How the media lost touch with ...

Not since the wage restraint of the 1970s or the mass redundancies of the 1980s has there been the prospect of a co-ordinated withdrawal of labour by the trade union movement. But such is the level of opposition to cuts in public services, changes in employment conditions and the loss of pension rights that the coalition government might well be on the point of provoking a demonstration of industrial action and trade union solidarity of a kind not seen for thirty years.

Plans are already in train for a possible mass walk-out on Thursday June 30 – more than a million union members including teachers, university lecturers, tax officers and countless other public sector workers are due to take part.

But a lot has changed since the rolling strikes of the 1970s and 1980s: the union movement faces not only much tougher legal restraints than in those earlier years but also a far different and potentially more hostile media environment.  Any mention of strike action produces predictable knee jerk headlines about a winter – or perhaps – summer of discontent and another outing for those grainy old photographs and television footage of rubbish piling up in the streets.

We’ve already had a taste of the kind of coverage that can be expected following the warning by the Business Secretary Vince Cable that if there is co-ordinate strike action it may lead to tougher trade union laws.

In this month's Radio Free Press podcast are three people who speak up for the trade unions, who seek to communicate on their behalf – Geoff Martin, Sian Jones and Francis Beckett.