The account of the career of a typical official given to the authors in 1893 by a member of one of the great craft unions is quoted:
Whilst the points at issue no longer affect his own earnings or conditions of employment, any disputes between his members and their employers increase his work and add to his worry. The former vivid sense of the privations and subjection of the artisan’s life gradually fades from his mind; and he begins more and more to regard all complaints as perverse and unreasonable.
With this intellectual change may come a more invidious transformation. Nowadays the salaried officer of a great union is courted and flattered by the middle class . He is asked to dine with them, and will admire their well-appointed houses, their fine carpets, the ease and luxury of their lives ... He goes to live in a little villa in a lower-middle-class suburb. The move leads to dropping his workmen friends; and his wife changes her acquaintances. With the habits of his new neighbours he insensibly adopts more and more their ideas ... His manner to his members ... undergoes a change ... A great strike threatens to involve the Society in desperate war. Unconsciously biased by distaste for the hard and unthankful work which a strike entails, he finds himself in small sympathy with the men’s demands, and eventually arranges a compromise, on terms distasteful to a large section of his members.
Brought constantly into friendly intercourse with well-to-do business men, civil servants and capitalist politicians, trade union leaders, the Webbs observed, were tempted to bring their spending power up to the same level as that of their associates by making ‘unduly liberal charges’ for their travelling expenses, and even ‘to accept from employers or from the government those hidden bribes that are decorously veiled as allowances for expenses or temporary salaries for special posts’
Bloody hell. Is that your idea of light summer holiday reading?
No wonder people think you are a bit too serious.
Lighten up and read some Barbera Cartland like the rest of us.
The societies of consumption and squandering of material resources are incompatible with the idea of economic growth and a clean planet.
clashcityrocker wrote:Bloody hell. Is that your idea of light summer holiday reading?
No wonder people think you are a bit too serious.
Lighten up and read some Barbera Cartland like the rest of us.
Or Mills and Boon : "Brought constantly into friendly intercourse with well-to-do business men, civil servants and capitalist politicians"
Ignore the heathen members above I enjoyed it and saw the parallels you did as well fishtank, but then my reading taste has always been a little esoteric.
It does bring to mind that old saying though doesn't it - Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it".
I still think we should have Non Unit reps spending some time during the year performing a duty within their responsibility so that they see through their own experience what the attitudes and problems are at unit level. With the best will in the world you cannot understand the trials, tribulations and frustrations third hand through reports, speeches and briefings, or even just talking to ordinary members fully, you can gain an overall view but not a true understanding. Mind you I have always believed that good leaders lead by example not just on the battlefield, but in the barracks as well, Patton had the right idea even if he was a Yank.
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The account of the career of a typical official given to the authors in 1893 by a member of one of the great craft unions is quoted:
Whilst the points at issue no longer affect his own earnings or conditions of employment, any disputes between his members and their employers increase his work and add to his worry. The former vivid sense of the privations and subjection of the artisan’s life gradually fades from his mind; and he begins more and more to regard all complaints as perverse and unreasonable.
With this intellectual change may come a more invidious transformation. Nowadays the salaried officer of a great union is courted and flattered by the middle class . He is asked to dine with them, and will admire their well-appointed houses, their fine carpets, the ease and luxury of their lives ... He goes to live in a little villa in a lower-middle-class suburb. The move leads to dropping his workmen friends; and his wife changes her acquaintances. With the habits of his new neighbours he insensibly adopts more and more their ideas ... His manner to his members ... undergoes a change ... A great strike threatens to involve the Society in desperate war. Unconsciously biased by distaste for the hard and unthankful work which a strike entails, he finds himself in small sympathy with the men’s demands, and eventually arranges a compromise, on terms distasteful to a large section of his members.
Brought constantly into friendly intercourse with well-to-do business men, civil servants and capitalist politicians, trade union leaders, the Webbs observed, were tempted to bring their spending power up to the same level as that of their associates by making ‘unduly liberal charges’ for their travelling expenses, and even ‘to accept from employers or from the government those hidden bribes that are decorously veiled as allowances for expenses or temporary salaries for special posts’
Very good point, not only to the real high up's but also anyone on full release.
I had full release most of the time during our flying horse revision in 2008, full release is nice to start with but after a while I found I was chomping at the bit to get back to normal delivery work.
Big Daz wrote:I had full release most of the time during our flying horse revision in 2008, full release is nice to start with but after a while I found I was chomping at the bit to get back to normal delivery work.
Big Daz wrote:I had full release most of the time during our flying horse revision in 2008, full release is nice to start with but after a while I found I was chomping at the bit to get back to normal delivery work.
If I had to sit around and talk to my DOM all day I would go f***ing nuts after about 5 minutes.
Good luck to all the reps if that's really what they are going to have to do.
The societies of consumption and squandering of material resources are incompatible with the idea of economic growth and a clean planet.
