"Then again, if you are not rich enough (sure you are, by the comments you write) you will have to be a second class citizen!"
yes the right to strike was a milestone in the development of modern societies. But let's not get into the meaningless propaganda:
if you are not rich enough: what is rich enough? rich enough to buy a villa in LAX? reach enough to live in another country but work in the UK, commuting and living a lifestyle that to many is a dream?
My mother was a cleaner, she worked 12 hours a day to provide for our family, my father was unable to work. When I was 13 I used to help her after school and on Sundays. We were not poor and we were not middle class. We helped our neighbours when they had nothing to eat (and it did happen quite often) because we could and it was the right thing to do, because when you are poor and believe in values, you believe that you help each other, and you help those worst off. We were left wing because we believed (as a family) that left wing was about workers, was about looking out for those in the lower class. By all means my background has nothing to do with the dispute and I cannot claim the prize for the one with the poor background. HOWEVER when I see certain arguments being used I cannot but want to put this dispute in its context.
The cabin crew job was a job regarded as aspirational, the life style it offered was a dream. It was a job that only few could aspire to, let alone get. Those who were cabin crew had their own house and could not be defined poor by a long stretch of the imagination. The new contracts might be different, but this strike is not about the new contracts, this strike is about the changes in crew numbers. This has been underlined many times.
Cabin crew have the right to strike to maintain T&C. That's a fact. Cabin crew are not the worst off social category that we need to fight for. That's another fact. The social issues of poverty and second class citizenship will not be fought by trying to maintain the privileges of few categories (the economist rightly points out who can afford to go on strike).
So let's be clear: this is not a white knight in a shiny armour in the form of Unite who has come to the rescue of poor second class citizens. This is not about changing the mechanisms of poverty and opening new opportunities for poor people. This is about fighting to maintain a lifestyle and T&Cs that were agreed in a time when being cabin crew was glam and aspirational. It is their right as we said. But if we want to use propaganda, it is also the management right to look after their own T&Cs and privileges including high pay (as Unite keeps on pointing out). Anybody spots the analogy??
