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You don't necessarily tell your boss about it.

But if (for example) you're a construction worker in the UK, your boss gets weekly reports of who has joined the union.

He'll then find some pretexts to make your life harder.

by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 03:47:19 AM EST
[ Parent ]
Many construction workers are on a temporary contracts, so employers don't have to do much more than not recontracting the worker.

res humą m'és alič
by Antoni Jaume on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 05:24:00 AM EST
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"your boss gets weekly reports of who has joined the union"

Help! Who gives him the reports?

by Katrin on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 05:26:52 AM EST
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It's a long and ugly story. Perhaps I'll have time to diary it one day.
by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 09:12:33 AM EST
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In short - there was a long time government surveillance unit dedicated to monitoring union activity in the construction industry. This came out recently. However, much like the NSA thing, there's circumstantial evidence that the monitoring goes much wider.
by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 11:14:00 AM EST
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BBC News - Construction industry workers blacklisted for 20 years

The union Unite says it has evidence that the vetting of individuals by name in the building industry is still happening, four years after the discovery of a secret list that denied people work for years.

BBC Panorama reporter Richard Bilton has the first TV interview with the woman who helped run that blacklisting operation.

Howard Nolan did not know he was on the list. As an electrician he spent years working on Britain's biggest building projects, but then the jobs dried up and all he had were his suspicions.



Any idiot can face a crisis - it's day to day living that wears you out.
by ceebs (ceebs (at) eurotrib (dot) com) on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 07:13:49 PM EST
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BBC Panorama reporter Richard Bilton has the first TV interview with the woman who helped run that blacklisting operation.

Sounds like an individual in dire need of a bit of moral suasion, from people whose connection to the union cannot be proven to the satisfaction of a court of law.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Fri Aug 2nd, 2013 at 03:33:52 PM EST
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Then your union needs better cryptography and internal security.

If your legitimate political activity is viewed as sedition, then you need to take appropriate measures to maintain operational security.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 01:07:02 PM EST
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Agreed.
But as you said, many people don't realise that we're back playing by 19th century rules.
by Metatone (metatone [a|t] gmail (dot) com) on Thu Aug 1st, 2013 at 01:31:43 PM EST
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