Grangemouth, Life on Mars and having to learn about strikes again

Books and papers about industrial unrest have been happily gathering dust these years. But is it time to blow of the cobwebs? Strikes appear as popular as cop shows starring Philip Glenister, and just as reminiscent of the 1970s. Last week it was teachers, this week it is refinery workers at Grangemouth. Who knows? If we had a car, coal or iron industry worth mentioning perhaps their workers would be manning the pickets and barricades too.

The good folk of Grangemouth clearly have a genuine gripe about retirement incomes but is this dispute really all about pensions? My bet is that pensions are a catalyst, a lightning rod that has uncovered a whole load of other grievances. The management challenge is to understand what lies at the root and what can be done about it.

Part of the story might be that employees think it has become socially acceptable to stage walk outs. The dismay with Gordon Brown and his political elites may have reached the point where it helps push people into industrial action. Or is it something else that has happened at Grangemouth since Ineos took ownership? Although barely known in City or financial circles, Ineos is a huge company. It was founded, built quickly by acquisition, and is still run by the publicity shy Jim Radcliffe. Yet is management of industrial unrest one of the things this company has forgotten about? Did it know anything about it in the first place?

The Acas website is one place to start a refresher course. This paper from the International Labour Organisation is heavy, but many a strike might have been avoided if managers took the trouble to spend time and effort making intelligent preparations. The Crown Prosecution Service has this guidance, but the body of useful, readily available guidance and research looks thinner than it might be. Or am I missing something?

If you'd like a reminder of how ugly industrial relations can get in political and economic terms, bear in mind the fuss that accompanied the In Place of Strife White Paper published by Barbara Castle and the Labour Government in 1969. It asserted that: "There are necessarily conflicts of interest in industry. The objective of our industrial relations system should be to direct the forces producing conflict towards constructive ends. This can be done by the right kind of action by management, unions and Government itself. This White Paper sets out what needs to be done". In Place of Strife never became law. If it had, the Arthur Scargill and Maggie Thatcher story might have been very different.

For another perspective altogether you might read Tony Harrison's brilliant poem, called simply V. But read it only if you are OK with some of the coarser words that Anglo-Saxon has left the English language.