Industrial action is a serious matter

| Tuesday September 7, 2010 00:00

This criticism was largely predicated on a unionism that seemed designed to merely negotiate wages and related workers' issues.  By this we do not belittle the importance of wage negotiations because the fight against poverty starts with the living wage as the bottom line.  We also recognise that unions must tackle the important issues of working conditions and labour relations.

But in this modern day and age, the trade union movement is called upon to play a meaningful role in the larger political environment. 

When union leaders announced that they would take this new responsibility seriously, we greeted the news with enthusiasm and looked forward to seeing them use their might to effect change.

However, we regret that we have noticed a disturbing trend within the trade union movement.  What is particularly perturbing is that the cancer is taking root when even a greenhorn workerist should be wary of it.  And they have the gall to flaunt it in public!

We refer to their puerile tendency to find disagreement over petty issues.  An example is that we hear public sector unions were planning a strike today.  Whether that strike goes ahead or flops, the question is at what stage did the public sector unions contemplate it?

The point is that while union leaders are free to exercise the right to strike, unionists must know that a decision to that end is not to be taken lightly.

We thought - and believe - that industrial action should be adopted only as a means of last resort after all other avenues have been exhausted.  This is because no matter how powerful they may be, unions do not exercise their power in a social and political vacuum.  It is thus foolhardy for public sector union leaders to call a strike as a first option.

The union leaders must appreciate that it is mainly poor people who depend on the goods and services produced and offered by their members.  Hence we urge them to exercise their power with maturity.

                                                               Today's thought

           'Where trade unions are most firmly organised, there are the rights of the people most respected.'

 - Samuel Gompers  (English born American labour leader and first President of the American Federation of Labor (AFL). 1850-1924)