An old saying " a union is only as good as its members" If members show no interest, then there's a good chance their elected officials will probably show the same level of interest.
On the subject of getting a say in the leader of the union pay, I think some are getting confused, thinking they should receive a ballot paper with the word " should your leader get a pay rise from 100k to 150k YES or NO. This may happen, but I have never come across it. Members do get a say though, through their branch. They will elect reps and local leaders, Secretaries/Chairperson/Treasurer/Committee etc, of whom no doubt some will attend the unions National Conference, where any pay rise for the leader will be on the agenda for discussion. Several weeks prior to conference the local branch will receive the Conference Agenda, and should have a local meeting with their members to discuss the main points of the agenda. The committee made up of all the aforementioned will already have in mind which way they are going to vote, but that will need to be ratified by those members present at the meeting. In a healthy branch heated debates will then usually take place at the meeting. Once a decision is arrived at , that is the way that branch is obliged to vote at Annual Conference. So in a nutshell, a member does have a say, albeit indirectly and as part of a group decision rather than as an individual. If you didn't agree with the pay rise you would have to attend the meeting and put your case forward. Of course in reality its not easy for a lay member to stand up and talk to a possibly large audience of people, even more so if you are going against the wishes of the committee. Of course if you were sensible you would get a few of your mates who agreed with you, to attend meeting and back you up.
In my experience only around 20-50 attend AGMs and pre conference meetings etc, and that's in workforces of 500-1000, so in reality there is no counter argument, no debate and the pay rise etc goes ahead. Then after the event, members start kicking off, stating they were never consulted
Like I said at the start, a union is only as good as its members. Unions are a force for good, they are democratic, you don't get a say on how much the boss gets paid. Use them or lose them, and get involved.
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