Ethical? Ha-ha!
15 Jun 09, 7:05pm
Here's one about Funeralcare.
Funeralcare has derecognised the GMB union, in the process securing its expulsion from the Tolpuddle Martyrs Festival and, I think, the Glastonbury Festival. It has been condemned by the TUC. This is a betrayal of the foundational principles and values of the Rochdale Pioneers and would seem to render the Co-op ethically redundant.
Funeralcare may be seen by many to be the People's Undertaker. How do you justify the high price of your funerals given the economies of scale you enjoy? You are in a position to undercut every other undertaker in the land.
In terms of competence, Funeralcare is scandal-ridden. In the funeral industry, Co-op is synonymous with Cock-op.
I have cancelled my smile account in protest at this. No one at smile felt inclined to debate this with me.
16 Jun 09, 11:14am
OK, quite a backlog to get through: here goes... btw, I'm Co-operative's Head of Social Goals
To Raggedexile... re funeralcare and GMB, we recognise a number of trades unions for the purposes of collective bargaining, however, we need to do this on a national basis as we are a national provider, and GMB were looking to represent a relatively small number of workers
16 Jun 09, 12:26pm
Paul, with ref to Funeralcare, you recognise UCATT, which has a tiny number of members. I really can't follow your logic.
And you overlook the big point: How can the Co-op, of all organisations, derecognise a trade union and stay true to its founding principles and values?
And how do you answer this: the TUC has condemned Funeralcare for its victimisation and harassment of shop stewards.
And what of the cost of your funerals? You can answer this by telling us how profitable Funeralcare is.
What would the Rochdale Pioneers make of all this?
17 Jun 09, 11:46am
Whoah, no-one is ducking anything.
Think can see from responses to date we have addressed virtually everything raised.
Just didn't expect so many detailed questions (and am fitting in answering between meetings and such).
17 Jun 09, 2:04pm
Paul, you run the risk of being discourteous at the very least. You have given an undertaking to address questions posed by readers and now you dash in and out breathlessly pleading meetings and such. Is that how important this exercise is to you?
Are you fobbing me (and everybody else) off when you say 'Think can see from responses to date we have addressed virtually everything raised'? I think it is for us to declare our satisfaction with your responses, not you.
You have not answered my central question: does Funeralcare's derecognition of the GMB union not amount to a betrayal of the Co-op's founding principles and disqualify it as an ethical enterprise?
Please would give this greater than cursory attention?
Raggedexile
17 Jun 09, 5:11pm
Hello? Hel-lo? Anyone there?
Labels: Co-op
posted by Charles Cowling at
17:19
1 Comments:
This one's gone off the boil. Here's what happened next - and last:
paulmonaghan
18 Jun 09, 10:32am
To raggedexile
Sorry for delay on the specifics, and thanks for tone of questioning.
The decision (taken back in late 2006) to de-recognise the GMB for the purposes of collective bargaining within our funeral business was taken because we feel we need to work with unions which operate across the Groups range of businesses and have an in-depth understanding of the overall commercial backdrop against which it operates.
The GMB had the smallest membership of Funeralcares three main non-specialist unions and unlike both Unite and USDAW, had no significant representation in other Co-operative Group businesses.
Whilst some 150 funeral workers in Co-operative Funeralcare are in membership of the GMB, more than seven times that number are members of Usdaw within Funeralcare and Usdaw has around 20,000 members across the Co-operative Group.
We totally reject the unfounded claims regarding victimisation of union members, and both acknowledge and respect the fact that GMB members remain free to retain their GMB membership and to this end we have continued to operate check-off facilities for the GMB
As you would expect, we remain committed to maintaining strong relationships with recognised trade unions and to positively promoting trade union membership and organisation amongst all our employees.
Raggedexile
18 Jun 09, 11:52am
Paul, thank you for your response. May I ask, is not your derecognition of the GMB in contravention of International Labour Organisation conventions? Having said which, while Funeralcare stands condemned by the TUC, it is observable that Unite and USDAW have failed to stand by the GMB, and hereby hangs a tail of great muddlement and possibly no relevance here. For all that, I worry that Funeralcare's derecognition of the GMB does not sit easily with your founding principles.
My other questions to you are these. First, given the economies of scale enjoyed by Funeralcare, which I guess a great many people would regard as the people's undertaker, why are your funerals so expensive? Second, why do you think Funeralcare is so poorly regarded within the funeral industry, and why do you think it is that there is a significant number of independent funeral directors out there who are motivated by their early experience of working for Funeralcare to do things differently and do them better?
I should add that I am not a funeral director!
To raggedexile
re the 'other stuff'... our funeral pricing is about middling for the industry and certainly not the most expensive , and we would like to think we are sensitive to circumstances, so for example, we do not levy professional fees on the funerals of children under 16.
Don't agree that we are poorly regarded in the industry... our staff turnover rates have been steadily reducing, the quality of our training is widely recognised and we lead the way on wages.
Raggedexile
19 Jun 09, 11:41am
I think Paul has done pretty well for a man on the hoof. After our first flush of optimism I guess we're not too surprised to see debates run into the sand. It's what weary experience teaches us, innit?
To set yourself up as ethical has to be hubristic as this world goes. Mortals don't do haloes, not convincingly. They come unstuck or get pelted.
If anyone out there wants to evaluate the Co-op's funeral service, go here: http://www.gmb.org.uk/Templates/Internal.asp?NodeID=95715
Have a fab weekend, everyone -- you too, Paul.
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