Big Ain't Beautiful

I came across the following post the other day - Smaller Banks, Bigger Unions - which I wrote for the blog site back in November 2009. 

As the 2011 TUC conference came to a close last week - I thought about the slow decline of the trade unions in the UK.

Which is steady and remorseless - because unrepresentative union leaders keep making the fatal mistake - of believing their own propaganda.

If smaller, more responsive banks are good for the financial sector - then surely smaller unions must be good for ordinary trade union members?

But no - unions get ever bigger - and soon we'll be in a position where only one or two super unions dominate the industrial landscape - while swearing their loyalty to the Labour party.

The time has come for trade unions to practice what they preach - because up until now they have been trying to have things both ways.

Bigger and bigger unions leave ordinary union members with less and less choice - so the obvious answer is to introduce independent regulation.

Which in other industries helps to balance the relationship - between giant organisations and their customers.

At the moment the big guy can beat up on the little guy - and the little guy has nowhere to go - no recourse if they're unhappy at the way they've been treated. 

What's needed is an effective, independent regulator to help level the playing field between these monopoly suppliers - and ordinary union members.


Smaller Banks, Bigger Unions (November 6 2009)

Much has been said - and written - this week about cutting the big high street banks down to size.

Apparently everyone now believes that smaller banks are good for us. Because smaller banks means more banks - that have to compete with one another - and the resulting competition is good for customers.

The big guy always finds it much harder to beat up on the little guy - if the little guy can just take his or her business elsewhere.

So far, so good - sounds reasonable enough.

But isn't it interesting that while the big banks are being forced to become smaller - to get closer to their customers - that trade unions in the UK are becoming ever larger and more remote from their members.

The latest move towards another super union - see post dated 16 September 2009 - is the planned merger between GMB and Unison - which would create a union of around 2 million members.

But Unison itself is the product of an arranged marriage of what used to be three separate unions - COSHE, NALGO and NUPE - which tied the knot to become Unison in 1993.

And this latest giant union is all about keeping up with the Joneses, in the shape of Unite - currently the largest union in the land with 1.9 million members - and itself the product of a previous merger between Amicus and the old transport union, TGWU.

The fact is that these new super unions are run just like giant businesses - except that they are not as well regulated as businesses - arguably they are subject to less scrutiny than your average corner shop.

In terms of service standards - ordinary union members do not have an independent body to turn to for support, if they have a problem or complaint - there is no equivalent of the Financial Services Ombudsman, for example.

In future, union members will get even less choice from these mega unions - which all give huge sums of money to the Labour Party - despite the fact that the great majority of union members support other parties - or no party at all.

The present government has no interest in making the union more accountable to their members - because the Labour Party is so heavily dependent on the trade unions for financial support.

But it will be interesting to see what happens after the next general election - maybe the unions will be forced to move with the times. A healthy dose of external and independent scrutiny - would certainly help the unions become more accountable to their members.

Just look what it's done for MPs.