Awww!. Get some bumper stickers made up that say, "Hug a Unionist".

What a lot of bunkum. In the same way that the Howard Government and all its patsies, are demonised then so is the Labor movement in Australia.

I've been labelled a left-wing Liberal and while the labelling might not be correct what is beyond dispute is the observations I have made of thuggish union behaviour. Norm Gallagher was pinged for parking illegally at lunchtime when he was having a liquid lunch, so he demanded that the council rescind the ticket, (do you know who I am?) and when they refused he went of in a fit of pique and pulled the workforce off the construction site for new council chambers. I lived through crappy teachers who burned incence in classrooms and knitted during class-time instead of teaching applied maths. My father was sacked because he blew the whistle on union rorts where cars were getting three miles per gallon and timber was sold three times to the Council.

These aren't lies, spin doctoring or fictional stories, they are facts, they are experiences that I felt, saw and smelled and they helped form the opinions that I now hold.

I don't think unions are good for workers and I don't think they are good for the country. They are relics of the past and they hunger for the power that they once had. I hope they never acieve the prominence that they had in the '70s, it was a sorry time in our history.

THREE CHEERS for some honesty.. no, I'm not speaking about the article, honest though as it might be, I'm referring to those with the testicles to report their horrific experiences at the hands of either Gallagher or Unionized Principles etc...

It shows EXACTLY why any utopian dream of 'World Socialism' is just that.. a dream.. the nightmare is what happens down on the streets, while the 'party spindoctors' are bleating about how well they are running things and how happy the 'masses' are.

I live near Johnston tiles in Bayswater.. what annoyed me was the rampage by a union thug who was fortunately JAILED for his crimes (but not for long enough) what annoyed me MORE was that he was hailed as a HERO and a martryr by many in the Union movement.

The world will have peace when the following happens.

1/ Muslim moderates denounce radicals regularly and harshly.
2/ Unionists denounce radicals regularly and harshly.
3/ Capitalists denounce 'strip mining/clearfelling' of all resources in the name of 'shareholder value'.

The problem with each of the above, is that the core issues being confronted are:

a) Megalomania. "Do you know who I AM" ?
b) Greeeeeed.

The Bible calls these things SIN!
But it also tells us that these 'sins' come from an inner sinfulNESS in each one of us.
Today it was a joy so sit down with various Christians, a Jew and an atheist.. to greet each other with a hug and embrace.. and continue planning how we will 'Rule the World'.. ok.. not quite, just checking if ur reading and awake :) but we are planning a demo on September 11 on the steps of Parliament house.

No.. many Unionists are not outlaws, but many are. Just like white collar criminals, they are blue collar ones.

Christ is the answer to sin, and dealing with the sin problem is the answer to social ills

Sorry but unions deserve a kick in the guts. They have endlessly campaigned for 'better pay and conditions' and, in doing so, have priced Australia out of business in far too many areas.
The union movement also did damn all to help me when one of their own denied me employment. Was I the best man for the job? Yes. They admitted that but I had been out of the country and I had not paid my union dues - as a student I could hardly afford to eat let alone pay union dues back in Australia.
Unions need to get a life and realise that they are, in their present form, past their use-by debate. Change or die.

One of the things that always amazes me about the ongoing criticism of unions is the double-standard premise that those organisations who represent workers are a negative social force, while those organisations who represent commercial interests fulfill a positive role in society.

Rotary, Lions, the Masons, the Business Council and the many commercial, professional and managerial associations around the country who look after the interests of their members (while gathering enormous wealth and power in the process) remain untouchable to media cricitism.

These are all deemed ‘nice’ organisations, who operate with integrity, efficiency and high-minded ethics. Well … they must. If they didn’t, the media would immediately tell us so. Wouldn’t they?

What also fascinates me about criticisms of the unions is that they almost always focus on the high-testosterone industries – in particular, waterfront, building and mining – that easily lend themselves to fantasies about violence, standover tactics and thuggery. It’s then an easy rhetorical leap to portraying all unions as inefficient, brutish and self-serving.

I suppose that the long-established conservative order of dominance – rich men over poor men; men over women; adults over children; humans over nature – has to be culturally reasserted on a regular basis by those who sit at the top of the heap. Anything that threatens that dominance – trade unionism, feminism, multiculturalism, liberal parenting/teaching policies, environmentalism etc – has to be regularly demonised and marginalised by those who control the mouthpieces of public debate.

Unions will go on being knocked down in the public domain … and they will keep on getting up again. Because anything less is too horrible to contemplate. Good, bad or indifferent, unions exist because they have to. They fulfil a vital role – not just in democracies, but in all societies. History has shown with horrifying repetition that the endgame in the destruction of labour representation is slavery.

MLK,
My trade union did not "threaten the conservative order".
My trade union passively preserved the conservative ( bullying) order.

In Queensland the Labor party is sitting at the top of the heap.

I have (some) control of this mouthpiece of public debate and I am not demonising my union. I am telling you the plain facts.
I believed 100% in my union. Then, when I turned to them for support, they just told me to "accept the things you cannot change".
You find it hard to grasp. I find it hard to grasp. But it happened. It is a fact.

I am complaining about my union and I don't see any point in them "getting up again" because their passive facilitation of workplace abuse is HARMFUL to ordinary teachers.

We need a real union, an old-style union with guts and integrity.

Unfortunately, the reasons that unions were formed in the first place still exists, in one form or another.

There are still as many rogue employers as there are rogue shop stewards.

Who honestly believes that if unions were dismantled tomorrow, we would all walk hand-in-hand into some glorious new future where fairness and justice for all would reign supreme?

Probably the same ones who believe the "people are are greatest asset" mantra that some corporations use just before they downsize or outsource to some foreign country.

It's all very nice for the highly paid in some (currently popular) industries, but who looks out for the weak and defenceless in our society?