Big Ain't Beautiful (18/09/11)

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.