Unite Union too powerful?

Steve don't get me started - going to have to shake my head and walk away.

I assume people saw the picture of this doughnut going on easyjet for his holidays.

Slightly off topic but I was speaking to my wife a couple of weeks ago, can you imagine if our PM had his own jumbo to fly around in - his own airforce one.

Could not think of any other democratic country that let leaders fly around in their own jumbo!

My husband had a Unite rep at his work last week recruiting members! They've got a pay rise due after their pay freeze last year and Unite have bulldozed in trying to get them a better deal.. I think really they should for no.1 be lucky to have a secure job and no.2 be happy to be getting a pay rise at all!

Husband thinks that they are pushing for strike action and as he wasn't keen on the idea of joining and questioned the possibility of striking and said he wouldn't due to having a family to support the idiot said jokingly 'well you can cross the picket line but we'll be hurling abuse and stones at you!' Hardly a laughing matter thought I think!

They do seem to strike for fun, almost just to make it seem it worth paying them the monthly fee!

As the resident left-wing bleeding-heart liberal pansy... I can see both sides.

I believe unions can be a good thing when it comes to making sure certain standards of employment are met. Providing pressure to try and ensure that companies aren't cutting basic health and safety measures, for instance, or supporting employees who survive a life-threatening illness or injury and then get pulled in front of a disciplinary board for 'too much time off sick', or holding the hand of people who've experienced workplace bullying/harassment, aren't articulate or confident enough to stick up for themselves in a roomful of 'suits', and don't know what to expect from the arbitration process.

I don't believe in "you're lucky to have a secure job" if that job, although secure, is putting you at risk because your employer expects you to work in unsafe conditions or with inadequate equipment, or chooses to ignore the Working Time Directive at the expense of an employees health and social well-being. We're supposed to be a civilised country that's a good hundred years or so on from kiddies working sixty-hour weeks in cramped, unsanitary sweatshops.

I also don't believe "you're lucky to get any pay rise at all" if the wage is still not enough to live on, or does not reflect inflationary increase. Often, pay-freezes and less-than-inflation 'raises' only affect the lower echelons, and even if a freeze is universal throughout the company, being frozen at