Ok, I spoke to Mick on Saturday and then I read his posting. I am humbled with admiration at what Mick and his organisation has done. I always find that I am having to defend myself when I turn around and say that I don't actually support unionisation or the closed shop. I suppose that I should have learned to keep my trap shut by now. Anyway, I feel that IN GENERAL unions have lost the meaning behind them in the way that they were created. This is down to a mixture of what the organisers, reps, stewards what have you tell members and what members want to believe or are willing to believ. Unions were also created to represent the MEMBERS of a union, doing what the MEMBERS agreed. The brothers and sisters that make up a labour organisation are that organisation. But what has become increasingly common is that the members do what the representative suggests, and sometimes that is not what is good for the members.

Case in point: Back in 1984 at the height of the Thatcher regime, the Whitbread brewery in my town shut down...why...because it was notorious for being strike hit. I knew people who worked there and they went on strike for anything, just to get a few days off or over some piddling argument ( I'm talking about the reps here by they way). Anyway in the summer of 84 things started to go wrong. Thatcher was changing the laws and the Unions were getting behind on what was happening. The brewery went on strike and the company turned round and said You have one month to get back in production or we close the plant down and shift it all to Basildon..or some other godless place. Of course the union reps laughed...Shut down a brewery...never...s'like sayin'they'll stamp out prostitution. But they did. and several thousand people found themselves out on the streets and on the social. I know for a fact that many of the members wanted to accept the deal that the brewery was offering. I know for a fact that the union reps also got a fat payoff, the members felt that they shouldn't go against their unions advice. A lot of people never worked again after that.

This is not an isolated case. I'm sure that anyone from the UK has got a similar story from that era. Yes, protect the people that need it. Yes there should be solidarity, yes there should be representation. But at what price? How powerful can a union be. I think that things are changing in the UK I think that the workers that are needing to be represented are finally getting the idea that THEY and not the reps are the union. I hope so, I wouldn't want to see the misery that happened after the Whitbread thing happen again.