Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by chrisseaton 2116 days ago
I think it was a pretty watershed moment in union relations in the UK. It's what a lot of people think of when they think of unions in the UK. They're pretty unpopular here. I was explaining why a British person might call them goons.
2 comments
calcifer 2116 days ago
> They're pretty unpopular here. I was explaining why a British person might call them goons.

Yeah, no. We must be living in different countries. There are lots of large, powerful, popular British unions in a wide variety of industries.

link
chrisseaton 2116 days ago
Union membership in the UK has been going down long-term for four decades. It's halved since 1980 in fact.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/287232/trade-union-densi...

The Labour party have been ineffective for a decade and haven't been less popular since 1935. They're at their least popular when their leadership is more aligned to the unions. They were at the most recent popularity when they were furthest from the unions. They have just one representative now in Scotland, once a key area for unions.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/election-2019-50768605

If you're a fan of unionisation in the UK then I'd say you have cause for concern.

link
andybak 2116 days ago
Brit here. Don't listen to this person.

I'm mostly centrist/moderate left. None of this rings true.

Typing on phone so excuse the brevity.

link
andybak 2116 days ago
OK. At a keyboard now so I'll flesh this out a bit.

In my experience people have a fairly balanced view of unions. There's pretty broad membership. In most places I've worked people join the union if there is one. Some unions where regarded negatively at some points in time but there's also general sympathy for some industrial action. It varies - blue collar workers tend to be more positive and white collar workers (especially in non-unionized fields) tend to be less.

But this guy seems to be implying that that's wide-ranging hostility to unions in the UK - which I've never been aware of. There's a plurality of views as you would expect. I've known plenty of tory-voting union members so it's not even a strict right/left split.

link