Strike!
Posted: Fri 3 August, 2007 Filed under: 1BEM, Customer Services, Cynicism 2 Comments »Maybe I’m just naïve, but I really don’t understand how mail workers going on strike is supposed to resolve their dispute.
Royal Mail’s trying to cut costs, partly by laying off up to 40,000 people. Now if it were me, I’d be looking at getting rid of the fuckers that were knackering my business by striking…
But strikes don’t – in my perception – engender sympathy from the public for the plight of those on strike. Instead it’s all “fucking strikers”, and “making a pain in the arse of themselves”, particularly when you start wondering whether they’re also still getting paid full wage while standing around doing sod all.
So how does striking resolve the issue?
Because the amount that the ‘workers’ have just cost the company is supposed to make the company realise that they’d be better off giving the ‘workers’ a fraction of the amount they have just lost.
Or something.
And I use the term ‘worker’ very loosely.
Around the time the firefighters were striking a few years ago, we* did a march through ‘Central’ London** to protest against tuition fees and so on. At the rally there was a representative of the firefighters union, who thanked us for turning out in support of his cause. Up until that point I’d had some sympathy for the firefighters despite the apparent (and deliberate) dangers of their strike.
* Some students. Maybe it was a national event, but since it was in London it was mainly ULon folks who made it.
** The route we managed to get approved wasn’t so central, in the end.