Why the post strike is an epic Karma fail
by Mat Morrisroe of Culture Karma
This is not a political blog, much less a party political blog. But if companies and brands are part of society then so are other types of organisations – so I don’t think it’s going too far for us to talk about the Communications Workers Union and the postal strike and why, in my opinion it’s an epic Karma fail.
Firstly let me get this straight, I’m not opposed to industrial action. A good employer-employee relationship is a partnership, but even the best partnerships have their downs as well as ups so both parties need some recourse for when the other partner is abusing the relationship. Employers have a wide range of disciplinary measures they can deploy so it’s only right that employees have their own measures too. So we’re clear: I’m not against striking.
But what we see in the UK is industrial inaction. This is not the place to go into the details of this dispute, and for the sake of this blog we’ll assume that the postal workers are sincere in their claim that they’re trying to protect the mail service. But even so, nothing says “I want to work but I’m withdrawing my labour in the best interests of society” like standing round a flaming barrel eating a scotch egg.
Here’s the rub: I don’t think the public really buy the “we want to work but we’re doing it to protect services” line, and why should they? It looks lazy, it is lazy really and it’s holding the punters to ransom in order to exert pressure on the employer. Are you really looking to protect the public interest, or are you looking to leverage the public?
So I propose a new way of taking industrial action that would make a point and demonstrate that those taking action really are sincere. Here’s an alternative. Turn industrial inaction into positive action. Do something.
In France, when their transport workers take industrial action they go into work as normal, run the network, but refuse to take any payment from the public. They provide the service and don’t disrupt everyone else’s day – but they get the point across to their employers where it hurts. So that’s one option that has to be better than striking.
But how’s about this for an option? If you really want to make your point and you really do want to work – and you really are doing it for the good of us all – then why not take your labour and use it elsewhere? Take your labour and use it in the community. Take on a project in the community, go and paint some old people’s houses or do their gardens, give a carer a day off, get rid of some graffiti… take on any one of a number of projects that a group of people could do in a day if they applied themselves. Would that not be good karma? And which plays better in the public eye?
1) Standing around a brazier smoking tabs and cheering whenever a car drives past and honks? Or
2) Inviting cameras to see the workers taking positive action in the community, because “we want to work but reasons x, y and z mean that we’ve been forced to withdraw our labour”?
Maybe striking is lazy – not in the sense of being workshy, but mentally lazy. It’s a lazy approach. It’s lazy thinking.
So my challenge to the CWU is to become karma-positive. If you really must strike in the run-up to Christmas then why not take positive action with your time? No-one ever won hearts and minds with a placard, but if you help some poor old dear with her shopping she’ll back you all the way. We could call it Strikecorps or something.
