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I stated in present tense - The Unions are why kids aren't sent up chimney's to clean them for 1p a day.

The reason they aren't is because of legislation (which was found necessary), the reason the legislation is still in place is because of Unions. We have governments that have effectively removed many worker rights, ACAS has gone to all intents and purpose so its extremely difficult to appeal against an employer know, the Tories are committed to introducing hire and fire.

Hire and fire doesn't work for most jobs, ask any expert, stability, experience, loyalty and expertise matters - it is the Government who are supposed to create stability, instead they are creating chaos.

I haven't got anything good to say about TW and a number other Union people, but that is far from all of them.

Unions do millions of things a year, the media choose to highlight the small percentage of bad things. The British Public are being manipulated by the media.

Strike has become a dirty word (through media manipulation) - yet it is enshrined by law, is that not a contradiction? Scargill wasn't "clean" but my god he was right about what the Government was trying to do, unfortunately other industries didn't see it coming to them.

How many good MP's are there, how many MP's are criminals, yet the house of commons is let off by the media far lighter than Unions. IMHO a criminal should not be allowed to be an MP, their is a big difference in running a country and representing people.

The Union did nothing to fight for my wifes job when she was "persuaded" to leave for being off ill. They seem more interested in flag waving at LGBT events.

I was annoyed at my Union providing financial assistance to villages in foreign countries.

I was also annoyed at them having a specific LGBT group within the Union, that is far from equality it is the opposite.

On the other hand, they did thousands of good things, but the muck sticks doesn't it!

I became anti union because of things I saw and experienced during my working life. I have always considered myself a socialist and have demonstrated at labour party rallies because the lack of support for the miners at the time was a disgrace.I was famous for a day when I told TW to FO when he was canvassing for the job as leader of the TG.We had a ballot on whether the union or the company should hire and fire, the union lost the vote, strange that we trusted the company more than our union.(Vauxhall)

Vauxhall have been a pretty fair employer partly through a history of people coming up through the ranks (may not be the case any longer).

Other employers employ jumped up kids to manage stores that haven't got a clue how to treat people or even let people get on with their job. They send "managers" on courses explaining how they can be CEO if they work hard and get good figures, I've seen a number of these types collapsing on a regular basis through the strain, they think they will be CEO in 20 years time, I think they will be in a morgue - the trail of destroyed trust and loyalty left behind is unreal.

TW is hardly a revered figure in the majority of the TU world, he is part of a group of Unionists that are equivalent to the political Etonians, far too keen to achieve one-upmanship as a success rather than good solid achievements. He is the type that did more damage to the Unions than Maggie did, but both pale into significance compared to how the media manipulate .... TW would have been a nothing without the media, he would have come and gone.

I found this of interest just incase anybody is naive enough to think we can trust any of them.
www.theguardian.com/politics2008/dec/18/unite-tony-woodley

The above Guardian link appears to be dead, however put it in manually and it works. Well worth the read.

Digging deeper, the point I made about Woodley was merely that he hadn't taken a pay rise!

Well he more than made up for it in 2008-2009 in more ways than one CLICKY

There are other non-union matters that I wasn't impressed with.

Unions shouldn't use bully-boy tactics, they should be fighting against that sort of thing.

dd,or chris k.? When banks get fined billions for being corrupt who does the money go to?

dd,or chris k.? When banks get fined billions for being corrupt where does the money go to?

UK fines usually go to charity, favourite over last few years have been armed forces charities. Of course with rich armed forces charities it saves government money on support so the gesture isn't quite as generous as it looks.

Am I missing a Union involvement?

re the banks
I wonder how much of the profits made from corruption actually end up as fines.
eg say 50 billion profit - 300 million fined

Fining banks is a pretty pointless exercise, while it hits the shareholders a bit, its the customers than end up paying most of the fine.

The top management and directors are getting the big money and are responsible for the actions of their company, they are the ones that should be held to criminal account.

In 1970, after doing 11 years in the RN, I did a capstan setter operators course so that I could carry on working after leaving the service. Couldn't get a job because I wasn't in a union, couldn't join the union because I didn't have a job. Closed shop see! Ended up as a bus conductor, a noble calling but not exactly what I had in mind. Saw lots of bent union stuff whilst working after that. The idea is good but the reality stinks.