My impression, from following the course of this dispute, is that managements in future will forever know that if trade unions ask their members to vote on any management-imposed issue regarding conditions of employment, and members return a decision not to management's liking, all management need do is close down the affected parts of the business, and the democratically reached decision will be reversed. Simple as that.
To me this makes a mockery of trade unions defending jobs and conditions of work, whatever the issue, from wages to H&S to contracts of employment, and smacks of abject capitulation in the face of business dictatorship. Is this what the British Way Of Life has now come down to when The Squire brandishes his shooting stick? Did anyone see the owner's sickening response on today's lunchtime news, that his only regret was the fear and upset the trade unions had caused many people? Whatever came of the idea of worker occupations to defend plants, such as successfully carried out once at the Govan shipyards? Or the call to nationalise essential services to the economy threatened with closure by their private owners and shareholders with more money than their generosity is worth?
To me this makes a mockery of trade unions defending jobs and conditions of work, whatever the issue, from wages to H&S to contracts of employment, and smacks of abject capitulation in the face of business dictatorship. Is this what the British Way Of Life has now come down to when The Squire brandishes his shooting stick? Did anyone see the owner's sickening response on today's lunchtime news, that his only regret was the fear and upset the trade unions had caused many people? Whatever came of the idea of worker occupations to defend plants, such as successfully carried out once at the Govan shipyards? Or the call to nationalise essential services to the economy threatened with closure by their private owners and shareholders with more money than their generosity is worth?
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