small businesses run on the smell of cash flow. struggling hard working people. the old corner shops when I was a kid were all family businesses. they'd employ some of us kids now and then for various odd jobs. if we were friendly. paid pretty much in lollies huh. my first pay ever was thripence. 3 pence. paid in halfpennies and rolled and wrapped in cash paper....
yes unions became over demanding in my time too. one place the weekly production bonus was down (yeh because the mill was down) so they called a halfway strike.... conveniently imbibed at the local workers club. next week the bonus was down again and so the same result. the following week again. I yelled out the bonus is down because of our strike! just loud enough for some others to shout the same hehehe.
we never had another strike in my time there and we always got our bonus pay
unions did a lot of good in the early half of the century then went bad in the latter half.
