Strikes

So British Airways cabin crew staff have voted to strike and ruin mine (and thousands of other peoples trips). How nice and considerate of them. Not only are they threatening to walk out next week but they are also threatening to strike over the half term holidays. To me, that is very callous. People work very hard for their holidays and I think it’s disgusting when unions pick specific days when they know they can cause major disruption.

Don’t get me wrong, I do believe in unions and I do think that workers need a collective voice but it seems to me that a few unions hold all the power – and don’t they know it.

Take the RMT, they threaten to walk out all the time. The last time that had a strike it was because a tube driver went through a red signal, thus endangering all the passengers on board. That driver was recently reinstated. It seems that running a red signal is fine if you are a tube driver. Oh, and yes, there was the time when a driver was seen playing squash when he was meant to be on long term sick leave. Guess what? He was reinstated too.

I once saw one of the leaders of the RMT on the tube and I was sorely tempted to go and have a right old rant at him but what would that have achieved. People like him know how much power they hold and they abuse the system. Yes of course workers have the right to decent pay and terms and conditions but sometimes I think union representatives need to live in the real world. There is no job for life anymore and if you want a decent pension you’ll have to take out your own. I did and so did millions like me. It’s called working in the 21st century.

I once threatened to go on strike. I was 16 and working in Woolworths on Saturdays. I got the hump when they told me that I couldn’t wear black tights to work anymore. The supervisor (who had a moustache and very bad BO – a she) told me that I had to wear flesh coloured tights. I told her I would start wearing flesh coloured when they actually started making them (these were the days of American tan tights). She told me to take off my tights and put some new ones on and I refused. In the end she backed down (ha ha!) and I was allowed to continue to wear black tights.

Perhaps if I had been in the RMT union all the staff would have walked out and awarded pay rises as well as a unlimited supply of black tights….