Hard-line leaders driving trades union members toward strikes
Following Unison’s strike last month, Nipsa, which represents 45,000 workers across the public sector, is urging its membership to vote ‘yes’ in a ballot, aimed at bringing about industrial action. Not only will any further stoppages bring widespread misery, but the vast majority of union members don’t want to strike. Unison’s walkout was carried on a ballot of just 18% of its membership. That’s hardly surprising. Most employees join a union, simply expecting it to help them if they encounter a problem in the work place, while their leaders are sometimes driven by hard-line politics. Where the latest batch of strikes is concerned, unions readily admit that they don’t know the details of public sector job losses which they say are in the pipeline. Some of those potential redundancies could yet be avoided with a little flexibility where it comes to pay and conditions. However their stock response is nothing to d...