I think the idea of unions is sound although the values they once sttod for is sadly lacking these days.

In my view unions are there to protect individual workers by showing a common front for everyone in the companies employ, this should include fair pay/conditions/pension etc. These days though I think more and more unions are increasingly concerned with governmental policy and dictating terms to companies and have lost sight of what they should be doing.

For example I am a civil servant and lifelong union member, although granted more out of custom than choice. The MoD is currently going through a major cost cutting exercise which involves losing 10,000 posts, we have also just been through our annual pay talks and are in the process of being relocated from scattered sites to one or two main sites. The unions view of this is that the job cuts are wrong, the pay deal is too low and we shouldn't have to relocate, all of this sounds reasonable at first glance until you realise that once you get past a certain grade your contract includes a mobility clause where you agree to be a mobile grade, affectively agreeing to work where you're sent. Now the union is focusing not on the below inflation pay rise or the job cuts but on the relocation and trying to influence the members on which political party to support.

Anyway, I think the unions need to get back to basics which is to stop individual members being steam rollered by big companies and leave the running of the companies to the people who know how to do it.