|
|
Article: Direct action gets things done: so why don't the trade unions try it? `Today's trade union leaders have lost the fire in their bellies. But a tougher generation is coming'
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- September 15, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2000 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
|
A PENNY for the thoughts of a sacked Liverpool docker, or those of
a Llanwern steelworker facing an uncertain future in the globalised
economy. Or a unionised Halifax textile worker, powerless to affect
the waves of recent mass redundancies.
All three might have spent the last week listening to the
deliberations of the TUC, whose annual conference has just ended in
Glasgow. More likely, they spent it scrabbling around for petrol,
marvelling at the bravura of the un-unionised truckers and small
farmers - and also at the seeming impotence of their own unions.
And pity the ex-miner tending his allotment in a half-forgotten
pit village in south Yorkshire. Hindsight tells him that Arthur ...