another letter from RM

[Halfhappy]

We're not losing public support.

Just about every customer I had come to the door this morning told me that they were supporting us. Same on the picket line, the amount of teas, coffees, chocolate etc that the public are giving us is surprising. Especially this close to Christmas.

I only remember one customer getting a bit stroppy with us last Thursday. She came in yesterday and apologised, gave us a box of Quality Street.

We are supported, up here at least.

In RM parlance the "customer" is the one paying for not receiving the item.

Yeah, well, we both know what I mean.

Agreed, but the receiving customer isn't paying RM so their support isn't particularly useful. Turning the dispute into a Gov/country issue was and is a mistake which isn't going to helpful individuals in RM. It's turned into a giant pixxxxx competition now not only against RM but also with other unions to see who gets the "best" settlement.

Where I agree with the semantics of customer and public, I think my opinion on support maybe differs. Having public support is one less hurdle. A lot of effort is put in to demonise strikers, and their unions, whether they be railworkers, or nurses, or posties, etc... We're called 'militant' our elected union leaders called 'barons' and 'bosses', its a continuous tirade negative connotations. There is clearly an advantage to an employer crushing public support for strikers. Its for this reason I believe we're about to see more of a push back by from RM in the media. Having said that, they're doing a damn awful job up to now, especially with the £1.7b gaffe. I think all strikers are going to up against this, in force.

Unfortunately, I think this is very much a dispute that has turned into a government issue, just by being part of the swathe of IA sweeping over this country. I don't think unions are competing with each other, I've seen nothing to point to that, in fact I've heard quite the opposite, with talk of coordination being planned. I do, however, think every union is watching to see a win. Once one wins, the cascade of Union support will explode.

The worry I have is the more protracted these disputes become, the more this support will ebb, within the public. I'm sort of erring to thinking that's the gameplan. The willingness to allow strikes to go ahead, not just with RM, but with all the different employers (government included), across the whole myriad of disputes, makes me think this is the case.