On 18/11/2017 14:27, Andrew wrote:

On 17/11/2017 13:16, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
Â*Â*Â* Dan S. MacAbre wrote:

When I started work in the stores of a factory, we were like the lowest
of the low.Â* The company wanted to give us a slightly bigger pay rise
than everyone else.Â* A quid a week, something like that.Â* The union
kicked up a fuss about 'differentials', so it never happened.

You must have had an odd union. And a very shortsighted one. If
management
offer a pay rise to one group of workers that would normally be accepted
gratefully. Then the subject of differentials brought up at the next
round
of pay talks.


Err, no. The 'them and us' union attitudes of the 70's not only existed
between groups of workers in the same company but between the unions
as well.

I recollect, the electricians union was run by a bloke that the others
(Scanlon, Jack Jones etc) utterly hated. I only had to contend with
Clive Jenkins running ASTMS in the 70's.

The ETU (later EETPU - I was a member when that change happened) was
headed by Frank Chapple, who had moved from being a supporter of
communism to one of its leading opponents.

Does that explain the loathing of Chapple by people like Scanlon and
Jones, and the strong support for him from within his craft union?