Let me be clear on this. I am not in a union, never have been, never needed to be.
So on to how a Union can screw it up for workers.
In the last few weeks management at two major airlines – Aer Lingus & British Airways – have come to the fore in the papers as guys who will not bow to the ever baying cries from Unions that it “could be better” for their members.
Case 1:
Aer Lingus
So we have several different Unions in Aer Lingus. Aer Lingus needs to cut costs, no doubt about it. This requires redundancies, this requires pay cuts…. these are two things you never let a Union hear. After the plan was battered out and shown to the Unions – battered a bit more, all but one Union (Cabin Crew) agreed to the plan. Now you can’t go firing people from the other areas and leave one untouched because they didn’t agree, you still need to make those cuts in that area.
So Aer Lingus management went the smart way about it. All the other areas get to do voluntary redundancies, I presume some good redundancy package and so on and so forth. The Cabin Crew guys get mandatory redundancies (of the amount of people the airline wanted) and just the basic government redundancy package.
My did the cabin crews Union get hot and bothered that they had pushed too far and found themselves with no recourse… suddenly we were hearing cries of “We will re-ballot our members!”. “No!” said the airline management.
Fine you’re a union and you keep pushing to get something nice for your members, only so they will keep paying you membership, but that action, pushing & pushing, is what is ruining and tying the hands of companies. But when you go to far you look like idiots to be seen crawling backwards! You make your bed, you sleep in it lads! is what I have to say.
Case 2:
British Airways (BA)
Well I’m not so up on their situation other than they decided to go on strike last weekend and next. All these lovely staff who decided to go strike, because their Union told them they could hold to company to ransom, got a nice shock. BA gives it’s staff a nice, non-contractual, bonus of cheaper flights on BA flights. Well when you nip at the hand that feeds you – DO NOT be surprised if it pulls away. All the staff who went on strike have had that privilege rescinded… and the Union(UNITE)? Unite condemned the move as “vindictive” and has argued that staff discounts, which vary with length of service, are now standard practice rather than a perk”. Uh huh… just because you have had it for a few years does not mean it is concrete. It’s not squatters rights we are talking about here. Silly Union, bet the staff feel stupid for following you down that road now!
I have to fully agree with BA when they gave their reason: “The industrial action impacted on our operation and our customers and we will undoubtedly suffer additional costs and further losses as a result.” BA also did something interesting during the first strike – they hired 3 planes off RyanAir to cover some of the customers, and for that they get Michael ‘motormouth’ O’Leary saying good things, well not great but not bad things as usual, and lambasting the strike, even though he was gaining from it (did I mention O’Leary hates unions for what they are ‘The Opposition’ who wouldn’t know how to agree with what the management decide).
So to wrap up: Unions should cop on to themselves. Stop blocking ideas that are needed. Start thinking about the companies, though by being seen to disagree you are looking after your ‘company’. How about you all just bugger off as you are not helping anyone by constantly disagreeing.
As I said at the top, not part of a Union, never have been.
[/end rant] 
I’m with you on this. To my mind, we’re in the shit, we all need to pay a price and it’s not going to be pleasant but it has to be done. There’s no other way. How on earth does striking – and therefore costing the company loads – help if they’re considering layoffs and other unpleasant measures to cut costs? Surely all you’re doing is add to the burden that nees to be relieved by layoffs? It just doesn’t make sense.
Then there’s the public service people, who I just don’t get. Micky and I were talking about this yesterday, and I’ll defer to him as with his background in economics etc. he certainly has a better grip on stuff like this than I do. He has sympathy for them, as they really are taking a huge knock in pay. However, he points out that Ireland’s public sector workers are among the highest paid in Europe, if not the highest paid.
And in the private sector, unlike in the public sector, thousands of people have lost their jobs altogether. This is one aspect of this crisis public sector workers have not had to deal with, and I think for people drawing dole money, or trying to get a flight to an overseas job interview (one definite case I know of) but missing the opportunity because you can’t get a passport from disgruntled public sector workers, people whose welfare claims are being delayed because of strikes… I just wonder if the strikers take this into consideration on any level.
I listened to a snippet of a radio programme in which a teacher’s union representative was confronted with the fact that teachers, even after the pay cuts, will still earn more than they would for the same job in any other country (I speak under correction, it was a snippet I heard on a bad radio connection). They at least get paid a lot more than teachers just across the border, in NI. The man kept saying it’s irrelevant, but I don’t know so much. I think it’s very relevant indeed.
By: nadiawilliams on April 8, 2010
at 10:14 am