Timing Your Strike Right

Now I understand why people feel the need to strike - it is an extreme, but sometimes effective, tactic in negotiations and conflicts between employee and employer. And I also understand how striking can be an effective publicity stunt - it brings attention to your cause, even if a lot of the attention is people shaking their heads and wondering why the hell you are bothering (which tends to be my default position with regards to strikes).

Like comedy, I suppose, the secret of great striking is timing. Which is why the Fire Service threatening to strike over Bonfire Night strikes me as an extremely dumb idea. Because, when you think about it for more than 2 consecutive seconds, this is clearly one of the nights when we need the Fire Service more than ever. It moves striking away from being a legitimate negotiation tactic and places it squarely in the negligence box. You're not going to get the best publicity for you cause if the end result of your strike is some kid getting his face burnt off in a Bonfire Night accident.

Still, given the striking union (lack of) intellect this hasn't appeared to occur to them:

FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said they had been left with no choice.

"The alternative is to allow London's firefighters to become doormats for their employers to walk on," he said.

Yeah... you've got no choice. You couldn't, say, strike on some of the other 360 plus days of the year now, could you? You dumb wanker.