On 29 May, 13:51, wrote:
On May 29, 1:04*pm, MIG wrote:

Cite a successful strike or an example of workers getting what they
ask for? *The management invariably hold all the cards and always get
what they want.

Sorry, how much do tube workers get paid again? How much does the
average skilled manual worker get paid again? Claiming that their
industrial militancy hasn't paid off, whether you approve of it or
not, is just odd.

Senior bankers must have gone on strike an awful lot then.

Strikes result from fear and desperation and are a failure for both
unions and management. Good contracts result from organisation and
negotiation. I'd say that good union organisation results in better
contracts and working conditions.

Union organisation is also a prerequisite for a strike, but I don't
think that strikes have resulted in better contracts and working
conditions. They are just a symptom of conditions getting worse, for
economic or political reasons.

However, even when negotiation is taking place, it's the employer that
holds all the cards. My experience is that they'll, for example,
propose new contracts containing one or two outrageous proposals.

The unions will then effectively proof-read the document for the
management and point out the bits that are totally silly. The
management then issues the corrected version with the really silly
bits left out, and gets through the real change that they wanted to
make.