bobbiecee... warm welcome to OLO mate.. good to hear from the proffessional side of town :)

I'd love to see some of your psychological skills applied to some of the reasoning we find here.

Yes.. you point out a dilemna. "If employees are peceived to be weak, and voiceless, they will often be ignored."

I went for 3 yrs without a pay increase and inflation was ripping into the value of my static pay each year. I finally 'exploded' in a gentle but firm kind of way, and ended up negotiating my revised position. Then, there were reviews of everyones pay.. (I was supervisor).
But I also know that business could not sustain too much in wages increase. So...its a battle.. ethically and financially.

BELLY.. great to hear mate.. send me some of your biggest blokes and we will blockade the ETU one day :) I'll go in front and take the most heat.. imagine.. locked arms.. chanting "The Citizens, United, will never be Defeated" :) (Today 2night looking on of course)

cheers all.

Belly, you are spot on about 'constant insults.' I wrote what I felt was a rational explanation of MY views and feelings, and why, without insulting those who thought differently, and what happened, PALE felt the need to insult. I read many blogs and letters and I've noticed that those who agree with Howard, usually the radical right, appear to feel they need to resort to insults rather than engage in a rational discussion. Why is that? Interesting, isn't it.

PALE, I can assure you that the union fees I paid were more than compensated by the wage increases I received with the assistance of the Professional Officers union's collective bargaining, and that union was working totally FOR us, with unanimous agreement from employees. This gave me the additional money to spend on charity and my children. Our union did NOT suggest strikes (we were far too busy to be able to afford to take time off like that) but was able to effectively promote us, the amount and quality of work we performed, and why we needed to be compensated for that, as well as why we needed to have bank time off for overtime worked, essential since I often worked back up to 10 hours per week depending on level of workload and crisis management.

I do feel one shouldn't be forced to join a union and perhaps it will come to the point where the unions do individual bargaining for those who choose to be members. The cost of union membership will be significantly less than the cost of a solicitor. My feeling is that more people will be joining responsible unions in order to protect their working conditions. The pendulum will swing back to the middle if the ALP gets in. If it doesn't, there will be an ever growing number of working poor....as is the case in the USA.

Bobbice

It may be the old Engling Lady did you a favour in the long run. Old days tough days. Kids these days dont know what it was like back then and want everything handed on a spoon.
The trouble is we cant pick and choose who the bosses are and they are mostly a bunch of empty headed thrugs.
I am very interested in your setting up something for migrants. Could you tell us a little more about what it is your setting up - or have set up.?
I just wish people could choose if they would like to be a member or not.
Dont you think thats more fair?
David Love your humour.
See there is already inna fighting amounst them so here we go again.
Maybe they could get rid of all the boses and re vote on leaders.

Bobbice sounds reasonable but he is just one decent bloke amoung a whole lot of thugs. What can one bloke do.

Why cant people choose if they want to or dont want to be a memember. That is what bugs me more than anything.
Also Davids correct the small biz cant take much more wage hikes.
They always forget that the owners huge huge overheads and wages too.
The mentality of many is to look at a bif factory and say- Ah Gee wiz this blokes loaded he can pay me twice as much.
Of course the same bloke is often struggling to pay off the bank.
The word strike would have a life long effect on him.
So hes driven to the wall goes broke and the six hundred workers all go on the doll.
To make it worse even if they find another job in another industry they cant take it unless they have their ticket please to work.
No ticket no start.
If you had a half a dozen kids and a bank loan you may not be able to pay for that ticket after being on the doll for six months.
To me its like Russia a life time ago.

BOAZ, sadly, some of the 'reasoning' here is NOT reasonable. It's emotional abuse in the form of insults. I saw a lot of that in my work in prisons, inmates becoming emotionally abusive as part of their need for power and control. Sadly, this type of mind-set is similar in those who resort to abusive insults in this and other forums where one disagrees with their point of view...a 'My Way or the Highway' mentality.

I may be a 'professional' but I also care about those who don't have the skills to negotiate, like you eventually did, those where inflation combined with no pay increases and unreasonable working hours are causing them to slide into the growing number of working poor.

As I said in a previous post, there is a happy medium between previous union demands for unreasonable pay increases and conditions and the current situation with Howard's IR laws, where pay is lower and conditions are non-existent. Many employers are demanding constant overtime with no compensation in order to keep their lower pay jobs, with the accompanying stress, burnout and negative effect on marriage and family. Sadly, in Howard's Australia, there are many who are in to greed and SELF and who appear to have lost any sense of compassion, humanitarianism and egalitarianism. As long as they're right, they don't care about others....until they lose their job or can't afford their mortgage, or their marriage breaks down.

Boddicee
I asked you about the migrant work you were doing with great interest.
We are looking to bring them into Australia to work in plants and have a real need for something for these people. These are the very people that could benefit by something like what you say your doing.

That is where your type os service is helpful by people not used to our laws and often not as quick with the English as we are.
I have no problem to help these people and we are actually very interested in that.
My personal comment that people should not be forced still stands.
However we ask you again.
Please tell us a little more about your work for migrants.

PALE....It must have been somebody else who works with migrants. Sorry, it isn't me. I worked in the prisons and am now doing some contract work with Qld Corrections (substance abuse relapse prevention) as well as volunteer work with seniors (Elder Abuse). I have been looking for more volunteer work to do and think it might be a good idea to see what's available in terms of working with migrants. BTW, I'm not a bloke, I'm a female.

Thank you for your courteous post. As I've said, I also feel people should have a choice as to whether to join a union. I chose to join, my daughter has chosen to join (BTW, she's a professional too), my son has chosen to not join. Being a bloke and with several needed trades, he is sought after so is able to negotiate his work conditions and pay.

I still feel that there are many persons who are not in my son's position and who are essentially powerless, and abused by employers with the current IR laws. Most of my friends are 10-15 years younger than I am so they are in the work force. However being in their 50's, they are not in a position to negotiate and have been forced to sign very unfair contracts. Therefore I'm not just talking in general, I'm talking about friends who are being abused by their employers, and who feel powerless because there are very few employers who will hire those in their 50's.