torpids....
Any industrial action will have to be presented honestly, but providing provision of people to NERC isn't affected, which could lead to accusations of "NERC ain't gonna open because the staff weren't cooperative" (untrue), then IPMS and it's members have little to fear.
As for the strikes of the 1970's, well do YOU remember the Fire Fighters strike? No? Well let me enlighten you. The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) had forged an agreement with the Home Office and Local Authority Employers to bring it's members wages up to a reasonable level by an inflation plus index. They had to do this because recruitment and more importantly retention (sound familiar?) were becoming a serious problem.
In 1978 the agreement was unilaterally recinded by the "employers" with the excuse that "we could never have afforded it anyway" and government policy has changed. It was insinuated that the FBU knew this all along (Still sound familiar??)
Cue the six week strike. Well, the FBU won. They went back, on MUCH better terms than the original agreement and (thankfully) we haven't had a national FireFighters strike since then.
Yes there were other disputes, but I see a lot in common here, not least of which is the root cause. Appalling inept management.
Rgds BEX