Tuesday, May 27, 2008

An international trade union?


The
UK's biggest union Unite is reportedly on the brink of merging with a counterpart in North America.

A deal between Unite and the United Steelworkers' union (USW), is hoped to be sealed by the USW's convention in July, the British union said.

I have just one question. If a company chooses to close down their operation in the UK and move their steel production to the USA what’s going to happen, will there be industrial action in both countries?

Sorry, that was a daft question, no union in Britain does anything when jobs are exported abroad and if Unite did care they won’t now.

Either way this is stupid. The unions would not be able to help each other in different countries. I don’t think they could anyway afterall I thought ‘sympathy strikes’ were banned in this country since the days of Thatcher but maybe I’m wrong… It would be nice if someone could tell me.

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