Trade Unions: friend or foe of the sick man of Europe

Trade Unions: friend or foe of the sick man of Europe
Originally uploaded by L-plate big cheese

We face today the same story as thirty years ago.

Britain is the sick man of Europe. The economy’s a mess. We don’t like immigration. A key industry is being restructured… and being held back by industrial action.

It’s in dark times like these that it becomes more evident which businesses are working well and which are not. Something obviously needs to be done about the latter – a bad business eats up those finite resources far faster than a good one and that’s a terrible thing for the world.

And, Trade Unions become more powerful in tough conditions, obviously this is the time their influence soars. Of course they want to protect jobs. This is great, when it makes sustainable, economic sense.

What does today’s agreement between Royal Mail and the Communications Workers Union mean?

The short run
- No restructure
- Jobs retained
- We get our Christmas mail
- But: Royal Mail have annoyed so many people and companies that they’ve already turned to other customers. That means Royal Mail could instantly have less to do and have to cut jobs anyway.

The long run
- No restructure equals outdated infrastructure. The service is only going to get worse and cost everybody more.
- People’s jobs will remain. But there will be deep divisions which could make some people’s jobs far less enjoyable. There’s an even greater us and them culture.
- We’ll be in the same position again when this issue is reawakened (and it has to be).

Does it have to be like this? Unfortunately yes – this is human nature: uncertainty brings desperation, short term thinking and vulnerability. Trade Unions know this, and turn out to be some of the most effective middle men out there, very similar to those supermarkets we were discussing in the first entry of this blog. See below.