one out, all out
With more strikes planned for later this week we’re all painfully aware that we are living through the media-coined ‘summer of discontent’. From railway workers to barristers, firefighters to doctors, postmen to teachers, nurses to bin-men and civil servants to BT engineers, an unusually large strike-wave is coming to a place near you very soon. And from patients awaiting an op to sports fans needing to get to their chosen venues, it’ll continue to hit us where it hurts. What are they thinking, FFS, and what century do they believe they live in?
But don’t put it down to a sudden outbreak of mass socialism as what we have here is more a case of supply and demand than a conscious awakening. There are currently more vacancies than there are jobseekers, albeit not necessarily in the same space. Unlike in the 80s, when the iron lady ruled the roost, unemployment is low and labour in short supply.
Notwithstanding, going on strike remains a risk. Your employer, the media at large, much of the public and even the opposition parties are likely to be against you. Any loss of income will be solely yours to bear. I’m alright, Jack. In very public ways, you will be breaking the covenant of the modern economy: withdrawing your labour and refusing to work, acting collectively as opposed to individually, explicitly doing ‘an Oliver’ and asking for more and, perhaps most heinously, inconveniencing consumers. In fact, the right to strike has been more heavily curtailed than ever before and corporations now have far more leverage than the supposedly militants could ever muster.
However, contrary to ‘aggrieved of Tunbridge Wells’ and even within a recessionary climate, shouldn’t a fair wage and decent working conditions be something to celebrate? The tories think not. They prefer to extol the virtue of work and its pathways but the majority of people in poverty are in work. Maybe an economy built on poor wages was politically and socially sustainable only whilst inflation stayed low? The cost of living crisis, and the refusal of employers (including government) to act sympathetically is the more blatant reason for this summer’s ‘wave of resistance’.
So, t’other week, whilst I loitered on platform two in the morning sun, contemplating what a fabulous day it was, I was rudely informed by the tannoy of the non-arrival of the 08.13, along with most of the subsequents. Cue outrage. “So selfish” was the more prosaic and printable comment as my fellow passengers scuttled back to their Three Series. And I find myself thinking is it really that important? That email you just can’t wait to send, or the ever-so-vital meeting which will determine probably nothing at all. Yes the trains won’t move for a day but it’s worth considering that our fellow workers have reached such a point of despair that nothing could make their lives any better other than going on strike. An act that invariably all of us have benefitted from over generations, and one no-one takes lightly. These are real people, with real emotions and real lives.
Next time you are confronted with a delay, a cancelled appointment or an undelivered parcel, don’t nod along with the rest and revile those taking industrial action. Use the unexpected time now on your hands wisely, humanely, consider what you have and do something that makes you feel alive. And perhaps support those putting their money where their mouths are. After all, with spiralling costs and galloping inflation turning most wage raises into a real-life pay-cut, dramatically reducing the value of any savings and potentially leading to an epidemic of home repossessions, how long before we join them on the metaphorical picket line?
