Is the Union movement stupid?

The Blowfly has been pondering a very serious question during the week.

Barry O’Farrell and Ted Baillieu have both been told by their Treasuries that their respective state economies will both suffer substantial job losses as a result of the carbon tax.

The Blowfly recognises that the path to wisdom can be more about asking the right questions rather than having answers. So he spent some time framing the question. But in the end he concluded it wasn’t rocket science.
The question is:

“Is the Union movement stupid?”

When you’ve been born of a maggot you can’t claim to be clever. But you make the most of whatever brain you do have! So here goes.

In NSW the union movement, fearing the loss of 3000-4000 jobs if the power grid was privatised , rallied the troops at the appropriate levels and managed to get rid of Morris Iemma, the then Premier. He’d faced up to the serious problem that NSW faces------by about 2014 the State will start running short of electricity. He showed leadership and paid the price. So, subsequently, did Labor! They lost Government in a landslide.

Are we then to assume that the highly-paid and mostly (these days) highly educated union leadership has blindly accepted re-assurances from the Federal Government that no jobs will be lost?

Even if they are the old-fashioned ‘tough-nut’ union leaders they still don’t seem to The Blowfly to be the type of people who accept just any answer-----they want convincing answers! They are not shrinking violets.

The union officials seek convincing answers because they know that they are going to have face up to their members and explain to them whatever course of action they decide to pursue. The members have to feed their families, pay their mortgages and see their daughters’ weddings paid for. That is all heavy stuff.

So The Blowfly reckons that when the Gillard Government displays leadership regarding the adoption of clean energy, on the pretext of stabilising global temperatures, the Government had better deliver on its promises because the union movement stands to lose everything.

Everything!

Political power! Members! Member’s funds! Leverage!

So is the Union movement stupid?

What is the game they are playing?

Tony Abbott says the sky is going to fall in. Businesses will be decimated.

The Conservative side of politics says that this is not a good time to introduce a carbon tax.

This implies that there is a good time.

And we must not forget that the Conservatives do agree with climate change. It just that they are not committed to doing anything about it. Because they have concluded that they are powerless.

But the unions must feel otherwise.

Could it be that they are looking after their interests?

They don’t want their members to be at the economic mercy of the archaic-thinking capitalist-pigs who employ them.

They are leading from underneath.

They want their members to have a better future.

The union movement has a lot riding on this.

The Blowfly, a simple insect, concludes that they know exactly what they are doing.

Will Malcolm Turnbull die of natural causes or will he be murdered?

On Friday afternoon The Blowfly was perched on Malcolm Turnbull's shoulder as he was reading the erstwhile piece of journalistic sagacity , the Australian Financial Review.

There was a story in the centrepiece, Review, about the writer Leo Tolstoy.Apparently the cause of his death has exacted speculation for many years.The writer speculated that he may've been murdered.He proposed an article entitled "Did Leo Tolstoy Die Of Natural Causes Or Was He Murdered?: A Forensic Investigation"

I saw Malcolm twitch a little and then he did one of those wistful looks out the window that he does so well. Lucy loves them. She has a little romance in her and says that "the wistful look always highlights his beautiful eyes".

But as I tuned into to his thinking I could see that he was pondering the possibility that the same options confronted him .

"It's hard being a blue blood", he thinks to himself, "I don't need to have the same basic concerns that confront the populace. I can afford to think about the big picture.Not like those damn farmers and their National Party mates who are always trying to discount the effect on the climate of their farting cows and the effects of the trees they chop down."

"If only they would let me lead from the front.Dear me!But I must remember the words of Hull --- 'He who trims himself to suit everybody will soon whittle himself away'."

" And why have the ALP been able to paint me as the problem here? They have not been able to convince the minor parties either. Penny Wong is smarter than I thought. I under-estimated her.I think they're just using me as distraction to take everyone's minds off the global financial crisis. And that damned Stimulus Package! I wonder if the Australian public will ever realise that they were hoodwinked? Treasury worked out a long time ago that it would pay for itself over a decade with the extra taxes collected from all those poor fools who came forward for their $900 who were not in the tax system. 22000 extra taxpayers in the system at last count!And if its not extra taxes it will be reduced Centrelink payments because the incomes will now be properly caught."

You decide that this is the best time to get up his nose.You lift off gently and head for the hairs in his nasal vortex. He sees you coming and ducks. You land on the mantelpiece. You can see him in a different light from this perspective. A man who could be prime minister---but isn't! A man who wants to be loved by the populace---but isn't! A man with good ideas! A man with a deep sense of wanting to do the right thing by Australia---but who cant!

"Oh dear me", you thought to yourself, "I hope he does not get murdered in the party meeting on Sunday afternoon. He has so much to give and so much to learn"

From the mantelpiece you picked up his parting thought. It was from the management guru Peter Drucker----"It is more important to do the right thing than to do things right".

It was the solace The Blowfly had been looking for and you buzzed off to the kitchen in search of your afternoon tea.

This is no time to be a dinosaur!

On Saturday after my haircut I visited a new shop which had opened next door. It was a map shop. It had recently moved from the inner city to the suburbs.
The owner was friendly----as retailers should be---but was bemoaning his need to make the move and how his market had been affected by the internet. Google maps had made this sort of information freely available and there were many people operating maps businesses who were doing it only from a portal, he advised.
My mind quickly went back to other industries which have been decimated or totally changed by the internet. Printing is one which has been decimated. Small printers used to be everywhere. But once Word came along every man and his dog could do it.
Travel agents were once a critical part of obtaining airline tickets. But now it is much easier to obtain them over the internet.
Small printers have moved to a high-tech franchising model to survive. Travel agents are now focussing on overseas holidays (which are complicated to organise) and the corporate market to survive.
I asked him about his web presence and he told me that he had recently upgraded his website. but he complained that people's expectations on the web were high eg next day shipping.
I bought a map, left the store, and pondered his plight on the way home.
The over-riding response in my simple brain was that his business model was out-dated and if he was to prosper, rather than simply eating away his past profits , then he needed to CHANGE.
Dinosaurs became extinct because they could not adapt to the new global environment.
So will your business if you do not adapt your business model to the new global environment!
How does your business model need to change?