MIG ) gurgled happily, sounding much like
they were saying :

RMT member, are you?

No. I wish I was a member of a union that looked after its members'
jobs and pensions

Which is exactly what a union should do.

rather than one whose general secretary gave my membership fees to New
Labour in order to secure a knighthood.

Which is exactly what many of the big-name ones do, 'tis true.

You may wish that unions didn't exist

Not at all.

but if they do, they should do their job.

Indeed.

Most of them just toady to and help to fund the party that is working
against their members' interests, but I don't see them being abused here.

That's because they don't cause the chaos to millions that this idiot takes
delight in doing whilst chasing the physically impossible.

FWIW, this strike has very nearly lost SWMBO a temp contract. If the job
was in the centre of town, she would have had to turn it down, losing a
couple of weeks pay. Fortunately, it's in a suburb about half way in to
town from this side and they can arrange parking, so she's driving in. If
she'd turned it down, the healthcare charity it's with would have had great
difficulty in producing several of their publications this month.

D'you see the kind of knock-on effect these strikes have?

What possible benefit can RMT members get from this? The other unions
involved have accepted the assurances as being the best that it's
physically possible to give.