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Comment by blackpowder12 | Hacker News Reader

Unfortunately even left wing folks in the UK remember that the coal unions shut down the country regularly in the 70s. I’m not from here, but I know a very left wing crowd and the older ones remember how they would dine in candlelight during the big coal strikes. Tatcher was a reaction to this.

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The right wing have been sending troops and tanks and other kinds of hired thugs out to keep miners in their place and force them to accept pay and work conditions that were often illegal for a long time. Generally with the benefit of hindsight, the miners were in the right.

So its probably ahistorical to suggest that Margaret Thatcher, only attacked the unions because they went too far. Maybe she just wanted to keep the money for herself and her political connections rather than pay the people risking their lives to mine it a fair wage.

I'll be honest i didn't expect this forum of all places to be so pro-union.

I understand why some people need collective bargaining to raise their position in the workplace but i thought this forum was full of talented professionals.

There are plenty of talented professionals over 40 who wish they had union protections.

Not in civilised countries.

What!

Being a talented professional and being pro-union is not mutually exclusive. Unions can (and oftentimes do) serve as a counter to employers leverage, while admittedly reducing workplace flexibility. Unions have achieved worker-rights that are now taken for granted, keeping these will need entities working towards that

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