A nice thought Rich, but when have you ever known a goverment (in any country) to play fair autonomously. Governments only want one thing, another term in power. So, they pander to the largest organisation or body in return for their votes. They care nothing for the common man but if that organisation has 1,000,000 common men (i.e. potential votes) then they have more chance of getting a fairer deal.

You are right John, team work. not unions ithink we have to kick the *** of our elected officials to give more power to our labour ministries to help the common man. i don,t want or need a union telling me what or how to do something. we just need fairness backed by our government

An old adage, similar to "what came first the chicken or egg", in the business world could be applicable here, "all other functions within any company are not really required until something (product or service) is sold" - advantage sales folks. Production folks counter with, "sales people can't sell anything unless someone produces it." Almost true but you can always buy a product or service from another entity.

Food for Thought:
In reality, it takes everyone rowing the boat to contribute effectively and efficently to get it from point "A" to point "B" in a reasonable time at an acceptable cost to survive. Team work always works best and produces the best results when all functions involved are viewed as equally important.

it the "spirit" of the "6 degrees of separation" game, I doubt* you could find a job that actually touches more lives than a forklift tech. truck drivers often point out that "if it got there, it got there by a truck". I can say if it got put on any truck, it got there by some machine I (or someone I know) fixed.
*= not only do I doubt you can find such a job (one that actually touches more lives) but I welcome discussion on which such job does touch MORE lives. Not so much more lives -directly- touched, but more lives over all, indirectly.
the only such job I can think of would have to be an instructor in a medical or nursing school.

Yes they could and rightly so. I am an agricultural engineer that's what i trained in, but they still require some form of of material handling to move and load even the raw materials. ultimately, we are the back of industy, whether you drive a lorry or push a pump truck.

Wouldn't the truck/lorry drivers say the same thing (there jobs are the back bone of the country)? And what about the farmers who grow food and raise meat, the folks that make and/or dispense petrol, taxi cab drivers, the stevedores and, and and, and, and , and...........................

Derek h you're right. if it wasn't for us the whole country would grind to a halt. When you think about it we are the back bone of the nation. we don't have the recognition that we should have or the decent wage, for what we do.

"It's illegal dissmiss any person on grounds of their affiliation or membership to any
recognised trade unions" ! ! !

I'm sure I've read that somewhere but unfortunately the offending companies
haven't the **** to admit it and constructive dismissal claims are nigh on immpossible
to prove with new legislation giving employers more protection when it comes to
unfair dismissal claims.

Our engineers have just received official union recognition allowing Unite to act on
our behalf when it comes to pay and conditions negotiations and we
are just about to have have elections for representatives wishing to stand.

I still think it would be worthwhile for individuals to become union members just for
the peace of mind of knowing you are not alone in the workplace in the current climate
of uncertainty we find ourselves in at the moment.

Problem at the moment though is that companies do have the upper hand when it comes to who they want to sack or employ with so many Engineers now laid off or made redundant, They can pick and choose.
Most would regard an engineer in a Union as being trouble so would avoid employing them and from what I have seen in the past, when it came to making people redundant, they chose the Union members first then after a 6 month wait, they could start to re employ with none union members.
The government and its departments also, in the current economic enviroment, dont give a toss about the rights of the employees of companies.

So called contracts of employment are there to look after the employer and not worth the paper they are written on So!, If we all got together and started an Engineers Union, What could we do constructively to get the employers to sit down and negotiate a fair and unbiased code of practice that would be beneficial to both parties ?

One thing in the UK that I have noticed is that the Engineer/technician is far underpaid than lets say someone that sits behind a desk doing IT.
If it wasn't for the forklift Engineer/technician, the country would come to a halt so, taking that into consideration, how about a minimum rate of pay for the FLT Engineers that reflects the responsible position that this role has ?

Well the way things is going in this day age it might be a good idea to start a union

start a group on face book, seems the main way to comunicate these days lol.

just sign on the dotted line................................................................................................

i take it will be a non profit makeing scheme.

i'm in mate.

Sounds Good to me although it would have to be a union that is dedicated to looking after its supporters rather than looking after its own interests.
Where do I sign up ?