Quote Originally Posted by El Kabong View Post
Miles if you are under the illusion that Unions are neither political nor have elite members then that's fine....I tend to disagree. Unions have done great harm in the US and I think now that we have a Department of Labor that Unions in general are worthless other than being a group that uses strong arm tactics to ensure the Democrats keep some power. I know you're speaking specifically of England and you (like most other Brits) want to place 100% of the blame on Maggie Thatcher, but do tell me there was 0 corruption in those Unions and 0 intent from elite Union leaders to gain greater power in the government for THEMSELVES and not the average joe's out there, becasue I don't buy it for a second.
Lyle, of course unions are political. It is a group of people trying to make collective decisions, a union is by its very nature political. And as I have said before I always maintain a sense of suspicion about any organisation with a concentration of power. Sure there are agendas at play, but ultimately a union is about representing the interests of the worker as contrasted with the corporate elite who exist only to represent their shareholder friends. Which political side am I on? Of course the one that wants to represent labour interests. I have done no research on the topic, but my gut intuition is that there may have been some corruption in the union process, but that is because of my own inherent distrust of power. But IMO even a union with a small degree of corruption is infinitely preferable to not even being able to have a union at all. In the corporation I was working for in the UK, corporations were not allowed and anyone looking to form one would have been given the boot very quickly. I would have loved to have a union looking out for me as the conditions were awful.

For sure, I would imagine that there is an element of power play involved in unions, but that is better than having no representation and having the elite rip labour off just to satisfy shareowner interests.