I was at the test centre this morning and an instructor had had a test cancelled. I listened to the ensuing diatribe against the DSA – ironically, after the instructor who’d be cancelled had gone – by one very vocal individual.
I won’t repeat it here, but he blamed the DSA. He reckoned that if the driving test was run by someone else (who? DSA II? A private organisation? Many private organisations on a local basis?) it wouldn’t happen.
Just for clarification: the strikes have been called by the union. The fact that the union (PCS) that some DSA staff belong to is involved is primarily one of solidarity. That, and an overwhelming desire to have a strike because they haven’t had one for a bit. The DSA hasn’t done anything to provoke this strike – it’s about pensions and opposition to change, if anything.
And you’ve just got to see this. The BBC reports on the day of action. But look at this part:
Janice Godrich, the president of PCS, joined a picket line in Glasgow. She claimed there was strong support for the action.
She said: “We’ve just seen two people, after discussions with their colleagues, turn around and decide not to go into work.
“I have to say that I think all the scare mongering, and all the intimidation quite frankly, over the last few days – particularly from senior ministers – has not had any impact on people’s resolve.”
I’d just love to have heard precisely what it was the pickets and the people who turned round said to each other. And how it was said. But of course, Ms Godrich and PCS don’t like scaremongering and indimidation, do they?
Let’s face facts here. If you decide to go into work over something which has the profile this strike has had, and then turn around and go home because of the pickets “talking” to you, it isn’t because you’ve suddenly seen the light that you failed to see all the time before! Janice Godrich needs her head examining if she thinks anyone will swallow that.