelforce a few years ago, it was at the logistics centre which supplies the post offices and staff with all it's paperwork, forms and uniforms.
ReplyDeleteThe CWU made such a mess of the negotiations over the change to shift systems that all the staff lost on out on a £1000 bonus and still ended up with the crappiest shift system I've seen yet.
The CWU didn't care about the staff and if you asked any of the union members what they voted on you'd get different answers from everyone of them. The only people who did alright out of it where the shop stewards, they all got the shift they wanted, most of them by lieing.
Isn't the Communications Union the one Alan Johnson, a current Cabinet member used to work for?
ReplyDeleteYou're an idiot. They don't want the Royal Mail privatised. It's not that hard to work out.
ReplyDeleteNo it isn't. But who doesn't want it privatised, the workers or the union bosses that supposedly represent them?
My guess is that many of the workers would choose shares today over reassurances, but that the bosses didn't give them a chance.
Just a thought: in the late 70s when I worked in the City an awful lot of money was lent to finance the (nationalised) oil industry (Pemex) in Mexico. The way it was done was to lend the money via the oil unions and their senior officials. I don't know if - or how much of - the money reached Pemex but those trade union officials lived very well indeed.
ReplyDelete