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Summer of Strikes

14:09 / 10.08.07

I don't think this has received much coverage in the mainstream media, but this summer's seen some of the highest levels of union/labour activity in Britian for years. Workers across the public sector - from postmen to nurses to local government workers - have been offered below inflation payrises and aren't very happy about it. There's been wildcat strikes in mail depots across the country, from Glasgow down to Oxford, and Unison members have also voted to reject their pay-offer and are moving towards an industrial action ballot. There's ma lot of unrest within the NHS too, over these paycuts and more general structural changes affecting service provision.

Does anyone on Barbelith work in the affected sectors? What are people's attitudes towards the strikes? Are they winnable? What are the long and short-term implications, either way?

Shiny: Well Over Thirty

16:00 / 10.08.07

As A PCS (the civil service clerical staff union) rep this is a subject close to my heart, and one that's kept me fairly busy arranging meetings and rallies and the like since the beginning of this year. PCS leadership has been pushing for combined action among the public service unions for some time, and it's a strategy I strongly support. My opinion is that it is just about winnable - but not by one union alone, maybe not by two or three, but if we see strong combined action spreading across the public sector we'll get something. We've already had a number of strikes - we're holding off on more action, in the hopes of arranging to be out at the same time as another public service union right now, but sooner or later we'll have to step out our action on our own if we can't arrange that.

Madman in the ruins.

05:54 / 28.09.07

Sorry if this is off topic but its a intresting theory.

After the Miners strile of 84. The Tory Goverment made it easier and encouraged people to buy their concill houses.

Are the two related? I think so.

A strking worker, can get into finacil difficutlies and loose their home far easier than if their home was rented.

By givng the majority of the working class mortgahes the Goverment gave them a Financial noose around their necks to ensure less chance of strikes.

Tryphena Absent

09:40 / 04.10.07

For those who aren't aware there's a UK postal strike from midday until Saturday afternoon and then from Sunday night to Wednesday.

10:13 / 04.10.07

After the Miners strile of 84. The Tory Goverment made it easier and encouraged people to buy their concill houses.

Are the two related? I think so.

A strking worker, can get into finacil difficutlies and loose their home far easier than if their home was rented.

By givng the majority of the working class mortgahes the Goverment gave them a Financial noose around their necks to ensure less chance of strikes.

Yeah. I don't know about this. Is it really easier to have your home repossessed than it is to be evicted for failing to pay your rent? Also, while 'financial noose' is tremendously evocative, it's also a bit misleading, since property has been less of a 'financial noose' as an investment that's rocketed up faster than saleries, than the rate of inflation, than anything else you could have done with your money in 1984. I mean, I don't think the Tories did it out of the goodness of their hearts, and it was obviously a way of getting people to vote Conservative who would never have voted Conservative ever in their lives, but to see it as maneuvering to stop people from going on strike seems a bit paranoid. After all, people weren't forced to buy their homes, and arguably owning a home gives you more financial security than renting it.

I suppose, yes, it does give you something to lose, but in that case any legislation that offers anything to people other than to make their lives so dogshit awful that they have no choice but to fight back can be assigned the same status as a cynical ploy designed to keep folk sedated.

10:32 / 04.10.07

Also, Right To Buy came in in 1980, rather than as a response to the strikes that happened four years later.

10:50 / 04.10.07

Isn't there also something about the housing market being a key economic driver? Weren't the Conservatives of the day keen on it from both a practical and a philosophical point of view?