Public sector strikes

The Winter of Discontent, Christian socialist solidarity, taking patients hostage, and slaves and masters

The UK is currently gripped by a wave of strikes from public sector employees – nurses, teachers, postal workers, train drivers, paramedics, and soon junior doctors too. But this raises complex ethical questions. Few Christians would deny it is legitimate for private employees to withhold their labour in order to demand better pay or conditions, but it is not the governmental employers who will suffer in public sector strikes but patients, students and ordinary citizens. In this first part of our conversation we discuss the origin of striking as a tactic, the history of how British law does or does not permit certain professions to go on strike, and the complexities of healthcare workers in particular walking off the ward, while maintaining (or not) their legal duty of caring for vulnerable patients.

There are two strong Christian traditions when it comes to robust political or industrial action such as strikes. One argues for enduring oppression and unfair employment in the manner of Jesus and points to Paul’s teaching in the Bible on slaves and masters. But a second position throws its weight behind efforts to challenge injustice and protect the vulnerable, noting Jesus’s clear teaching on care for the widow, orphan and stranger. In this episode we consider these two strands of Christian thinking and how they end up being applied, sometimes poorly, to the question of public servants going on strike. And is there a third response to the paralysis and conflict which has erupted in British society – the distinctively Christian virtue of reconciliation?

The Christian Medical Fellowship blogs by junior doctors on whether to strike can be found here: Should Christian doctors strike? No and Should Christian doctors strike? Yes

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