Getting union representation at IBM is the labour equivalent of putting a man on the moon, the general secretary of the International Metalworkers’ Federation told the Wall Street Journal at a two-day conference to set strategies to penetrate IBM, held in London this week: the international trades union leaders seem to be hoping against hope that IBM’s present crisis will force the company to make large numbers of people redundant so that they can move in and seek to unionise the ones who remain – but if we wanted to put a man on the moon, we don’t somehow think we’d entrust the task to our own dear Trades Union Congress.
