I cancelled my union subscription

[clique]

I have chucked in my CWU membership because:

1. At times I feel the union is run by incompetent and self serving dinosaurs.
2. The uploaded footage during the recent ballot gave grounds and ammunition to RM to remove our democratic right to withhold our labour.
3. The union showed time and again that they are incapable in protecting and safeguarding the interests of their paying members without compromising our fight to preserve our jobs and work rights?
4. I have only needed their help once after years of paying my member's fees and the rep sided with the management. I had to involve a solicitor at my expense and the matter was then resolved instantly.
5. The union had no intention of calling their/our bluff of a pre Christmas strike. Although the appeal should already have gone in, citing "our strong" and "clear cut case", they have failed to do so to date. Not a chance in a million for a postal strike happening now this side of Christmas even if an appeal is eventually lodged and upheld in our favour. The CWU are not truthful with their members in this respect.
6. When asked, live on Sky News, Dave Ward refused to give any reassurances whatsoever that the union would not postpone the 'planned' strike if asked to do so by Jeremy Corbyn and he also failed to confirm that the CWU would disregard the instructions of the Labour party on that matter, thus focusing only on the interests of its members instead.
7. At the current rate for the sub fees, it costs £135.20 annually. Multiplying that by so many years, it becomes a serious amount of money down the drain.

I am not encouraging or discouraging anyone to cancel their membership. This is entirely their decision based on their needs. However, as the union have a habit of not showing much interest in its members and they did not ever bother to ask if there's anything they could do to help me change my mind, I'm putting my reasons here.

[rogersh]

I have chucked in my CWU membership because:

5. ..... Although the appeal should already have gone in, citing "our strong" and "clear cut case", they have failed to do so to date. ...

The CWU have 14 days in which to appeal the decision. So imminently this will happen.

[ruorbe]

I've tried to contact the CWU several times and no help, I am feed up, always the same, phoned my reps and they pass the buck, best to do it's just get on with it and forget about the Union. I am out guys.

[clique]

I have chucked in my CWU membership because:

5. ..... Although the appeal should already have gone in, citing "our strong" and "clear cut case", they have failed to do so to date. ...

The CWU have 14 days in which to appeal the decision. So imminently this will happen.

True! Then we will have to wait for a hearing date. After that, the union is required to give 14 days notice ahead of any planned strikes. Clearly if they really had the intention to take this unique opportunity to make our voices heard, they should have announced the date/s of the strike straight after the ballot results. That would have put us in a much stronger position and would have enabled us to carry out our threat. They were never really going to call for a December 2019 strike, were they?

[Gasman11]

Stick with the union, don't be a one man clique and together we will beat the employer. Stand strong man

[Destiny]

The weekly pay rise the union has got me significantly dwarfs several pound a week subs so those “incompetent and self serving dinosaurs” are doing ok with me.

[antcpfc]

Good idea. We would all be so much better off with no union. RM are well known for their generosity.

[postslippete]

Actually I know where Clique is coming from. I'm only in the Union for the fact that a Unionised workplace is better than of one without.

The CWU might blow their own trumpets telling us how good their social media campaign was in getting a 97 percent YES vote but it wasn't it also the social media campaign that means we can't strike?

So how does the Union respond? By appealing the decision??? We need to re-ballot the members and get things done in the right way and ASAP before Xmas. I don't believe in the conspiracy theories that the CWU leaders didn't really want us to strike because if that were the case then why spend precious time and money building up the campaign to strike in the 1st place?? They were caught out by Royal Mail in court before and they have been caught out again. Whoever runs the legal side of things in the CWU really needs to up their game.

Also, I once needed Union help years ago and I also felt that the Union rep (who was a senior rep at the time) sided with the managers. Ironically, he also became a manager himself a few years later! It has led to a massive mistrust of Union reps on my part particularly as I now see the current Unit rep agree-ing and signing all sorts of stuff with the current DOM, but I'm sure they have a purpose and a role to fill in their office.

[Flashman_]

Dont give up on the Union. Its all you have. The Union is not separate from its members, it is its members and that is what gives us out negotiating power. Without the Union are you going to stand alone against your bullying managers?
Personally I do not agree with almost all of the recent agreements that the Union get, I want them to be far more militant and they should have stopped the company changing many things that have led to this point. However I recognise the Union has to take the membership with them. In an ideal world we would be prepared to go on strike indefinitely until we got what we wanted. Unfortunately nobody has had the bottle or are prepared to make the sacrifices necessary ever since Thatcher destroyed the Miners. Without that 100% commitment the Union will always have to fight with one arm tied behind its back. What has happened here is the Courts and the Government has now tied its other arm behind its back. So do not blame the Union, as its the members collective will that determines what they can do. Its your support that gives the Union power so please think carefully before cancelling memberships.
I think the Union should now announce a strike for a date that would be immediately after the appeal has been heard(and won I hope) whatever date that is. It should also be a week long strike. In the meantime they should and if the judgement again goes against us the Union should urge all members to use Christmas to Earn as much money as they can, and save up a war chest of cash to fight a long hard strike campaign. We need to show them that by removing our right to take strike action they will only make it more likely that they will have longer strikes later on.

