Brimstone wrote to uk.transport.london on Wed, 15 Dec 2004:

Paul Weaver wrote:
But do they? No! Of course they dont. Instead they get a few
millitants to brainwash members and bully those that want to work
(and those that arent members of the mob)

Not forgetting the apathetic ones who won't get off their arses and attend
branch meetings and influence what goes on.


I did hear that the militants sometimes - and I'm sure this can't be
true in all cases - cause meetings to spin out for hours and hours until
all the moderates go home in despair and boredom, and the militants take
control.... intimidating any remaining moderates off the committees....
I don't suppose this is still true today, but it may well have been in
the days when the unions held the nations to ransom!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 12 December 2004

Mrs Redboots...thats the way the old urban myths start isnt it? You can say
anything you like but put a proviso on it...soon its repeated without the
proviso...just like the story about the 52 days holidays, its not true but
hey it sounds good.
Think i'll start a few myself......
I did hear that the public sometimes - and I'm sure this can't be true in
all cases........
Insert anything here.




wrote in message
...
Brimstone wrote to uk.transport.london on Wed, 15 Dec 2004:

Paul Weaver wrote:
But do they? No! Of course they dont. Instead they get a few
millitants to brainwash members and bully those that want to work
(and those that arent members of the mob)

Not forgetting the apathetic ones who won't get off their arses and attend
branch meetings and influence what goes on.



- cause meetings to spin out for hours and hours until
all the moderates go home in despair and boredom, and the militants take
control.... intimidating any remaining moderates off the committees....
I don't suppose this is still true today, but it may well have been in
the days when the unions held the nations to ransom!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 12 December 2004

Malcolm & Nika wrote to uk.transport.london on Wed, 15 Dec 2004:

Mrs Redboots...thats the way the old urban myths start isnt it? You can say
anything you like but put a proviso on it...soon its repeated without the
proviso...just like the story about the 52 days holidays, its not true but
hey it sounds good.
Think i'll start a few myself......
I did hear that the public sometimes - and I'm sure this can't be true in
all cases........
Insert anything here.

As I said, it may not be true today but was, I believe, in the 1970s.
If your union is governed by New-Labour-voting moderates - but I don't
believe it is!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 12 December 2004

In message , Malcolm & Nika
writes
Mrs Redboots...thats the way the old urban myths start isnt it? You can
say anything you like but put a proviso on it...soon its repeated
without the proviso...just like the story about the 52 days holidays,
its not true but
hey it sounds good.
Think i'll start a few myself......
I did hear that the public sometimes - and I'm sure this can't be true
in
all cases........
Insert anything here.
Insist on using the tube during strike days when normally wild horses
wouldn't drag them out of their cars.
--
Clive.

On Thu, 16 Dec 2004 18:10:14 +0000, Clive Coleman wrote:

In message , Malcolm & Nika
writes
Mrs Redboots...thats the way the old urban myths start isnt it? You can
say anything you like but put a proviso on it...soon its repeated
without the proviso...just like the story about the 52 days holidays,
its not true but
hey it sounds good.
Think i'll start a few myself......
I did hear that the public sometimes - and I'm sure this can't be true
in
all cases........
Insert anything here.
Insist on using the tube during strike days when normally wild horses
wouldn't drag them out of their cars.

Noone drives in Zone 1. There's too much traffic.

Mrs Redboots wrote:

I did hear that the militants sometimes - and I'm sure this can't be
true in all cases - cause meetings to spin out for hours and hours
until all the moderates go home in despair and boredom, and the
militants take control.... intimidating any remaining moderates off
the committees....
I don't suppose this is still true today, but it may well have been in
the days when the unions held the nations to ransom!

A little anecdote for you.

In the late seventies/early eighties I was a TU branch officer and used to
take special (i.e. unpaid) leave to attend branch meetings. I wasn't and am
not a "militant", it was recognised by colleagues from both ends of the
spectrum that I usually had a balanced, middle of the road view. But
eventually I got so fed up with the general level of disinterest in their
own conditions and future displayed by my own workmates that I gave up.

On one ocassion a work colleague raised something (it's twenty odd years ago
remember) that caused me to ask why he didn't attend branch meetings. His
response was "I've got a family to support". Not being a family manI asked
him to tell me what that entailed, what it was that he spent his time doing
that stopped him from attending a branch meeting once in a while. He
couldn't tell me.

Yes there were people in the branch who brought up matters that weren't
directly to do with our employment etc and if we had nothing better to talk
about it was allowed, but employment matters took precedence.

Apathy is the biggest problem facing the British workforce because most
people can't see further ahead than the next pay packet and that includes
"management". Far too many people suffer from myopic tunnel vision.

Brimstone wrote to uk.transport.london on Thu, 16 Dec 2004:


Apathy is the biggest problem facing the British workforce because most
people can't see further ahead than the next pay packet and that includes
"management". Far too many people suffer from myopic tunnel vision.


How very true. I've never had the kind of job where I needed to be in a
Union, but if I had had, I would certainly have *been* in the Union, not
just passively paid my subscription. I hope.... then again, knowing my
younger self, probably not!
--
"Mrs Redboots"
http://www.amsmyth.demon.co.uk/
Website updated 12 December 2004

On Wed, 15 Dec 2004 19:22:03 +0000, Mrs Redboots
wrote:

I did hear that the militants sometimes - and I'm sure this can't be
true in all cases - cause meetings to spin out for hours and hours until
all the moderates go home in despair and boredom, and the militants take
control.... intimidating any remaining moderates off the committees....
I don't suppose this is still true today, but it may well have been in
the days when the unions held the nations to ransom!

You've been observing Unison meetings in certain University of London
colleges haven't you? ;-)

--
Cheers,

Jason.