London Banter - View Single Post - Paris Metro chiefs back introduction of driverless Tube trains to London

Eric[_3_] · July 14th 15, 07:19 PM posted to uk.transport.london

On 2015-07-14, y wrote:
On Mon, 13 Jul 2015 18:46:28 +0100
Eric wrote:
On 2015-07-13, y wrote:
8 --------

I'm not sure whats less surprising - the fact that the drivers operate
a closed shop or that LU gave into their demands for it.

Total failure to understand what unions are about or why they were
started. And don't bother to say that they have gone too far

Whats that got to do with operating closed shops?

As I said, total failure to understand.

(occasionally true but you can say that for any organisation) or that
they are no longer necessary (which is absolute rubbish).

Well I've never belonged to one and have done alright.

You work in an industry where the "right skills" are a moving target and
there are always shortages, especially of people who have the skills on
paper _and_ enough common sense and experience to use them sensibly. The
majority of my life has been spent as an IT contractor, and I've done
alright too.

However before I did that I did something else, and I was not only a
union member but the site union rep. Now I have taken a salaried IT job
as a fade-to-retirement, and I am once again a union member.

You could argue that unions are for people too stupid to understand the
details in a job contract.

No, unions are for people who are (at least theoretically) interchangeable
and easily replaceable, and therefore have no negotiating power
individually. Understanding the contract, which doesn't exist in a legal
sense anyway, is beside the point, since they won't change it just
for you and the ability to shop around for a better one is extremely
limited. And even the stupid deserve a fair rate of pay.

Eric
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ms fnd in a lbry