Trains and boats and planes
The firemen are on strike at the moment, which is bringing some measure of chaos to the capital. About a hundred tube train drivers also failed to turn up this morning, citing “safety issues”.
I’m in two minds about this. On one hand, £30,000 - the amount the firemen want to be earning - doesn’t seem an unreasonable amount for a job where your life is on the line. Some “commentators” are saying that as there is a constant steam of people wanting to join the fire service, the wage doesn’t have to be that high, citing, of course, the Janus-faced twins of supply and demand. Strangely, the people who put this argument forward - usually newspater columnists and editors - never seem to want to apply the same rule to their own situation. After all, there’s an endless queue of people wanting to be journalists, so why no lower their salaries too?
However, the problem for the firemen is that they can’t win by going on strike. They rely for pressure on public sympathy, and the strike only robs them of that. What’s more, the government is very serious about facing down the unions, and, as it knows that the firemen can’t win, will face them down. The fact that the so-called “independent” review of their wages (reviewed by someone appointed “independently” by the government, that is) came up with an offer that’s both derisory and virtually the same as that already offered is no coincidence. The government wants - and, in order to appease the Daily Mail, needs - to have a showdown.
So if they can’t win, what can they do? I believe this is one of those rare cases where collective action itself cannot win the day. What they need to do is be more imaginative with their industrial action, and with the way they market themselves as a group. Take out a newspaper ad, as an “open letter to Tony Blair” pushing their case - and signed by a hundred people who’s lives have been saved by a fireman. Keep the drip drip drip of publicity out there, constantly, until it becomes an issue that even the Tories can see is a vote winner. Campaign for a memorial to every fireman that’s died in service, to remind people how dangerous a job it is - a memorial on the scale of the Cenotaph. But avoid conflict at all costs, because conflict is the only situation when they can actually lose. It may take five years to get them on the right salaries - but, ultimately, they would get what they want.
What all that takes, though, is imagination, which is a quality in short supply in the unions (and, to be fair, in the government too).
I’m in two minds about this. On one hand, £30,000 - the amount the firemen want to be earning - doesn’t seem an unreasonable amount for a job where your life is on the line. Some “commentators” are saying that as there is a constant steam of people wanting to join the fire service, the wage doesn’t have to be that high, citing, of course, the Janus-faced twins of supply and demand. Strangely, the people who put this argument forward - usually newspater columnists and editors - never seem to want to apply the same rule to their own situation. After all, there’s an endless queue of people wanting to be journalists, so why no lower their salaries too?
However, the problem for the firemen is that they can’t win by going on strike. They rely for pressure on public sympathy, and the strike only robs them of that. What’s more, the government is very serious about facing down the unions, and, as it knows that the firemen can’t win, will face them down. The fact that the so-called “independent” review of their wages (reviewed by someone appointed “independently” by the government, that is) came up with an offer that’s both derisory and virtually the same as that already offered is no coincidence. The government wants - and, in order to appease the Daily Mail, needs - to have a showdown.
So if they can’t win, what can they do? I believe this is one of those rare cases where collective action itself cannot win the day. What they need to do is be more imaginative with their industrial action, and with the way they market themselves as a group. Take out a newspaper ad, as an “open letter to Tony Blair” pushing their case - and signed by a hundred people who’s lives have been saved by a fireman. Keep the drip drip drip of publicity out there, constantly, until it becomes an issue that even the Tories can see is a vote winner. Campaign for a memorial to every fireman that’s died in service, to remind people how dangerous a job it is - a memorial on the scale of the Cenotaph. But avoid conflict at all costs, because conflict is the only situation when they can actually lose. It may take five years to get them on the right salaries - but, ultimately, they would get what they want.
What all that takes, though, is imagination, which is a quality in short supply in the unions (and, to be fair, in the government too).