What Is A Trade Union?

What Is A Trade Union?Hardly a day goes by where there isn’t a mention of, or reference to a trade union.

Depending on the publication, unions can be portrayed as the gate keepers of workers rights, or the scourge of prosperity in Australia.

Though to others, the union movement is nothing more than a preschool for aspiring Labor politicians.

What Are They Really?

At their essence, a union is nothing more than a collection of workers who have joined together to ‘speak with one voice’, believing there is strength in numbers.

Though when you have a look at things on a bigger scale, the union movement is a collective of businesses all trying to prove their value to attract new members, and retain the current ones.

This is done by creating a single or series of ‘wins’, that they use as ‘proof’ of their ‘value’. Some of these ‘wins’ could be with pay increases, additional benefits, or even keeping the current ones on the face of possibly losing them.

And that is where things start to get confusing.

Remember Who You Are Actually Talking To

When or if, the day comes that a union official knocks on your door, lock your political views in your top draw, and don’t believe that you are talking to a paid employee of some ‘all powerful’ organisation.

When in actual fact, what you doing, is talking to a thrid party representative of your employees.

The harder you make discussions with them, the more they are going to demonise you in their report back to members (your staff).

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