Right, lets see…back in 1998 or 9, can’t quite remember, I was made redundant by a UK based multinational (you’d all have heard of them). Thankfully, because they’d grown up in the UK, the union had grown with them. Yes, there were spats here and there, but the company got by and did very well with that healthy level of mistrust between the union and the management.
Thanks to a strong union negotiated payout system (company had announced redundancies and negotiated with the union), I got (having been there for around 2 and a half years), 3 months pay (my notice period), some statutory redundancy (pish all really) and some other “sorry-we’re-sacking-you” payout. It worked out to be between eight and a half and nine grand for two and a half years service. And I was able to walk out that day. “need me to sign anything, when can I go?, can I go now?, really?”
I would always have been a union supporter anyway but that little experience was a wee lesson in how important it is to have a strong workers representation. And I wasn’t even a member of the union!!