what advice would you give RMT unioin

[Deeranged]

First off a union general secretary does not tell anyone to go on strike, the union ballots its members who then decide on industrial action.

So what does the Union General Secretary do? If all decisions are made by the collective membership why does a union need a fat cat sitting at the top earning £163,000 of the money donated as membership fees by the collective membership? Get rid of the person at the top, reduce what the members donate in membership contributions and nothing changes surely?

Or is the General Secretary needed up there to assume they know what the Borg wants and to stir **** maybe?

[grantzer]

So what does the Union General Secretary do? If all decisions are made by the collective membership why does a union need a fat cat sitting at the top earning £163,000 of the money donated as membership fees by the collective membership? Get rid of the person at the top, reduce what the members donate in membership contributions and nothing changes surely?

Or is the General Secretary needed up there to assume they know what the Borg wants and to stir **** maybe?

The union would still need someone or a group of someone's to negotiate on a national level. In the case of the RMT, with 60k members,they are paying around 6p each a week for wages to their general Secretary. I imagine those members think he is worth it.

And if the members are happy paying the money,who are we to argue?

[eric_sinclair]

They acted with "no fear" as they knew they had nothing to be fearful about.

Lockdown was about negating responsibility to mad scientists in UK and about showing who was boss in Scotland.

We had a "pandemic" policy which was abandoned in favour of authoratarion rule......and the stupid public complied .....politicians werenae so stupid.🙄

Not disputing this but all the major countries have had some type of lockdown,could understand yer thinking if it was confined to the uk.

[Deeranged]

The union would still need someone or a group of someone's to negotiate on a national level. In the case of the RMT, with 60k members,they are paying around 6p each a week for wages to their general Secretary. I imagine those members think he is worth it.

And if the members are happy paying the money,who are we to argue?

I'll never agree with a union supporter on the usefulness or relevance of the role of trades unions. Both myself and my wife have been let down very badly in the past by unions and neither of us would ever consider joining any union ever again.

My opinion, and I fully appreciate the opinion of anyone who disagrees, is that unions are not there to support the members but to allow the more senior representatives to get feet under the table with management for their own purposes. After I left the union my career took off, partly because I wasn't being held back by the collective, and I ended up a manager involved in discussions with union reps. It's amazing how complicit they become when the offer of 3% for the members is extended to be higher for Shop Stewards.

Self serving, greedy and selfish are just three of the qualities required to rise to the top in a trades union in my experience.

[islaydarkblue]

First off a union general secretary does not tell anyone to go on strike, the union ballots its members who then decide on industrial action.

Comparing salaries is a great idea. How is it that someone who does a completely different job to someone else gets paid less than that other person? It's ridiculous,everyone should be paid exactly the same, like with erm........communism.

But if we are gonna do this.... Boris earns 175k a year,gets at least 2 free houses, a car,security detail,claims pretty much everything on expenses and had his downing street flat decorated with gold wallpaper.

Where is the value from this? Surely a GP partner should be earning more than that?

I would argue we also get more value from bus drivers, train drivers, bin men,nurses, firemen,police,ferry drivers, posties,dentists,and many many others. Surely they all should at least have the same as the PM??

And if they make mistakes,or break the law, we should ask how many big calls they got right,say all of them regardless of all the mistakes,and let them carry on

The General Secretary of RMT Union could advise his members not to go on strike as thanks to the Covid pandemic their jobs are now threat due to people now working from home instead of commuting by train every day of their working week.
A reduction in members means less income for the RMT Union and a reduced salary for the General Secretary.
Incidentally the same article in the Sunday Times stated that the Deputy General Secretary of the RMT Union received an annual pay and pension package of £118,000.

[islaydarkblue]

Not disputing this but all the major countries have had some type of lockdown,could understand yer thinking if it was confined to the uk.

Two wrongs does not make right.
You should know by now that politicians most of whom have no qualifications for running the country have been promoted to their level of incompetence.

[eric_sinclair]

Two wrongs does not make right.
You should know by now that politicians most of whom have no qualifications for running the country have been promoted to their level of incompetence.

Again I agree but it would have taken a bit of bottle to go against the "lockdown or else" mantra that all the big european countries and the usa were taking.
Unfortunately both the uk and scottish leader just went with the flow and same small number of advisers instead of looking at other options.

[BCram]

I'll never agree with a union supporter on the usefulness or relevance of the role of trades unions. Both myself and my wife have been let down very badly in the past by unions and neither of us would ever consider joining any union ever again.

My opinion, and I fully appreciate the opinion of anyone who disagrees, is that unions are not there to support the members but to allow the more senior representatives to get feet under the table with management for their own purposes. After I left the union my career took off, partly because I wasn't being held back by the collective, and I ended up a manager involved in discussions with union reps. It's amazing how complicit they become when the offer of 3% for the members is extended to be higher for Shop Stewards.

Self serving, greedy and selfish are just three of the qualities required to rise to the top in a trades union in my experience.

It is very difficult to try to think about an organisation such as a Trade Union if you have very upsetting personal experiences involving Trade Unions. I think your description of the characteristics that you have used to describe trade union leaders might well be applied to a highly motivated, ambitious focussed individual like yourself who has achieved financial security etc.

I think Trade Unions might need to revise their perpetual class war rhetoric. It takes two to have a dispute and it always seems to me that organised labour is portrayed as Luddite, unambitious and very unwilling to embrace change. Percentage wage increases always get the headlines but it is the detail of how the wage increase is to be funded that needs more exposure. If there was a 20% reduction in the number of trains to match the sort of figure that rail franchises are saying their passenger numbers are down by and it does not look as though there is going to be a return to pre covid levels of commuter activity, how can anyone find a way of keeping the existing size of workforce unless there is a 20% increase in fares? Wages are not the only cost there are the capital costs of the trains and the maintenance costs for the track. I don't envy any trade union leader their job but I think they need to move with the times as so many others have done. It also seems to me that computer controlled trains can't be far away.

[grantzer]

The General Secretary of RMT Union could advise his members not to go on strike as thanks to the Covid pandemic their jobs are now threat due to people now working from home instead of commuting by train every day of their working week.
A reduction in members means less income for the RMT Union and a reduced salary for the General Secretary.
Incidentally the same article in the Sunday Times stated that the Deputy General Secretary of the RMT Union received an annual pay and pension package of £118,000.

He could,and maybe he did. What he is actually doing is his job,and presenting the views of his members.

And clearly the only reason people don't use trains is because they work from home. That can be the only possible reason.

Admittedly it is one of the reasons,but by no means the only reason.

Did that article mention the salary of the network rail boss btw? Or how much profit it made during the pandemic? How much it paid to its shareholders?

[BCram]

Network Rail is an arms length independently run body which is ultimately own by the Dept of Transport ie us the people. All the surplus they earn is reinvested in the rail network.