£100,000 plus salary for representation.

[Valentina@1]

Any members that slightly push back,Chris Webb just blocks them.

[tramssirhc]

How happy are you with the CWU general secretary and his mouth pieces being paid over £100,000 per year salaries, for representing and fighting for our rights as OPGs?

Absolutely not. The cost of the release for the full time release lot, the full time officials and headquarters staff is far in excess of the figure your quoting. The CWU is bankrupt yet throws the members money down the drain on representatives who the members never see, never hear from and receive no service whatsoever. It's a disgrace.

Never heard from.
Are you sure about that.
Podcasts, youtube channels. Constant question and answers sessions online.
The most active social media presence than any other union in the UK by far.
Martin often posts on here with detailed responses and insights into their direction of travel and intentions in negotiations.
You may have opinions on whether their salary is justified but to say you never hear or see any communications from them is simply untrue.
It's a thankless job from unit rep to the top level so criticism is part of the job but untruths have to be called out.

Never heard from.

Absolutely sure about that.

The CWU's replacement of physical meetings with their tawdry social media output does not justify the claim of being the most engaged union in the movement. It isn't. Chris Webb's justification of his cushy grace and favour job through 'optics' is about him keeping his job. Meanwhile the members never get access to in person meetings. Real unions have branch meetings at least monthly where the rank and file hold the leadership's feet to the fire.

Indeed untruths to need to be called out. You supporting the CWU's optics over real rank and file physical trade unionism is one of the many untruths.

Being a paid full time release representative is far from thankless. It's an easy life that those enjoying it have no intention of giving up. Any workplace rep that feels hard done by needs to learn their own history and take these freeloaders on.

[Woody Guthrie]

You supporting the CWU's optics over real rank and file physical trade unionism is one of the many untruths.

What have these real "rank and file" trade unionists been up to lately?
I must have missed the email.

I've never really understood what you would replace the CWU leadership with, I mean every organisation needs to be organised otherwise it's just a rabble of different agendas and ideologies so who would you put in place? Believe it or not CWU members come from all walks of life and political viewpoints, they're not all communists or even socialists or even Labour voters.

A committee would be needed okay but history tells us committees get f**k all done and who decides who's fit for that job anyway? The members of course but before you know it you have a rank and file with a leadership structure which pretty much looks the same as it did but with a different name and faces you personally like a bit better.

Seems like a lot of huffing and puffing to achieve the square root of f**k all.

[Londonsburning]

You supporting the CWU's optics over real rank and file physical trade unionism is one of the many untruths.

What have these real "rank and file" trade unionists been up to lately?
I must have missed the email.

I've never really understood what you would replace the CWU leadership with, I mean every organisation needs to be organised otherwise it's just a rabble of different agendas and ideologies so who would you put in place? Believe it or not CWU members come from all walks of life and political viewpoints, they're not all communists or even socialists or even Labour voters.

A committee would be needed okay but history tells us committees get f**k all done and who decides who's fit for that job anyway? The members of course but before you know it you have a rank and file with a leadership structure which pretty much looks the same as it did but with a different name and faces you personally like a bit better.

Seems like a lot of huffing and puffing to achieve the square root of f**k all.

They may all come from different backgrounds etc but they still all have one thing in common. Being workshy RM bootlickers, just like 99% of managers.

[tramssirhc]

You supporting the CWU's optics over real rank and file physical trade unionism is one of the many untruths.

What have these real "rank and file" trade unionists been up to lately?
I must have missed the email.

I've never really understood what you would replace the CWU leadership with, I mean every organisation needs to be organised otherwise it's just a rabble of different agendas and ideologies so who would you put in place? Believe it or not CWU members come from all walks of life and political viewpoints, they're not all communists or even socialists or even Labour voters.

A committee would be needed okay but history tells us committees get f**k all done and who decides who's fit for that job anyway? The members of course but before you know it you have a rank and file with a leadership structure which pretty much looks the same as it did but with a different name and faces you personally like a bit better.

Seems like a lot of huffing and puffing to achieve the square root of f**k all.

Very much like Woody Guthrie himself. A devote of Stalinism who would not align himself to hierarchies. If you are asking me what I'd replaced the Stalinist leadership of the CWU with, that's easy. As a syndicalist I'd put the workers in charge. There is no need for a hierchical system. We can do it for ourselves.

[Woody Guthrie]

Which workers would you put in charge?
All of them?
Every decision?
Sounds like fun...
You do realise the rest of us have a day/night job.

[tramssirhc]

Which workers would you put in charge?
All of them?
Every decision?
Sounds like fun...
You do realise the rest of us have a day/night job.

Workers have always had to do everything. That's not new. Plenty of unions have a rank and file structure where roles like branch secretary are not full time paid release.

[Woody Guthrie]

Workers have always had to do everything. That's not new. Plenty of unions have a rank and file structure where roles like branch secretary are not full time paid release.

The world has changed my friend.
Men no longer meet after work for a pint and some organisation after work.
Most of us don't have the energy or the spare time.
I think you should probably expand your social circle a little.

[adamanti]

£100,000 is a definitely a problem. When an individual is earning that kind of money they are going to be putting themselves first.... that lavish lifestyle isn't going to pay for itself. Although if that gravy train goes tits up they could always find a job with a little less salary.... MP maybe.
Seriously though that's an obscene amount of money.