Unions

Perhaps that's too big a title for one blog.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about unions. She works in HR, and is against them. She argued that they're an anachronism, out of date and unnecessary with today's employment laws. It should be said that she's American, and is functioning in an American employment environment.

In Britain, back in February they predicted a "Summer of Rage", an echo of "The Winter of Discontent". News reports predicted protests across Britain of levels unseen since the winter of 1978-79 which saw corpses pile up in the streets (Note: reporting on this series of strikes may have been hampered by the various journalist and reporter strikes going on at about the same time.) These predictions of a "Summer of Rage" may have been exaggerated, but it can still be seen with the extended postal and binmen strikes seen here, following the enormous G20 protest in March.

Have these strikes and protests accomplished anything? Experience seems to teach that protests from ordinary people trying to affect the government's policies don't work. They didn't work in 2003, they seem to have accomplished fuck all since then. (In contrast to the highly successful, yet highly violent 1990 Poll Tax riots in Britiain -- the Poll Tax was changed into the Countil Tax.) Even now, there are scattered reports that Americans are boycotting Scotland because they're releasing the Lockerbie bomber. But do union strikes work?

One must remember that sometimes governments take extreme measures to end strikes. Nationwide protests in France in Jan 09 seemed to have influenced the government there to act. In that instance the entire country basically shut down for a day. But it hasn't always been that way. In the early 1980's, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher chose to end the long painful (and violent) mining strikes by closing mines across the country. Her defense for this may have been that the unions were too powerful, having completed successful strikes in the 70's.

Unions have their uses. The movie "Cradle Will Rock" is an excellent song of praise that will turn anyone into a union fan. Unions traditionally fight for better pay and working conditions of the employees, but are equally important in simple management ideas, translating the policies between the aristocratic management and the working class employees. My friend argued that unions are often corrupt, and while this may have been true, I question whether it still is. It's perhaps easier to just say "power corrupts". But do strikes work? Non-violent protest is quickly becoming a fruitless guesture, and violent protest is mocked in its desperation.

Perhaps in the future, all we'll have left is live broadcast call-in votes in our own idiocracy.