Horses for courses

The effectiveness of any industrial action will depend to a large extent upon the tactics deployed and whether they increase leverage over the employers or government and whether they maintain or lose public support.

When workers strike against part of the state or government, the issue of public support is of more importance than when workers strike against a private employer. This is because the former create a political issue and public support helps this.

Meanwhile strikes against private employers are essentially economic where the point is to cause loss of revenue and profit to the employer - terms that do not equally apply to a public or state employer.

In mid-October, Unison members at Barnet Council in London held a second one-day strike against the proposed contracting out of services and job cuts. In order to get their message across to the public they used street theatre to demonstrate the dangers of council's plans to residents, services and staff.

Following this the strikers spent the rest of the day helping a local charity. The Unison branch also asked the council to give the money from the strikers' wages for that day to the mayor's charities - Barnet Young Carers and Siblings, the Outward Bound Trust and the Alzheimer's Society. These methods were used in addition to picket lines and leafleting members of the public.

The importance of these new methods is a recognition that to put pressure on the council public support needs to be maintained and mobilised because a strike against the council is a political strike. Indeed, the level of public support is the measure of which side is winning.

This strike tactic has been used since late May 2011 in the Southampton Council dispute but has not led to the breakthrough its advocates believed it would.

The tactic consists of a rolling and selective strikes which targets revenue generation like parking ticket inspectors and the provision of highprofile services like refuge collection on a week-by-week basis rather than having a series of one-day strikes or an all-out strike by all workers.

In the battle in the private sector by electricians to prevent significant pay cuts grass roots workers have begun demonstrating outside numerous construction sites.

One of the tactics deployed has been to mount blockades of construction sites to prevent required materials like concrete being taken on-site. Sites do not store much in the way of materials and so need to be brought on-site every day.

The resulting delays can affect building schedules and make companies vulnerable to surcharges. The tactic is a way for off-site workers to stop work without getting the on-site workers out on strike and it boosts collective confidence and capacity to fight exploatation.

Come the final showdown of December 7 when the electricians will face the option of either signing the new and vastly inferior contracts or the sack, such tactics will become vital because the ballot by Unite the Union at Balfour Beatty only covers one of the rogue seven companies trying to end the Joint Industry Board national agreement.

Elsewhere in the private sector, Unite has used "flashmob" protests against major retailers in order to put pressure upon the supermarkets to instruct their suppliers to either increase wages or grant union recognition.

In the transport sector, a tactic would consist of working but not collecting fares or checking tickets.

These new tactics - tested successfully in Canada, France, Germany and New Zealand in recent years - exist alongside conventional strike action. some help to mobilise for strike action while others are alternatives to strike action.

Indeed, bus drivers working in Luxembourg held a two-week protest in June this year whereby they grew beards or wore green wristbands to signal their discontent with working conditions of long working hours and lack of toilet facilities. The protest was to attract the attention of employers and the public without disrupting bus services.

This innovative thinking by unions today is a recognition by activists that there is more than one way to skin the proverbial big cat.

Gregor Gall is professor of industrial relations at the University of Hertfordshire.