Government spin shows a striking disregard for truth
WHEN I was 19 I went on strike.
The three months my colleagues and I were out were bitter and stressful and, in my view both then and now, entirely justified.
We would stand, my fellow union members and I, outside our place of work with placards and homemade signs and tried to explain to the public – and the bosses as they hurried past – our point of view. Inside, those who chose not to strike joined others drafted in from elsewhere to keep the presses rolling.
I was terrified I might lose my job. But we pressed on.
In the end, the dispute was settled but among that workforce things were never the same.
Friendships broke down. People left. The camaraderie between those workmates was never regained.
I mention this not just because it’s come to mind as the country endures a major rail strike, although its effects are everywhere. The disruption we have seen this past week has been considerable and the product of one of the worst breakdowns in industrial relations for 20 years.
Nor do I recall my own weeks on a picket line because of the threat this current unrest will spread, although it appears inevitable a summer of discontent is on the cards. Barristers are due to walk out next week and there are similar discontented rumblings from teachers and some NHS staff. And we are not, despite what some doom-mongers would have us believe, seeing a return to the strike-beleaguered three-day-week and power cuts of the 1970s – although as a child having to go to bed by candlelight was thrilling. I was less impressed at the loss of a telly picture just as Alias Smith and Jones came on, mind you. No, memories of my own time on a picket line have stirred because of the assumption – pushed by some Government ministers and even some media – that strike action is an easy option. I’ve read articles and listened to countless interviews where politicians and so-called experts have intimated that downing tools was the route-one choice. And that’s just not true. My experience, long ago though it was, is that people agonise over it. Very few workers truly want to cause disruption and mayhem for others and themselves.
They do it because they feel they have no other option left.
It is a last, not a first, resort. It’s also a mistake to think those who strike are doing it because they don’t care for their jobs. On the contrary, most care very much and want to see their roles better regarded or made safer or better paid both for themselves and those who come after.
You may not agree with strike action. I get it. It’s annoying and inconvenient. But you don’t have to support it to understand that it’s risky and unpleasant and never taken lightly.