Been reading about this dispute on the docks in Victoria.
Just curious, after being reinstated, do you feel awkward working for the same employer?
Disclaimer: I have never belonged to a union.
Anyone Here Got Sacked by The Employer, Then Got Reinstated after Union Intervention?
kyle on 16/12/2017 - 19:15
Comments
Yeah those better conditions and higher pay must have been hard to handle.
Better conditions, higher pay, constant misery, no annual Christmas party, no events whatsoever, everyone is an a-hole because they constantly feel entitled.
Not worth it. And by better conditions I mean 'Its not in my contract, I dont have to lift that 2kg box.' Or, 'we must have a paid 10 min break between major lunch breaks'. Not large benefits for the tradeoff of working with crap people.
It is ridiculous that the unions can hold the company to ransom like that.
Rubbish. I have worked in both Union and non-union sites, and of the ones that were heavily involved with union activity, it was needed. Management were greedy, nasty, megalomaniacs. Without the union there, it would have been an unbearable place to work, with really poor conditions.
While I am not pro-union, I do understand that at times, there needs to be a collective of people together that can put pressure on the company or managers who think they are above fair wages, fair conditions or fair safety.
Sometimes a boss wants to sack someone just because they don’t see eye to eye. Is that reason enough? If your boss sacked you just because he didn’t like you personally, wouldn’t you want some form of backup if you were in that position?
There is always two sides to a story like this. Yes, the union is holding the company to ransom, but unions don’t tend to hold companies to ransom unless the company or one of its managerial representatives has been an arsehole… what came first, the chicken or the egg?
Thank you for your thoughtful and insightful input.
I like unions because they help workers.
We are all workers here.
Union bosses are parasites. Unions stifle competition and increase wage bills for less work.
Have a look at the current wage disparity between management and workers and tell me how the current climate is helping the average worker. Then add in all the exploitation that is happening with Dominos and 7/11 stores. Yeah, societies problems are because the union movement is too strong. Maybe if we had stronger unions then we would have more people getting a slice of the economic pie instead of a few making out like bandits and record low wage increases for the others.
Yes, but we're talking about nearly 25 years ago. I worked for a large organisation and was doing very well as a new employee. I said the wrong thing about my own prospects, and from then on, was no longer the golden child. Then all of a sudden I was told that my employment was to be terminated, partly based on an earlier theft from my till that I was adamant was not my fault or doing. Due to the way that the team worked, we were lax in our security and there was opportunity for someone else to have done it. There was also a staff member who was known to have done this at another location. However, I was blamed and told to replace the money, which I refused to do. This was prior to my termination.
There were no warnings, no proper process in place, I was just advised that I was going. I did go to the union, and was reinstated. A few months later, I left to work elsewhere. I really only wanted to force them to realise that they couldn't treat staff that way. I no longer wanted to work for the main person who made that decision.
I've also gone into bat for fellow staff who have been terminated unfairly, and talked with the union on their behalf. I'm a proud union member. But if the union are misbehaving, I won't follow them. I believe they are there to protect and support workers. The unions that I have been a part of have done this fairly well.
From my one and only experience of being in a unionised workplace, everyone except senior management would be on the same page regarding unions and using them to get results.
For example, there would be the bottom ranks, then two tiers of management all on the same page. It would only be awkward between any of these people and senior management if this scenario that you have mentioned were to occur. But senior management is barely around so it wouldn't really be felt..
But that was my experience..
Being in a unionised company sucked because it made everyone crappy human beings because there was no focus on culture.. People were only there for security, money
and fairness as opposed to actually enjoying the workplace.