The strike ‘lockdown’: December 2020 – December 2022, no difference

 

 

Today I’ll start with the headline under which Auntie B has compiled the printed front pages produced by our glorious MSM: “The papers: The PM’s plans for the asylum system, and the latest on the strikes” (link). Forgive me, but I’m not even looking at the Rishi plans dealing, allegedly, with illegal immigrants. All I’ll say is: I believe it when I see it.

The strikes though: now that’s a different story altogether. The broadsheets are strangely reticent in their reporting, as if it’s irrelevant what the plebs – the striking workers – are getting up to. However, this reticence allows me to draw some conclusions. Firstly, there’s this piece in the DT which caught my eye:

 “Rats and foxes chewing Christmas parcels piled up outside Royal Mail depot, claims union – Thousands of undelivered items said to be exposed to vermin and elements as strike action continues” (paywalled link)

Yes, alright, I confess: the photo of that well-nourished fox on top of mail sacks was indeed the eye-catcher. I believe you can see it even if you are not a DT subscriber. However, the interesting point here is that the report came from union members:

“CWU officials have told The Telegraph that piles of undelivered post are being left outside depots, exposing parcels and letters to the elements and leaving foxes and vermin free to eat through packaging.” (paywalled link)

The aim of those officials is obvious: we’re not getting our Christmas mail because rats and foxes are eating them – and that’s the fault of the Royal Mail bosses! These strikes have been going on for some time now and I do wonder why negotiations haven’t brought results. Is it the fault of yon Royal Mail bosses – or of the Trade Union CWU leaders?

There’s of course the NHS strike tomorrow. The Times reports that:

“In an unprecedented intervention Dame Ruth May, chief nursing officer for England, has written to Pat Cullen, head of the Royal College of Nursing, to say many nursing leaders feel “let down by the RCN”. […] The letter, co-signed by her counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, urges the union to do more to protect patient safety during the walkouts on Thursday and next Tuesday. It suggests the union’s refusal to fully staff acute hospital wards and A&E units means patients could miss out on lifesaving treatment such as antibiotics, which must be given promptly to prevent death from sepsis and other severe infections.” (link, paywalled)

That is pretty strong language, especially given the current situation where children are seriously ill and even dying from Strep A. There’s worse:

“The letter to Cullen warns that dying patients needing palliative care may have to go without pain relief medication on Thursday, and seeks assurances that the RCN will act to “alleviate unnecessary distress for patients”. […] The chief nurses are also critical of the RCN’s refusal to exempt mental health services, including crisis care for children, from the strikes.”  (link, paywalled)

These chief nursing officers are apparently also members of the nurses’ trade union. Thus their letter, urging the Boss of the RCN to negotiate, looks a bit like the report of ‘vermin eating mail’, i.e. the foot soldiers and perhaps even their ‘officers’ are not happy with the stance of their generals who are bent on continuing their strikes. 

And then there’s the railway strike … The DM has a series of reports on this one. Have a look at their main report, under this headline:

“It’s beginning to feel a lot like…. LOCKDOWN: Furious businesses blast rail strike boss Mick Lynch for ruining Christmas with high streets deserted, restaurants facing ruin, workers missing out on wages and staff forced to WFH” (link)

I recommend this article not for the brilliant reporting but because there’s a very useful image of a calendar for December, depicting the days when strikes are taking place. You’ll have to scroll down a bit. It supports the claim that we’re facing a lockdown. The report also points out that many of those who would feel the full impact of yon strike are now WFH. Apparently, the various trade union bosses have not taken into account that the nation has learned to accommodate their working life to strikes thanks to the lockdown experience.

 The DM has two other reports, one documenting that the trade union members’ support for the rail strike is ‘slipping away’:

“Some 36.4 per cent of RMT members at Network Rail who voted did not follow the union leadership’s advice to reject a 9 per cent pay deal. A total of 63 per cent of voting members backed the walkouts – which entered their first day today – compared to 91 per cent before.” (link)

A rise of 9% is not sufficient? Hm. There’s also an opinion piece by Ross Clark in the DM where he points out that Mr Lynch, the trade union boss, is so rattled by the slipping support for this strike that he attacked journalists. This slipping support might presumably be because his members “have lost around £4,000 each as a result of this year’s action.” (link) – a pretty hefty sum, especially given inflation and exorbitant energy bills. Mr Clark writes:

“It is odd to think that just a few months ago Lynch was being hailed as an unflappable and eloquent voice of reason, someone who was supposed to elucidate the feeling of the working population everywhere. Today, with his crumbling popularity, he is more like a flailing Arthur Scargill during the 1984/85 miners’ strike which ended in disaster for union members.” (link)

You might like to read the whole piece. These reports show me that the members of those unions are getting impatient with their bosses who all have rather better incomes than their foot soldiers. These foot soldiers will also have noticed that the general public, i.e. us peasants, are supportive up to a point but do not understand that yon bosses seem hellbent on creating an image of ‘we workers stand against horrid Tories, fighting to the last penny’, unwilling to compromise, at a time when everybody has to make compromises in their daily lives.

Moreover, when the Surgeon can crow about having successfully averted a strike by giving the nurses 7% pay rise – not 19%! –  people are asking if yon trade union bosses believe their intransigence will really help Labour into No 10. What is surprising is that Labour is so very silent. Wouldn’t Starmer profit from publicly telling yon union bosses to get back to the negotiating table and work out a compromise? Or is he frit of yon bosses because they have given millions to Labour’s election coffers?

People know that any pay rise in the public sector will have to come out of their wallets. Taxation is already sky high. Does Labour, do the trade union bosses want to go back to the times when taxation was at 90%? Are we perhaps witnessing an overreach which might cost Labour that election victory they so crave?

I leave you with ‘footie’ news. Today France plays Morocco. The previous Moroccan matches were accompanied by riots in Belgium and Paris. So now see this:

“A Paris official on Tuesday asked for the Champs-Elysees to be closed for Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final clash between France and Morocco, fearing “the world’s beautiful avenue” could turn into a “battlefield” with scenes of “civil war” after the high-stakes encounter. Paris says it will mobilise 2,000 police across the city during the game but Jeanne d’Hauteserre, the local mayor of the 8th arrondissement – where the Champs-Elysees is based – called the number “insufficient”. On CNews, she said: “When you want to celebrate victory, you don’t come with mortars. But these people are really only coming to smash with iron bars. For Wednesday, everyone is afraid of a war, a guerrilla war, a civil war, and we do not want the Champs-Elysees to be transformed into a battlefield.” (paywalled link)

May I humbly suggest that, win or lose, there’ll be riots anyway. At least they can’t be blamed on white English hooligans.

Enjoy the enforced strike lockdowns and remember: anything which can get worse will get worse. Have a good day anyway, as best you can while you can.



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