Wildcat Strikes
Feb. 2nd, 2009 01:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fiat_knoxI heard a news article, yet to be confirmed in print anywhere so far, that Gordon Brown has actually "ordered" the striking workers of the Lindsey Oil Refinery to get back to work.
Seriously. I thought that the only way he could issue such an order was if he was the boss - and that means the plant would have to be a nationalised governmental installation.
As far as I can tell, the refinery is run by a private corporation, with no ties to the government whatsoever. If the CEO of the owners told the workers to honour their contracts and return to work, well they would have do, or face unemployment.
But as far as I can tell, Gordon Brown is not among the Board of Directors, and he has no power over these strikers.
What can he do? Send in the Army? Have them round up striking workers, drag them out of their homes and their beds, or pull them off school runs and haul them all in chains back to the refinery, to work there in manacles with jackbooted soldiers pointing guns at their heads?
All he can do is pout and stamp his feet. He could use force, though ... but then, we're expecting that to happen anyway.
And that is what the opposition are waiting for: the monumental Brown cockup that destroys his career.
Seriously. I thought that the only way he could issue such an order was if he was the boss - and that means the plant would have to be a nationalised governmental installation.
As far as I can tell, the refinery is run by a private corporation, with no ties to the government whatsoever. If the CEO of the owners told the workers to honour their contracts and return to work, well they would have do, or face unemployment.
But as far as I can tell, Gordon Brown is not among the Board of Directors, and he has no power over these strikers.
What can he do? Send in the Army? Have them round up striking workers, drag them out of their homes and their beds, or pull them off school runs and haul them all in chains back to the refinery, to work there in manacles with jackbooted soldiers pointing guns at their heads?
All he can do is pout and stamp his feet. He could use force, though ... but then, we're expecting that to happen anyway.
And that is what the opposition are waiting for: the monumental Brown cockup that destroys his career.
