Supporting staff during a strike

Isn't that missing the point of a strike: If one supports it, surely one would not cross the picket line, (let's assume all stations are actually picketed instead of just Edgeware Road and anywhere a TV crew is in evidence.) Isn't using an alternate means of transport "get around" the protest "cheating" so the conclusion is if one supports the strike, one would simply stay at home for the day and/or man the ramparts with the strikers.

Conversely, how would a passenger show they don't support the action...?
* Go and have a debate with a picket (if you can find one.)
* Cross the picket line and use whatever service is available.
* Whine about it with the Internet/TV phone in/newspaper/MP.

Today, I've travelled by an alternative route, which is costing me more. Tomorrow, when my colleagues are also on an unrelated strike, I've booked a day of annual leave. To show my support for tube workers, I've been busy whining about it on bulletin boards and putting right any of my colleagues who moan about "bloody strikes - should be banned"... "they get paid enough already"... in other words, informing the ignorant.

Maybe this is a simplistic view but I don't see how severely inconveniencing the travelling public will save ticket offices.

I have sent the following e-mail to my (Tory) GLA member:

Dear Mr Malthouse


Automation of urban rail transport

As you know, the Docklands Light Railway is automated whilst the Tube is manned. Are there safety issues with deep level tubes, which do not apply to overhead systems, that require manning? (I doubt it: wasn’t the Victoria line built for automatic operation all those years ago?)

What proposals for automating the Tube system do you expect to see in the next Conservative Mayoral candidate’s manifesto?

yours faithfully

I wrote this because I think the Mayor has a duty to explain to us why he has chosen this particular method of saving money. I am sure that Crow would also call a strike if the Tube (or even only the Victoria line) drivers were disposed of but I doubt it would have the support the present action appears to have.

Safety concerns? How many people refuse to use the DLR because the trains have no drivers? Yes, they have conductors, but I don't suppose they're paid half of what drivers earn. Perhaps I should also have asked Malthouse how much the fares would have to go up by in order to achieve the result BoJo wants, by natural wastage. Or even what needs to be done to make the Tube a privatizable asset. At the very least I see no harm in bombarding his GLC cronies with questions of this sort.

I suspect that there are very few people outside the industry in question who feel competent to judge the merits of a union's case, or how it's pursuing it, in any case of industrial action. We default to whether we think that striking is ever justified - and that default is probably shaped by our parents as much as anyone else.