Jobseekers have little confidence in trade unions' power to protect workers
/hro/news/1015378/jobseekers-little-confidence-trade-unions-power-protect-workers
18 Jun 2009, David Woods, HRO
Research of 2,500 jobseekers from online jobsite TipTopJob found fewer than one in five (18%) were a member of a trade union and less than half (44%) who are not already a member would consider joining one.
Mike Dauncey, CEO of TipTopJob, said: "In this time of economic crisis the British labour market is struggling and what we are still seeing is a shift in opinion where ‘united front' bodies demand little to no respect.
"The trade unions power has been diminished by the ferocity of the economy, but never before have we seen such a low level of confidence in their ability to prevent redundancy."
and they are right not to rely on unions
I have helped 2 union members over the last couple of years and in both cases they would have been far better off with a good lawyer. The first was told by the union he had belonged to (at the same employer) for 35 years that they would not accompany him to his redundancy meetings as it wasn't necessary; he was initially offered statutory redundancy only by this large media owner. The other was being "supported" by his union in a race discrimination case but they failed to tell him about a hearing with a judge until 6pm the night before it and said they could not accompany him to it. In both cases I recommended a a good employment lawyer who reacted quickly and got a much more satisfactory outcome.
Posted by: Belinda Kent-Lemon , 13 Apr 2011 | 12:09