Strikes will divide more than unite

MORE than a million public sector workers will strike today primarily over pay and pensions disputes.

Six of the United Kingdom's largest unions will be represented in the strikes which are likely to cause public services to grind to a halt and lead to trouble for millions more private sector employees.

There is still a culture among many union members in Britain that anyone who does not support action of this scale is a bourgeois class traitor. This view, however, fails to take into account the changing structure of the British working classes, with public sector workers rapidly becoming a class of their own.

Figures used by the Labour Party's largest backer, Unite, from a Survation poll claim to show mass public support for the strike action. On closer examination, however, the data is not so clear cut. As with any poll leading questions and limited selection criteria for respondents can lead to skewed results.

In defence of the action TUC general secretary Frances O'Grady said: "Across the public sector workers are on strike today to say enough is enough.

"Year after year pay has failed to keep up with the cost of living."

What many have not looked at, however, is the practical impossibility of creating a fair wage which meets the living wage. As wages increase then so to must prices to allow for the increased costs. Thereby an inflationary spiral is created forcing the living wage ever higher. For public sector workers this may not be an overwhelming concern. Their feeling is that they can always strike again if they need to pressure the government into paying them more.

Millions of private sector workers on the minimum wage, zero hour contracts and uncertain employment futures don't have the luxury of blackmail to raise their pay though. It is these people who have been forgotten and yet will be most affected if the strikers achieve their aims.

Obviously not all public sector workers support strike action, however, their voices have a tendency to be drowned out by the drum beating of the leadership.

Prime Minister David Cameron has proposed new legislation to ensure that all union members have a say in future strike action.

Speaking to reporters Mr Cameron highlighted teacher's union NUT and its use of a two year old ballot to justify current action: "I think the time has come for setting a threshold," he told the House of Commons at prime minister's questions. "I mentioned the NUT strike earlier, the strike ballot took place in 2012. It's based on a 27% turnout. How can it possibly be right for our children's education to be disrupted by trade unions acting in that way? It is time to legislate and it will be in the Conservative manifesto."

Knowing that legislation requiring the majority of members, rather than just those who turn up, to vote in favour would severely damage the ability to take unilateral action has scared the union leaderships.

Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, in a demonstration if his lack of knowledge of a multi-party electoral system, attacked Mr Cameron's proposal to rework strike laws. 

"The whiff of hypocrisy coming from Cameron as he harps on about voting thresholds is overwhelming," he said. "Not a single member of his cabinet won over 50% of the vote in the 2010 election, with Cameron himself getting just 43% of the potential vote."

Despite all their claims of worker solidarity the powerful unions have shown that they only care for a small proportion of the British public. Rather than uniting workers if this latest action succeeds then it is likely to widen the gap within society and lead many in the private sector to long lasting economic decline.