I would think he means - the current coalition government in the UK has gone too far in supporting / turning a blind eye to blatant capitalism with big business having little or no respect for their workforce taking advantage of things like "zero hours contracts" etc.
Consequently it is time for the resurgence of union power but with unions led by people who are looking to improve conditions for their members as opposed to continually getting into a "communist style stand off" as they did - to little effect in the 70's.
But I might be wrong ?.......................
Would be interested to know if I am right
Apologies all, I thought it was pretty obvious but then that is of course because I wrote it and naturally it was clear in my mind but essentially yes Ian
Over the years I have seen more and more how the work[lace has become on where employer bullying and unreasonable behaviour are coupled with the ease with which employment laws can be overridden with relative impunity. It is the age of merger, and, of course, each merger is used to get rid or people who are not necessarily truly fitting the criteria.
I have personally seen someone made redundant based on the fact that there job was no longer required in the organisation, but a new employee was immediately employed to do that job, at a different location, and a subtle title change!
I have seen people (No, none of them myself) pressured to work later with no extra pay to "demonstrate loyalty" and to "show commitment", their home telephoned and them pressured to come to work when obviously sick and not fit for work, the boss says he isn't going to pay for the milk that some staff who live a long way away use to have a bowl of cereal when they arrive at work, while he, who cycles to work from less than a mile away takes delivery of his new Bentley.
In one organisation I saw criteria such as "sickness in the last 12 months only" used as a redundancy criteria to justify some redundancies. ( I am sure that was not legal)
So, is there a place for a resurgence of the Union to protect employees from exploitation, "Intelligent" Unions that concentrate more on the original idea that Keir Hardy had of improving working conditions and preventing exploitation? Would even a small private Company dare to flout the regulations and ride roughshod over their staff in an atmosphere of fear if that employee had "the Union" to help fight his/her case and fund legal support?
For those who don't know, anyone can join a Union, and your employer is not entitled to know who and who is not a member of a Union, the question is have we arrived at a point in the UK where people should consider this?