Why would anybody strike?

What’s the point of collective action, ie of unions and strikes?

My first job was in the textile industry in factories in the 70s. I never saw any action taken about pay but everyday was about fairness and respect.

The first 6 weeks at work were on a group graduate training course of amazing depth and variety. But each afternoon we’d have to spend a couple of hours on the sewing machines until we as a group could make 6 dozen pairs of shorts on a shift. Why? So we knew how hard it is to do what we were asking people to do everyday of every week. How important a bent needle is and getting it fixed immediately. Why your breaks were crucial and that a queue for tea was the end of the world.

Those training us knew we thought we were brilliant people who could do anything - so keeping our feet on the ground was a lesson we needed if we were to lead. When I later moved to the telecom industry, I had to work the telephone switchboard for a few hours to learn the same gritty lessons.

In Maltby (then a mining town near Rotherham) the factory boss was a guy called John Leake who brought home to me a deep lesson. Everyone in the factory loved him and would walk over hot coals for him. I asked everyone - why? The answer was so simple. Every morning he would walk in through the factory floors saying good morning to everyone and looking them in the eyes with a smile. He would stop and talk to someone, anyone occasionally.

And that was it. Demonstrating respect for the people who made his wages.

In Leicester, a trade union rep taught me a simple lesson. They were restructuring some ancient and inefficient working practices whereby men quality checked socks and women packed them. So both men and women could quality check and pack in one action (possibly then to the same pay). Supervising the department as a green graduate, I was standing talking to the factory manager and when I turned round the whole floor had quietly walked up behind us, just to make a point. It wasn’t about terms or training or money or….they just didn’t feel fully heard at a time of change. Without being heard they couldn’t make the minor adjustments which allowed them to do their jobs to the best of their abilities. Whereas I could hear some people, my actions did not reflect the pressure they felt from the changes they were going through. I was thinking and talking task not people. Collectively they brought that home by withdrawing their labour for 2 minutes. I was initially embarrassed, defensive, confused even. The union guy (John) and his wife (Cathy) both worked in the department and over beer at one of the many social club jollies, they enlightened me as to why they had to go that far. They’d tried conversations at work, at the bar, formally. I didn’t do anything differently until I felt the “jolt”.

So, as we go into a period of “discontent”, of requests for pay “rises”, please think about the framing of the media coverage and political coverage you watch and read, whatever the biases in any direction. Try framing your analysis through this question of respect and fairness:

“Have these people been treated with respect and what is it that is not being listened to, such that they have to resort to collective action to give someone a jolt ?”

My factory stories were in an era of job stability and people needed the job. My kids just quietly move jobs. So these people who stay and take action must really care and/or see no other option.

The bigger question for society, the question we should each ask ourselves is “How can we preempt the need for collective action or resignation? Who are we not listening to and why?