All this union stuff is a bit of a worry, Belly. So tell me,
why does every second union official have a Scottish accent?

Yabby! give me a break mate! I agree, tell you why soon but please read this link.
http://m.smh.com.au/national/nsw-union-boss-denies-underworld-link-20120830-252gj.html
IT screams WHY, Mick Gatto!
Stand over man thug, mug criminal in every way, a LEACH on the backs of workers.
Yabby know this, Great Britain sends its unwanted still, they flock to become the better ones, Police or prison Gard's.
The worst know only too well, shouting and screaming, impresses the few.
Who become the army and push by black mail, the rank and file to obey.
It takes a Belly, not praise just honesty,to push to the front and let them have it! get right in to them, it works.
I have pulled two union sites to me, stopped radical actions then been threatened with death by this filth.
If you read my contributions all of them, you will see I am not holding back.
Do we all understand the Mafia turned American Unions in to criminal groups.
We know surely of the SCUM painters and d0ckers in Melbourne.
My union has its few fleas, but not many thugs not many criminals, this gangster union is on its last legs.
It will die, the day has come for my union to openly go for their throat, I did, with joy every day!
If unions be come criminal groups they die.
One Big Union! many branches well managed and POLICED, is the answer.
Do not ever brand us with this mob,
PS the NSW boss is, I have met him, a good bloke in the wrong union.

Yeah Belly, but its not just this union. Look at the HSU. These are
not the only ones.

The thing is, people yell and scream about corporations etc, but
there are good ones and bad ones. The same with unions. So I guess
my point is that its not all black and white and some unions are
certainly doing their share to stuff country, the moment they are
given a bit of power. When the construction unions had a proper
regulator looking over their shoulders, they had to behave. Your
Govt changes that under union pressure and now its a mess.

That is what happens when the unions run the Govt.

Yabby in a way your post HIGHLIGHTS why this issue is damaging_to every trade union, and by implication the ALP.
I the heart of that beast the HSU hides filth, some yet uncovered, I doubt these suit wearers are worth saving.
And offer no defense, in fact CRINGE at the near certainty more unions are like it.
My ALP/Union movement MUST not hide behind a once proud now damaging word SOLIDARITY.
It is the carpet we sweep the dirt under.
Always this union leads the destruction, proudly claiming to be this country,s most militant union.
At some point, LABOR/UNIONS must ask our selfs are we fair dinkum? do we think mum and dad in suburbia will except this?
Want this?
Maybe time for new Labor, not a further swing to the right, but a demand that those claiming to represent workers/battler are not in fact using them.
This morning on both these sites lies are being told to picketers.
Some know that but fear being bashed, even forced out of the construction industry, by opposing the filth.
BUT yabby, it is no excuse no defense not a plea for forgiveness, every industry has its maggots review Gina's words!
Unionists! the above is No reason to let the filth make Unionism a dirty word!
Join a union, not a criminal organization.

Yabby there are many in the union movement who would laugh at the comment they are having any influence on government. They are no more influential, probably less so, than the corporate sector in both ALP and LNP camps.

There has to be a balance and both the industry unions (eg. chambers of commerce and the like) and workers unions have a place in protecting the interests of their members. Both can go too far especially when the power balance is tipped in their favour (WorkChoices) and the union movement certainly of late have demonstrated a need for better audit practices. I have some faith that when the balance is tipped too far on one side the pendulum tends to swing back when events prove that too much power corrupts.

The deregistration of the BLF and scaling back of WorkChoices are good examples. With the current obsessions with growth, free trade and the like though, I fear it will take the pendulum a little more time to balance out the ideals of quality of life and wellbeing which have been pushed aside for man-made notions of productivity.

Oh Yabby, please don't get rid of the Scottish accents. :)

I skipped the influence unions have on government stuff.
Yabby if only you knew.
It is about zero.
Swan is a member of my union, Shorten too, believe, they vote as ordered
Some true slugs get elected and forget instantly they ever understood the word union.
It was former members of this union , CFMEU who walked past our picket lines, in the back door and voted to remove injured workers rights under LABOR.
No good conning our selfs there most definitely is a difference between unions.
And the PRIME REASON union membership ever dropped to its current level is the actions of such militants.I could not get, maybe a good thing, to talk to many ministers for the then RTA/National Parks/Forrest's, Labor ministers!
May have got to see one if I went to a certain steam room, an unlikely event.