"Why so?" you may ask. Because it is thanks to the trades unions that we as working people can enjoy the protections and rights that we have in work, and and that we have much of the legislation that protects us as a society.
You might think that is a pretty big call. But let me explain what I mean...
Without the trades union movement, and the pressure they brought to bear on the governments of the day, these are the things anyone working for someone else would not have:
A contract of employment
A working week of 40 hours or less, aka the 8 hour working day
The weekend, aka a five-day working week
The ability to negotiate your pay and increases
Children's employment age and work restrictions
The right to collective representation
Paid holidays of up to 5.6 weeks per year
Parental leave after a child's birth
Workplace pensions
Paid holidays
Equal pay and equal rights
Discrimination on the basis of colour, creed or gender rules
Health and safety protection
Unfair dismissal protection
Rights at work (allowed to marry or have a child without being sacked)
Sickness protection
Injury compensation
Tribunal representation
Disciplinary mediation and representation
Redundancy provisions
There may be a few things I have missed out, but even if I have, the list above is pretty impressive.
As a former trades union organiser I know the value that trades unions have for working people. I know the help that is given when needed by their negotiators or their legal teams. I know of cases where redundancy offers have been improved significantly by the intervention of a trades union; where early retirement has been negotiated when a worker has domestic demands which prevent them working; where frustration of contract cases due to illness have been brought to a satisfactory conclusion; and many more similar cases where trades unions have been able to help individuals and groups of workers, and I know the security and support that being a trades union member can bring.
So when you next hear some scare story about a trades union, or something in the media about how trades unions are bad for the country, please stop and think, and give thanks for all those benefits we as workers enjoy as a result of the tireless work of trades unions across more than 150 years. Even better,, if you are not a member of a trades union, why not join the one which covers your type of work and help continue the protections that we have enjoyed so they will be there for future generations?
Further reading:
History of Working Time
The history of European working time regulation 1784-2014
Some of the key events that have shaped the development of working time measures in Europe:http://www.fedee.com/labour-relations/history-of-working-time/
The Union Makes Us Strong: TUC History Online
Trade unions have played, and will continue to play, a decisive role in shaping economic and social developments in Britain - yet much of their history is at present unknown and inaccessible to the public. http://www.unionhistory.info/
Winning Equal Pay: the value of women's work
A part of The Union Makes Us Strong website containing filmed interviews with women who fought for and won equal pay, hundreds of digitised images and documents from the TUC Library Collections, plus contributions from historians and other experts.http://www.unionhistory.info/equalpay/Striking Women
An educational site about migration, women and work, workers' rights, and the story of South Asian women workers during the Grunwick and Gate Gourmet industrial disputes.http://www.striking-women.org/
