The main thing I've been thinking about is strikes. Where I work the union has recently been negotiating the latest price rise for workers. I won't go into detail but the increase offered is less than inflation so people aren't too happy. The union is recommending that the offer be rejected by union members.
I'm a union member (mainly because I was offered the option to join when I started and I didn't want to be the only person in the room not to). So I have a little decision to make.
On a personal level I'm not massively fussed about it all. I'm lucky though as I don't have bills piling up or a family to look after. I think any sort of strike action is fairly unlikely. If the offer is rejected I think it just goes to arbitration and further wrangling. Still, the implication that there could be some kind of walkout lurks visible on the far off horizon.
My initial instinct was to just accept the offer, or - given how unhappy everyone else is - just abstain. However, after hearing other people talk about bills and price rises I just don't have the heart to do that. So eventually I was like "Okay, I'll vote against it too if that's what everyone else is doing."
You never know, perhaps we'll all post our "nay" ballot and it'll result in a slightly better offer.
The Countrywide Politics
I also had to force myself to supress my wider political opinions too. In my opinion the offer is bad primarily because of inflation - but inflation wasn't caused by the company we work for. It was caused by us locking down the country for two years and printing endless streams of cash.
Pretty much everyone in the country supported this. In fact, many of the unions were not only supportive of it, but actively demanding it. So it's a little frustrating to see people complaining about the consequences of the very actions they begged for.
However, again, like at work, I really need to remind myself:
All the regular people up and down the country - like all the good regular folk I work with - were terrified into demanding the Covid response; and no one ever explained what the costs would be in a calm and rational way. So regular people really aren't to blame, they've been put through the wringer these last few years.
This brings me back to the spectre of strikes though, and also to the Don't Pay UK campaign mentioned previously. Are we going to have more engineered chaos this winter that makes the country even poorer? Is this another example of people being led into supporting action that isn't in their interests?
Are there similar murmurs of discontent in other workplaces around the country? Edging employees towards industrial action. Am I being irresponsible in going along with this, albeit in my small little way?
To bring things back down to Earth though, the truth is a strike where I work is very, very unlikely, and I think the muttered mentions of one are just idle hyperbole. Nothing more. So maybe I'm guilty of worrying too much about the big 'political' things, when I should be more concerned with the immediate problems facing the people around me, who have energy bills to pay and children to support.
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