Businesses attack strike plans

It will be no surprise to hear that around two thirds of business leaders in the UK believe that strike activity in the short to medium term will severely impact upon the ability of the UK economy to recover. This is the first time that business leaders have spoken out en masse regarding strike activity as the unions continue to flex their muscles and take on the UK government. So will strike activity really have a major impact upon economic productivity in the UK?

Even though strike activity is perfectly legal and perfectly legitimate where the rules have been followed, and members have voted, it can have a major impact upon UK economic output. One course of strike action may have a minimal impact but over the last few months we have seen various unions working together to bring out their members en masse against everything from economy savings at British Airways to the introduction of new technology at the Royal Mail to pension issues in the public sector.

There is no doubt that the unions and the government are getting ever closer to a serious stand-off with rumours that David Cameron and his coalition partners are now ready to do a "Margaret Thatcher" and reduce the power of the unions in the courts.