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synaesthesia

Striking.

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synaesthesia
, 25th June 2012 at 05:56 PM (1513 Views)
The question is thus.

You may not hold a person against their will. You may certainly not hold a person against their will to make demands of another.
Therefore why on earth is it legal to hold the general public hostage to "make a point" to your employer?

And stop that comment you've already started typing.
I am simply trying to understand one simple thing about striking unions, and yes this is regarding HMRC today. I'm no politician so excuse any ignorance shown here.
I'm not against the idea of industrial action. There are obviously times when large groups of employees may feel grieved about something. Their union may ask them to join forces and act upon it.
Why is the only form of action a strike? Something that is no less idiotic than "Do what we ask or this kitten gets it." Ok, so there's no feline lives at stake but they may cut off his food supply and stop it prowling around behind the sofa and washing machine like normal. Does it REALLY have to impact the general public so much?
I am *strongly* against this, obviously and feel absolutely fed up that other human beings - friends and family included would partake in such action knowing how much of a problem it could cause other innocent people. There's collateral damage and then there's extracting the urine.
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  1. basicchannel's Avatar
    It's funny you mentioned cats, as in the printers' district of pre-revolutionary Paris, a series of ritualistic murders of cats took place, which were apparently caused by printers' apprentices who were fed up of the way they were being treated by their masters.
    I'm not saying murdering cats is a viable alternative to striking, I'm just saying it happened.

    Source: This article from the Independent
  2. GrumbleDook's Avatar
    The Right to Work and the right to take appropriate action to safe guard that right is part of international law and for very good reason.

    Yes, it can be abused ... in the same way employers can abuse how they treat employees too.

    Most unions will prefer to sit round the table to do deals rather than go down the strike route. Some will be more militant and take aggressive action but too many unions know that this is double-edged sword. It can the tactic that forces change of mind, whether political, ethical or economic ... or it can end up forcing even worse conditions. The risk of further tightening of laws are industrial disputes means that unions tend to get more success when sat round the table and coming up with compromises and everyone hoping that all parties keep their promises.

    But what happens when those promises are broken? Do you arrange another deal and hope that this time people will keep their word?

    Of course ... you then get some groups that are opportunistic and will use things like summer sporting events to justify more money for the same work! For me, they get little sympathy really ...

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