Membership of a Trade Union

In the mid-80's I was working for a supermarket in the UK as a Bakery Manager - they were making "bake-off" bread (part baked, rather than made from scratch) and other bakery products so the department didn't need highly skilled bakers, however right from day 1 the bakery was understaffed, and despite numerous pleas for additional staff I was the one making up the shortfall in hours every week. The bakery was never fully staffed (it was a brand new store and the bakery was only 75% staffed from the start), and every time Human Resources advertised for staff, the store manager vetoed this saying we didn't have the funds available, then she would take me to task for working too many hours! After about 6 months of this I decided that the time was right for me to leave so handed in the required (per my contract) 8 weeks' notice. No-one spoke to me about this or asked about my reasons for wanting to leave, so I simply went about my duties as normal. I started looking for other work, but as I had 8 weeks I wasn't initially looking that hard, but the day before the first 4 weeks were up the store manager came into the bakery and told me I could finish the following day!! She said that as I hadn't completed 6 months' service when I handed in my notice I only needed to give them 4 weeks, not 8. There was nothing in my contract stating this, and the HR department also appeared unaware of it, but 24 hours later I was unemployed!
A close friend and neighbour told me that Crane Freuhauf, an engineering company nearby that he worked for, was looking for temporary workers, so I rang them and two days later was granted an interview. The production manager looked at my CV, looked up at me, and asked what engineering skills I had. I explained that, as my CV indicated, I had not worked in engineering before but had reasonable DIY skills, so he opened a drawer and produced a screw, and asked me what I could tell him about it!! I said it was about 2.5c ms long, stainless steel, possibly a size 8, right-hand thread, and required a Phillips screwdriver - which seemed to satisfy him, so he offered me a trial, and asked me to come back the following Monday.
About 50 of us were ushered into the conference room and told that we were being taken on as temporary workers for a period of 13 weeks (the Conservative government had recently announced a job creation scheme and any business who employed new staff for a minimum of 13 weeks received a subsidy equivalent to part of the wages!), and that we were all on 2 weeks probation. He read out our names and the departments we were being allocated, and I was going to be on the main assembly line, however the door opened and the welding supervisor came in and said that some of his new workers had not turned up so he took 5 of our intake to train as welders (all who had some welding experience, but needed to be shown "our" system!), meaning some of the remainder of us were reassigned, and I was placed in the machine shop!
The next part of our induction (which lasted only one morning!) was to meet the shop steward, who said that we should all join the Trade Union (AEU - or Amalgamated Engineering Union), which would cost only a pound or two a week. One of our number was a former shop steward himself, so asked what benefits we, as temporary workers, would receive from our membership - and the shop steward blustered a little and mumbled "well, nothing", but went on to say that the full-time workers would not be too happy working alongside non-union workers (back in times when unions had more power most factories were "closed shops" meaning that non-union workers would not be employed, but times had changed). A few of us, myself included, decided to join up - I had never worked in a factory before and wasn't sure what it would be like anyway, so thought this small concession might make things easier for me.
As it turned out rural Norfolk was not at all militant, and the existing workforce couldn't care less whether we were union members or not! Nevertheless I was a card carrying member of the AEU!
After 13 weeks we were all laid off, at the end of our "contracts" but immediately taken back on for a further 13 weeks! The industry had natural "breaks" so it was a week-long shutdown, but many of us (full-time employees too) worked through the shutdown on overtime, so effectively our employment hadn't terminated - but the company still got a new job creation subsidy!
During my second temporary contract it was time for the annual pay negotiations, which the unions undertook on our behalf, and though, despite being union members, the "temps" had no vote on the outcome, but could attend the meetings (held during work hours). That year the company offered us 6% increase (about double the then rate of inflation), and the union representative from our sister factory, some 30 miles away), who was much more militant advised us to hold out for more!! He was at great pains to explain that the Unions could no longer advise that the workers went on strike for a better deal (as that was now illegal!), but he felt that if we, the workers, were to decide on that course of action we could get an improved offer. There were members of company management attending the meeting, and he kept just inside the law in what he was saying, and then asked for a show of hands on the current offer, which the voting members accepted - much to his disgust!!
During my third temporary contract I was offered a permanent job with the company, and as they promised to multi-skill all the permanent staff (including welding training) I felt it was a good move. The pay was not bad for Norfolk, we got 6 weeks paid holiday a year (though at times that coincided with shutdowns rather than when we wanted a holiday) and holiday pay was paid at time and a half. This was a throwback to the days when many factories worked shifts round the clock, and night and weekend shifts received enhanced rates of pay - so being on enforced holiday meant a reduction in pay for that period. Unions, when they had some power, had negotiated that all holiday, to all the workforce was paid at the enhanced rate of time and a half!
When the pay talks came round the following year the company offered us 10%!! That was way above the national averages, and, in my opinion, a very generous offer. There was a catch - they did want something in return! We had an agreement that anyone clocking in up to 3 minutes late would not get docked pay - they wanted to revoke that. There was also an agreement in place that we stopped working 5 minutes before a break (morning tea break, lunch, afternoon tea break and end of day) to "clean up" - they wanted to stop that, too. Finally because we worked a 39 hour week this was 4 x eight hour days, and Friday was only 7 hours, and there was only one hour between tea break and end of day - they wanted to stop that too.
Before the meeting there was much discussion about this, mostly along the lines of "we are giving the buggers nothing!". I spoke to most of my co-workers in the machine shop and tried to explain that we didn't, in fact, have to give anything up! None of us arrived "late" so the "3 minute rule " didn't apply to us, as the machine shop (and in fact most of the production lines) were classed as "hot" areas we could have a drink (from the vending machine, which cost pennies as it was heavily subsidised, or from a flask which most of us also had) whenever we liked, including Friday afternoon - so we were losing nothing there either, though we would have to drink standing at our work stations rather than sitting in the "tea area". Finally the "clean up time" - we could go to the toilet whenever we needed, so what was stopping us from going 5 minutes before a break time and washing our hands! Basically we could play the system and lose nothing in exchange for a 10% pay rise!
The day of the vote arrived and we met again in the dining room - again the militant Dereham branch shop steward addressed us, and pretty much said we would be wise to accept the offer as it was very generous - privately he was echoing what I had said, but not in front of the management!! So we turned it down, and finally settled for 6% with no concessions!
The two occasions I witnessed trade union shop stewards in action the workforce defied them and voted opposite to what they were advising! I only remained with Crane Freuhauf for 2 years - business was suffering (I believe even back then to cheap Chinese imports!) and the company were closing our factory down, and retrenching a lot of staff, and relocating others to the Dereham plant. I didn't wait for the possible redundancy notice and the risk of fighting with numerous others for scant job opportunities in a rural area, but managed to find another job - not in engineering - very quickly.