oil refinery strikes

Updated 2 February 2009

A few thoughts on the refinery workers' strikes:

Twas amusing this weekend to hear Gordon Brown telling us that wildcat striking, and solidarity striking, is naughty and unhelpful - and hilarious to know that the hopeless twat is very likely to be hamstrung by solidarity striking in this instance.

Hope it hurts, Gordon.

I've been giving this notion of unofficial strikes some thought in the last couple of days, and enjoying it:

If these refinery strikes are taking place independently of unions and union organisation - and the fact they took place so quickly and effectively suggests that they are (where was the balloting, the notices of action, and appeals to strike committees?) - well, it strikes me that the great Gordon could be stuck for a palatable response.

Palatable to the masses, that is.

It all hangs on the independence - or otherwise - of those refinery workers, and their impressive industrial action, from formal union structures.

The thing is - I think Gordon will struggle to punish people who strike independently of formal union organisation. He'll certainly struggle to keep them in line as effectively as he would unions that proposed illegal actions like solidarity striking.

That goes for Labour affiliated unions in particular. Those who know the union movement know only too well that Labour-affiliated unions aren't inclined to stand up to Gordon for real. Apart from anything else, they've probably forgotten how. 

Labour-affiliated unions are as terrified as they ever were of fragging their 'special relationship' with Labour: that relationship with Labour is still the route to government for many highly-placed union bureaucrats - persons who hope to run for political office one day, and/or are prepared to prostrate themselves, and utterly compromise the union membership, to keep the PLP's ear. Have a chat sometime to Fremantle careworkers about the trouble they've had getting permission to strike from union chiefs recently.

Without a doubt, too, this hopeless romance with Labour is the main reason why big unions show such a passion for flattening popular grassroots union activists who have the sort of charisma that might stir the grassroots into the likes of wildcat or solidarity strike action.