Do striking workers believe in their cause?

I think when I see hundreds of people striking on picket lines, I wonder are they really genuine in what they are doing, and do they really believe in what they are doing.

They always appear to me as being in a jovial mood, on a jolly, laughing and joking, waving their political banners, waving to silly motorists who pip the horn of their car as they drive past them. I wonder when they get home with their families and sit down, if they think they have done some good to their cause or whether they think they are really wasting their time.

After all, these strikes have been going on for some months now, and they don’t seem to be getting anywhere with them.

I think when they turn their TVs on and see what has happened in

Turkey and Syria, with deaths up to 30,000 and still rising, the majority of them having been crushed to death by falling buildings caused by the severe earthquakes in those two countries, there is a possibility this will put in perspective that the demanding of massive pay rises is not so important as the strikers like to think, than the pain and suffering we should be feeling for the population of those two countries.

Although I doubt very much whether it will make much difference, as the next day they will be out there again, on the picket line, making demands, waving their political banners, waving to the silly motorists.

It was announced recently by one of the largest unions involved in the disputes that an offer had been turned down by the union as not acceptable. The union leader said it was “dreadful”.

Note it was the union that turned it down, not the members, who were not given the opportunity to have a vote on whether to accept or not.

Do the members not see they are being used as political pawns? The union leaders do not want any offers accepted, as they want to pursue their own agenda, which is for the strikes to carry on indefinitely.

Maybe the union leader should ask the people of Turkey and Syria what they consider “dreadful”!

Roger Blunt

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