so there was a big nationwide council workers strike today. and although i’m a council employee, i’m not a member of the union which called the strike, nor did i strike in solidarity. to be perfectly honest, i have mixed feelings over the whole thing.

on the one hand, i believe strongly in the right of workers to unionise. i think it’s a much needed tool of empowerment for those workers whose needs are otherwise marginalised or ignored. to someone making minimum wage, who would otherwise be at the mercy of unethical labour practices, the union is a symbol of strength and protection. “the little guy” always has a voice, no matter how low on the totem pole.

on the other hand, i feel as though over here, in a more socialised political landscape, the unions are so broad, so noisy, so constantly confrontational, as to be counterproductive. they often seem to me, to be spouting the political rhetoric of one party or another, and the idea of workers rights becomes subsumed when they are used to further a party’s agenda. they play a very different role here in the uk, because employees rights are already so well enshrined in law that there’s really very little need to protect “the little guy”. even in the private sector, the employee has so many rights and protections that oftentimes organisations are afraid to sack someone for poor performance, because the employee will just seek compensation via the tribunal system. so when the omnipresent unions start making demans *on top* of what seems to me to be a very generous system already heavily weighted in the worker’s favour… well it just seems like they’re taking the piss.

the issue at the heart of today’s strike was about protecting employee pensions. currently, council workers are entitled to retire at 60 with a full pension – a benefit which is being threatened in much the same way that social security is collapsing: a demographic skew of older workers living longer and fewer young workers paying into the system. but the fact of the matter is that nothing the government does is going to change that reality. it may not be fair, but that’s the way it goes. and i suppose i come from a generation where we don’t expect the government to take care of us in our old age. and we definitely don’t rely on it. that’s sheer folly. i’ve been hearing about social security now since the reagan years – it’s nothing new. and big pension schemes in the states have been imploding for years. pensions don’t work anymore. they’re a relic of an age when people carved out their careers over 20+ year with the same company, then retired at 62 and died within the next 12 years. we all know it doesn’t work that way any more. to expect the same structures to support an entirely different weight, without anyone taking a hit, is ludicrous.

if I thought the cause was just, i’d support it. or even if i thought the strike would accomplish its aims, i’d support it. but all strikes seem to do lately is engender distaste for the cause, anger for the workers and public, and distraction from the real problem at hand. people aren’t angry at central government; they’re angry at the workers who kept the schools and services closed. they don’t support the idea of solidarity for social change; they’re irritated at the inconvenience and power games.

so i didn’t strike today, and i’m not sure i ever will. i’m no norma rae. but then again, this ain’t no 1970s textile mill, either.

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council workers strike, pensions scheme