Going on Strike is a Right

I read an article in the i yesterday that for the first time in a long time incensed me to the point that I wanted to start to throw things. It was the most right wing, elitist piece of bile, I have ever seen outside of the Daily Mail.

‘i writer’ – that is temporary columnist – Sarah Malm, a journalism student at the University of Kent, decided to use her column in the i as an opportunity to vent her distaste of Unions, accusing them of being selfish and holding the rest of the country to ransom. She finished up urging them to “grow a pair” rather than continue to inconvenience the rest of us.

 I don’t know exactly what the unions have done to tick off Miss Malm – I can only assume that she missed a train at one point or something – but she has clearly missed the point of why unions choose to go on strike. It is not simply because they are “pulling a sickie” or anything like that. They are exercising their democratic right to make their voice and opinions heard in the face of unsuitable working conditions.

Let us pretend, for the moment, that you are a teacher in a large inner city school. You are told that from now on you are going to have to work an extra six hours a week at no extra pay. At the same time your sick pay is being either cut or scrapped altogether. What would you do under that circumstance, assuming that negotiations have failed? Miss Malm would seem to suggest that you should simply live with it. Shrug and move on.

I don’t think that’s a solution that’s going to fly with most people.

What Miss Malm also seems to have missed is that – thanks to Mrs Thatcher – unions can no longer simply strike at the drop of a hat. They can however strike at the drop of a vote. If the majority of teachers/nurses/fuel tanker drivers/llama herders have decided that their working conditions are unacceptable and voted on it, then and only then will they stop teaching/nursing/driving tankers/ herding llamas. It is one of the only ways that attention can be drawn and a solution to their problem forced.

Miss Malm seems to believe that the unions are still controlled by the likes of Arthur Scargill. They are not. And by and large those who go on strike are hardworking people, who simply want a better deal in the workplace. They are not the selfish tantrum throwing five year olds that the media rank and file like to make them out to be. A rank and file to which we can now add one more member.

Perhaps one day Miss Malm will find herself in a situation where she is being paid a pittance for the work she does. Then she may feel a little more sympathetic. But right now, I would suggest she go out and talk to those who have gone on strike in the past, and get their side of the story.

Decent journalism is all about balance after all.