| Ignitionnet |
11-03-2010 11:16 |
Re: Royal Mail Workers Pay Rises, Bonuses, Less Hours
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Originally Posted by injuneer
(Post 34978183)
I thought we had moved on from Victorian work ethics but I must be mistaken.
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We have - that's why militant trade unionism is irrelevant now. Perhaps a reminder of where the movement came from would be useful:
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Besides acting to raise wages and improve working conditions, the federations espoused certain social reforms, such as the institution of free public education, the abolition of imprisonment for debt, and the adoption of universal manhood suffrage. Perhaps the most important effect of these early unions was their introduction of political action.
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You might also be interested in this:
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One 1951 study found that instead of harming profits, unions increase the wages of about 10 to 15% of workers by about 10 to 15% by reducing the wages of the other 85 to 90% of workers by about 4%.
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About the only social reform unions are interested in now is trying to get socialism / communism (Bob Crow's words) on us, indeed a union boss recently commented that we should all pay more tax to preserve public sector jobs.
Quote:
Originally Posted by injuneer
(Post 34978183)
A suppose a lot depends on your view of work, work to live or live to work. I have also worked in the private sector (except when PO telephones was government owned) most of my working life but in recent years I have a seen a steady decline in front line workers conditions, less staff, increased pressure usually resulting in a deteriorating customer experience, but management are not interested in that, only their profit margins.
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Quote:
The effect of union activities to influence pricing is potentially very harmful, making the market system ineffective. Because the price of labour is raised above the market rate, deadweight loss is created. Additional non-monetary benefits exacerbate the problem.
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So who pays for the deadweight that Unions protect? Oh that'll be those customers they claim to care about. Companies will make their money somewhere and the unions holding their employer and in turn their customers to ransom is passed onto the consumer.
Unions don't care, at all, for anything besides getting the best deal for their members, regardless of the social or economic consequences. Unions are responsible for rampant inflation in the 70s and would happily do so again. They are, bizarrely, a group that claim to be socialist yet couldn't give two hoots about society.
My point was really quite simple. If you don't like your job you go elsewhere. If you've been in the same job for over 20 years you must like something about it, or you can't get a better deal elsewhere. If union members can't get a better deal elsewhere what makes them so special that they should be paid more and have better benefits than other people doing the same hours in the same job elsewhere?
There's the other issue with unions. They bleat on about equality, workers' rights, etc, but couldn't care less so long as their workers' get more rights and are more equal than everyone else.
Speak for yourself re: being a statistic by the way. I must have been more fortunate with my choice of employer. |
