Union???

tk123

My wonderful company doesn't have a union and they treat everyone like crap..Now a guy I work with used to be a shop steward so he rang some contact of his in SIPTU and was told that for a fee(€15 a month i think) SIPTU would represent him and anyone else who'd pay. He has already joined and suggested that some more of us do so long as we don't let our boss know because it's well known that anybody who ever tried to start a union left the company because they made life difficult for them - crap hours etc etc - there was even constructive dismissal cases and the employees won!!! I was just wondering thou that if my workplace doesn't have a union then is there any point in joining?? Would our place take the union seriously do you think??

tk123

**sigh** spelling mistake corrected ....

pebble

Used to be a shop steward. Will never wok in a union shop again, or be a memeber of a union.
Generally palces that require a union, are not worth being in.

John R

pebble wrote:

Used to be a shop steward. Will never wok in a union shop again, or be a memeber of a union.
Generally palces that require a union, are not worth being in.

And depending on how low you are in the company food chain non-union places can often be 100 times worse.

John R

tk123 wrote:

My wonderful company doesn't have a union and they treat everyone like crap..Now a guy I work with used to be a shop steward so he rang some contact of his in SIPTU and was told that for a fee(€15 a month i think) SIPTU would represent him and anyone else who'd pay. He has already joined and suggested that some more of us do so long as we don't let our boss know because it's well known that anybody who ever tried to start a union left the company because they made life difficult for them - crap hours etc etc - there was even constructive dismissal cases and the employees won!!! I was just wondering thou that if my workplace doesn't have a union then is there any point in joining?? Would our place take the union seriously do you think??

Legally the company cannot stop you from joining one and discriminating against members is also illegal, although as you mentioned a court case/tribunal is often the only way of asserting these rights.

AFAIK companies can refuse to deal with unions, the more employees that are members the more difficult it is for them to do this though.

It would be advisable to try to sign up as many as you can before letting your bosses know about it, unless a large amount of the staff join (enough to bring proceedings to a halt if you all down tools at the same time) it is probably pointless and likely to bring considerable hassle your way.

The main advantages of joining an established union is that they provide support with legal advice, negotiators and they can in certain circumstances provide financial support to people taking industrial action.

PatPete

The Unions in Ireland are useless. Look at the 1984 demo against PAYE - 250,000 people on the streets of Dublin and they sold out to CJ Haughey afterwards.
If you feel you must join one then run a competition among a few of them, let them know you will be seeking bids from more than one. Get each to say what they are prepared to do for you- and get it in writing. You ar entitled to join a Union but they tend to feel that once they obtained recognition for a workplace they have a permanent right and you will find it impossible to move between Unions ( talk about an anti-competitive practise!).