[Seymour Buts]

Cutting your nose off to spite your face. Yes, the union are amateurish at times. The reaction to this judgement has been embarrassing; instead of admitting and apologising for the balls up they accuse the courts of having some kind of agenda. The same type of crap the daily fail trots out about remainer judges when they rule against certain politicians. All being said though, we earn 12 quid an hour as oppose to eight because we have a union; we need to support it. Of course it's fair to criticize it from time to time.

[Seymour Buts]

Dont give up on the Union. Its all you have. The Union is not separate from its members, it is its members and that is what gives us out negotiating power. Without the Union are you going to stand alone against your bullying managers?
Personally I do not agree with almost all of the recent agreements that the Union get, I want them to be far more militant and they should have stopped the company changing many things that have led to this point. However I recognise the Union has to take the membership with them. In an ideal world we would be prepared to go on strike indefinitely until we got what we wanted. Unfortunately nobody has had the bottle or are prepared to make the sacrifices necessary ever since Thatcher destroyed the Miners. Without that 100% commitment the Union will always have to fight with one arm tied behind its back. What has happened here is the Courts and the Government has now tied its other arm behind its back. So do not blame the Union, as its the members collective will that determines what they can do. Its your support that gives the Union power so please think carefully before cancelling memberships.
I think the Union should now announce a strike for a date that would be immediately after the appeal has been heard(and won I hope) whatever date that is. It should also be a week long strike. In the meantime they should and if the judgement again goes against us the Union should urge all members to use Christmas to Earn as much money as they can, and save up a war chest of cash to fight a long hard strike campaign. We need to show them that by removing our right to take strike action they will only make it more likely that they will have longer strikes later on.

The courts uphold the law; they're independent from the government as Johnson found out when he was found to have unlawfully prorogued parliament. Yes the Trade Union act restricts the union and by all means lobby against it, but it is the law as things stand.

[30+YEARMAN]

GOODBYE THEN,GOOD LUCK.

[Flashman_]

Dont give up on the Union. Its all you have. The Union is not separate from its members, it is its members and that is what gives us out negotiating power. Without the Union are you going to stand alone against your bullying managers?
Personally I do not agree with almost all of the recent agreements that the Union get, I want them to be far more militant and they should have stopped the company changing many things that have led to this point. However I recognise the Union has to take the membership with them. In an ideal world we would be prepared to go on strike indefinitely until we got what we wanted. Unfortunately nobody has had the bottle or are prepared to make the sacrifices necessary ever since Thatcher destroyed the Miners. Without that 100% commitment the Union will always have to fight with one arm tied behind its back. What has happened here is the Courts and the Government has now tied its other arm behind its back. So do not blame the Union, as its the members collective will that determines what they can do. Its your support that gives the Union power so please think carefully before cancelling memberships.
I think the Union should now announce a strike for a date that would be immediately after the appeal has been heard(and won I hope) whatever date that is. It should also be a week long strike. In the meantime they should and if the judgement again goes against us the Union should urge all members to use Christmas to Earn as much money as they can, and save up a war chest of cash to fight a long hard strike campaign. We need to show them that by removing our right to take strike action they will only make it more likely that they will have longer strikes later on.

The courts uphold the law; they're independent from the government as Johnson found out when he was found to have unlawfully prorogued parliament. Yes the Trade Union act restricts the union and by all means lobby against it, but it is the law as things stand.

I mentioned the government because the Judge cited the General election as what Tipped the balance of his decision to grant the injunction, Legally he had no jurisdiction to rule on that as it is not illegal or otherwise to have a strike during a GE. IMO this would indicate Government involvement. "The court upholding the law" will be determined in an appeal! So the law is not yet set in the case!

[clique]

... I think the Union should now announce a strike for a date that would be immediately after the appeal has been heard(and won I hope) whatever date that is. It should also be a week long strike...

I totally agree. One day strikes here and there will not achieve much. There will be some disruption but RM will see it through. If only people here could take a leaf out of how effective the French are at striking. Good luck convincing a large number of our colleagues to do the same.

[clique]

GOODBYE THEN,GOOD LUCK.

Yes, thank you! I can manage DOM and line manager pressure and bullying attempts just fine. Although I'm no longer in the union, I will be out on the picket line in support if/when a strike is called.