Unions - what are they about?

[sunflower71]

What are work unions abouts?
my company doesnt have one but could i join one?
Will they help me with employee rights?
TIA

[Hawkwalk]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union

Read some info here. You may be able to join one depending on what type of industry you are working in.

[Loosehead]

Originally Unions where there to represent workers rights who otherwise would be abused by employers. They where once needed, indeed useful and are largely responsible for today's relatively comfortable working life of the masses. Unfortunately they self destructed, mainly in the 60's and 70's to the point that they abused power for the purposes of dogma. They where effectively nuetered in the 80's and today survive as a remnant of socialism. They serve very little purpose these days. They can cause occasional disruption but generally stick to pointless meek activity similar to the recent one day postal strikes. They will not be much use to you in the field of employee rights.

[david1702198]

i think for a private company you need more than 20 employees willing to join to be able to join a union.

[EngTeach]

As a teacher in the states, I belong to a very large powerful Union (United Federation of Teachers). Our union protects our rights in a lot of areas: Claas sizes (34 max), teaching load (5 classes), pay for covering a class if a teacher is out, steady work hours (no spur of the moment after scxhool meetings) pay for supervising school events and of course making sure the principal complies with safety standards. My principal is a nutcase and without the union I can only imagine what she would be like.
Unions die off b/c of a lack of support from its members and Isee this with a lot of the young teachers. I grew up in a union household so have always been aware of the good they do. many younger people are not aware.

Unions get a lot of flack for protecting bad workers, ( I admit, this does happen) Employers must often compile a loooong paper trail to be rid of slackers and often don't have or take the time to do so, thus allowing for the incompetent union workers to remain.

[tell-me-more]

Unions vary quite a lot, even within the same industry, but generally, I would say they exist to protect workers and campaign for good working conditions.

I can't agree with Loosehead's comment <<They will not be much use to you in the field of employee rights.>> I think it very much depends on the union. I do know some who have paid their membership fees for many months and then felt let down when they needed their union to advise/help them for one reason or another, but my experience was very good as a member of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers.

Some might argue that ATL is not a union but I won't go there unless you particularly want me to.

I think the best advice I could give you is to visit www.tuc.org.uk and remember that unions are not all the same.

I think it's fair to say that there has been a trend away from industry based unions, to company based ones, and older unions tend to cover workers across entire industries, whereas newer ones sometimes only take members from a particular company.

If you don't feel satisfied with the choices on offer, you could set up a new union or employees' association, and I would have thought the TUC would be only to happy to help.

I think these sorts of organisations when they work well have the potential to bring about very positive changes.

I'm not convinced by all the particular unions, but I am convinced that there is a need for unionism, or if not something similar. Some sort of employees organisation at least.

You can find out about the history of unions on the TUC website and in other places, and personally, I found that well worthwhile, even though I'm not usually that keen on history.

[tell-me-more]

Sorry, to add even more, but you may find this site interesting:

http://www.unitetheunion.org.uk/

I'm not currently a member of any union, but having done a search, I found out that the union above now exists. It's a new union (formed from two older ones) and sounds like the sort of union that I would have hoped for. Whether it'll turn out that way, time will tell, but I suppose I ought to "be the change I want to see".

[antiguru]

Interesting answers so far, but must just clarify.

Companies don�t �have� unions. This is the case elsewhere in the world (for eg Japan) but in the UK Employers and Unions are separate bodies. Your employer might �recognise� a union for the purposes of representation or collective bargaining. The first one means they�ll let a TU rep in to a disciplinary or grievance meeting with you for eg and the second one means your terms and conditions would be agreed en masse.

You haven�t said what kind of job you do and in what kind on company. In my experience, whether you join a union or not does not affect its usefulness if it if already recognised. However, as David alluded to, if you as employees want to get a union recognised you�ll have to have a groundswell of support.

Use the TUC list tell-me-more refers to to find out what the likely union for you is. Find out more about what they�ll do for you personally. This might include some non-work things too, like social club, discount on or access to legal help, other discounts etc.

I�ve tried to give you a balanced view and some background. Hope this helps.

[helpmetoo]

i would rather slide downa thirty foot long razor blade using my nuts as brakes than join a union,

why would anyone with drive and ambition wish to be held back by a load of whingeing lefties and end up equal and alongside the lowest demoninator?,

if you can be bothered you get along fine on merit,

if you cant.......join the union!

[EngTeach]

Hi Helpmetoo,
As a strong union advocate I object to that line of thinking. As stated in my earlier post I am In a teachers' union in the US. We have seniority rights and such also protected. case in point: My Principal hired two new History teachers two yrs. ago, both were rated satisfactory for their performance. During that year we also had a student teacher who was a graduate of our High School. She is very good and as dedicated as the rest of us. The principal then hired her for this past year. This put us way over budget in that area. This past term she tried to get rid of one of the past hires. B/c he had seniority and could not just let him go, she went after him with guns ablazing. She even went so far as to make up false statements and to round up parents and students to get rid of him. She wrote him up for bringing a cup of coffee into the building. Not in class mind you, but in the building early before classes begin!! It went on and on and on. I thought the poor kid was going to have a break down. Unions prevent unfair firing and hiring practices. (He has is job, but is looking elsewhere to avoid the problems.)

Teaching should NEVER become a field where pay is based on Merit. So the idea of a union holding one back, in this case, is absurd. To move on/up in the ed. field you become an administrator.
B/C of my union I ONLY have 34 students per class as opposed to the 60+ that were allowed prior to unionization.

There's not enough room here to explain all the good it can do. I admit readily that unions can and do protect bad employees. The onus then falls on the superiors to accurately build their case for termination. The firing process has become less complicated, so an administrator must simply do THEIR job weed out those people who are not performing.

In Solidarity, ENGTEACH

[thugulike]

Belonging to a union can be helpful in that they can act as a buffer between you and the employer and help to resolve any issues which may arise without the parties being too close. I have known a union member be questioned by the police over the death of a child. The union provided her with a barrister when she was questioned and supported her through the court case. The death wasn't her fault but she had to give evidence in a very distressing case. I'd like to see even the most savvy of workers get through that on their own!