State of the Unions: Bullying, harassment, and self serving elites

[Octavious]

So I recently became a member of one of the UK's biggest unions, and it's been quite an eye opener. I'd always imagined them as being full of left wing Napoleons throwing their weight around in petty attempts at empire building, but suspected that this may owe more to bias than truth.

How wrong I was. My union is far worse than I could possibly have dreamed, with members opposed to elite factions being harassed and bullied to the point of suffering breakdowns and depression. Elections are disrespected, and decisions are taken to serve self serving high powered members rather than the membership as a whole. It is a vipers nest of backstabbing ruthlessness that even a Diplomacy player would be troubled by.

The union is closely aligned to the Labour Party. One wonders if the Labour Party is run along similar lines...

[Jamiet99uk]

Which Union?

[Octavious]

RMT

[orathaic]

Is it an official union? Like sanctioned and supported by the state? Or is anyone allowed to setup a union in competition?

[Octavious]

I believe the law says pretty much anyone can form a union, although new unions being formed in competition isn't something I've come across.

The RMT is one of the more established and well known unions, though, and certainly one of the most militant. Not quite on the same scale as Unite or the GMB, but very much one of the household names of UK unions.

[MajorMitchell]

Acronyms, I gaggled RMT & the results were
1 Registered Massage Therapist
2 Resistant Materials Technology
3 something I've forgotten
4 Registered​ Medical Technologist.

I'm most surprised at the thought that Wise Octavious might share a similar professional career with Lovely Princess Estelle who when I first met her delightful self was, well a sort of unregistered massage therapist whom I would have described as a "pleasure therapist" & not the unpleasant descriptive terms used by, as an example, the local Constabulary chaps.
The Union described doesn't seem.to fit with one of the oldest professional capers, nor does our beloved Wise Octavious although the sexual allure of Wise Octavious is powerful indeed.
I'm guessing it's a Resistance thing or maybe one of those delightfully quaint British eccentricities like the Secret Lodge of Sheffield Cutlers with a funny handshake.
I can't imagine that a specialists medical professional association representing members working in the NHS could be likened to a viper's nest or the NHS as a particularly politically volatile environment, but I view these British eccentricities from safe Antipodean distance.
We've sent you Tony Abbott, briefly Australian PM until speared by his own troops and of modest fame for his publicly expressed desire to "shirtfront Putin"* & Tony Abbott is a dab hand at the industrial relations caper in some right wing rangers & Boris Notbadenuff Johnson likes having Tony Abbott in damp Britain.
Maybe Tony Abbott could help?

* a "shirtfront" is a term from Australian Rules Football of decades before cameras recorded and broadcast the game on TV, although it was seen in the early decades of TV broadcasts. The introduction of Video evidence & Video reviews of games has led to the classic shirtfront being eliminated from the game at elite levels.
To shirtfront one's opponent a player waits for a suitable opportunity to line the blighter up, face to face at a dozen paces, accelerate to maximum pace whilst your opponent is more or less stationary and drive one's manly chest into brutal impact with your victim's chest and keep running, driving your victim backwards & falling over & you run over the blighter's body.
Like Bob Hawke who was a Rhodes scholar and set a longstanding record for downing a yard of pommy beer (ughh) Tony Abbott attended a posh pommy University and won second or third prize at the pugilist punching, ducking, dodging & weaving caper.
Well you lucky British may keep Tony Abbott as long as you like, preferably for the remainder of his life + 20 years, that would suit us happy Australians and bring us much pleasure.

[MajorMitchell]

I think Putin secretly wants Tony Abbott to try on a shirtfront with him, away from prying eyes at his hunting lodge do they can grapple each other & roll about in a tangle of sweaty limbs, go for a "Liverpool Kiss" & try a few "Squirrel Grips" on each other's sack of nuts, exchange jabs, punches & other expressions of Manly Playing​ at close quarters.

[flash2015]

Is it an official union? Like sanctioned and supported by the state? Or is anyone allowed to setup a union in competition?

Is Octavious a wharfie?

https://www.rmt.org.uk/about/

[flash2015]

Having experienced indirectly the teachers union through my wife, I am not generally a fan. They tend to protect the "lifers" only. And teacher ratings are a nightmare, all driven by the process which comes from being unionized.

Having also grown up in a family of public servants, I am thankful that I don't work in a unionized industry and work in the private sector so I can avoid all this s***.

[Octavious]

@MajorMitchell

Royale Meal Technician. I'm one of the chicken chefs at Burger King

Is Octavious a wharfie?

Sorry, flash, I've no interest in your Star Trek erroticism. Not how I roll.

Having also grown up in a family of public servants, I am thankful that I don't work in a unionized industry and work in the private sector so I can avoid all this s***.

Do unions in your part of the world generally just inhabit the public sector? I moved to the private in part to get away from the public sector mentality, but the union is considerably stronger here. My previous union was UNISON, had well over a million members, and conducted itself with the same ruthless efficiency as the public sector workers it represented. In other words it pretty much did feck all aside from giving union reps free lunches and excuses to play golf.

[Jamiet99uk]

By the way the RMT union is the Rail, Maritime and Transport union.

[Octavious]

I've often wondered what it is about Rail that isn't sufficiently covered by Transport. Or Maritime, for that matter. Lots of delicate little flowers on the railway who like to feel special, I guess.