I can honestly empathise with the frustrations of people like @Disillusioned, and can only assume that the more recent posts come from either some of the more myopic members of our fraternity, or union reps who think they've been doing a great job for the last couple of years and feel it necessary to defend their actions on here.
As I've said on here before, the low turnout in recent ballots is no measurement of membership apathy - it could be a measurement of membership confusion, membership anger, but apathy - no. I'm not sure how some people on here can defend the actions of a union that in recent times has recommended acceptance of a pay deal a matter of days before the announcement of record profits,
as well as been hoodwinked into recommending wholesale pension reform at a time when a depressed stock market made the situation seem artificially bad. Under those circumstances, what's most surprising is that only 3 in every 10 members opted not to vote.
The union will do what its membership ask of it. The past 4 or 5 years are littered with ballots that have followed the union recommendation, only for the membership (who voted it in) to then whinge about it 6 months down the line
Actually, it's quite likely that those who "whinge" about it are those who, like me, voted NO in both of the ballots mentioned above and feel more than a little let down by the advice (or more particularly, the
timing of the advice) from the union. And I'm pretty sure the membership did not
ask for pension reform...
As it stands, the union are showing all the signs of rolling over for management
again. Taking a cynical view this is no surprise given that so many senior union members hold company management positions. There is no real sign of the union actually withdrawing from the AAVA agreement, so this was just another empty threat like so many communiques before it. The rumours are that the union are worried of the legal repercussions of such a move - I stress that these are rumours because as @Disillusioned said, we're never actually told anything on the shop floor until it's too late. There is a real opportunity here for the union to show some teeth as summer traffic begins to kick in. They have given three months' notice, and it was management who attempted to circumvent the agreement (several times) in the first place - from a legal standpoint, I don't see what the risk is.
What, exactly, do you expect? A video blog from the negotiating team updated daily? You aren't furnished with all the details with which to make a decision yet as there isn't yet a decision to be made! When your vote is requested then you'll have the details of what you are voting on laid out before you.
Ooooooh, a video blog would be lovely! In the absence of that, regular updates would be nice given that a lot of people at
the biggest unit in the country have been hearing news second-, third- or fourth-hand in the past few months. And are you seriously saying that membership only deserve to be informed when it's decision time? With that attitude, you must actually be a Swanwick rep. No, if you want your membership to show less apathy, you keep them regularly informed of developments, and try and cut out the deal we deserve.
LTP