How about the college students / validating students? They cant afford to take the cut, union member or not.
As an example: 10% of not very much = not a lot at all.
The current trainees don't receive a respectable salary, they take a big risk in the hope that three years down the line they'll be valid and they'll have a means of paying off all their debts. The other main carrot for us is the pension, and ours is at most risk because there are so many years before we claim it for management to ultimately have their wicked way.
I will strike given the opportunity because no matter what they take away from me today I'm already financially f****d. The only reason I'm happy to put up with less than I could get in most McJobs is what the future potentially has to offer me if I succeed.
So am I and other trainees happy to sit and have someone take that away from us because we can't afford to pay our rent?
No. We are not.
Any trainee joining the company on or after course 207 has already been shafted; we will not let it happen to us again.