Francis Maude presents himself as a man trying to help the unions out in today’s Financial Times. Some unions say they have to go ahead with strikes on November 30 – even
though negotiations on pension changes are still going on – or else they’d lose their mandate for any future strikes and have to conduct a whole new ballot.
Wagging an almost parental finger, Maude tells the unions:
But he’s clear that it must be a token strike and no more, again couching his warning in ‘it’s for your own good’ terms:‘You shouldn’t have got yourself into this mess but we’re willing to help you out because we want to protect the public. I can’t imagine any employer in the public sector would say if you have a token strike of a quarter of an hour during the day which doesn’t affect public services, you lose a day’s pay.’
‘The public will find it absolutely intolerable if on November 30 public services are severely disrupted by strike action about negotiations which have not yet been completed and where the public is increasingly sympathetic to the government’s case.’
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