Our Unions are selfish and reckless, is it time they too are reformed.

Posted 16 Sep 2011 by Walaa Idris

Union members have been balloted for industrial action on November 30; a day when millions of public sector works plan to strike and union bosses hope to paralyze our nation and its government into submission. An action many union supporters and lefties including the leader of the opposition think is wrong, and should not take place, because it’s irresponsible and doesn’t make any sense nor does it chime with the publics’ mode in this current economic climate!

Striking is senseless. ONE, because negotiations are still on going and no decision has been reached yet, and TWO, for public sector workers to demand working for a shorter time than the rest of the nation – then expect NOT to contribute to it when the rest of the country had to cut their cloth to fit their pocket is arrogant selfishness beyond comprehension!

So who do they think will pay the bill for there longer retirement?

Bizarre? You bet!!

Every other industry had to reform, learned to curb their appetite and tighten their belt. It’s time our unions enter the twenty first century – time for them to wake up to the real world and catch up with the rest of Britain. It’s time these unions are reformed.

3 comment(s)

Edward Green
16 Sep, 15:01

Ed Milliband is actually playing this issue very wisely. The largest swing from Labour to Conservative voting ever was in the 1979 General Election and that was a direct result of the Winter of Discontent. The Labour Party then went further left and delivered a massive landslide to the Conservatives at the next General Election. Ed Milliband has learned this lesson, but the unions clearly have not.

A question often gets asked as to whether the unions see “the big picture”. Most of them clearly don’t. I don’t remember the Winter of Discontent during my childhood, but I haven’t read anywhere of any significant counter demonstrations or any major backlash against it at the time other than the victory for Margaret Thatcher in 1979. The Labour defeat of 1979 and the disaster (or wonderful success, according to political viewpoint) of 1983 were the most obvious demonstrations of the general public’s disaffection with unfettered union power.

I actually think this time there will be a far greater demonstration of public anger against the public sector unions and their actions. There is also a much greater element of workers in the private sector resenting the differences in pay and privileges between themselves and those in the public sector than there was in the 1970-80s. Private sector workers have been ready to tighten their belts as the country faces turmoil, but they will not readily tolerate the public sector refusing to do so. This aspect of the situation is exacerbated when it is the private sector workers’ own taxes that are paying for the great privileges of the public sector.

Of course many in the Conservative Party must be rubbing their hands with glee after the TUC Conference this week as they see the union barons sabotaging Labour’s electoral prospects for the next decade or so. It is this that worries Ed Milliband the most.