Thought for the Day

My journey to the studio in Bristol made that much easier by the teachers' strike, and observing the Breakfast team managing to avoid all the pitfalls available because the show was discussing gay marriage and cruises on the same day, here is my thought about workers' rights:

'There are certain jobs where striking should not be allowed. Public sector workers should forfeit the right to strike.'

This comment from the BBC Radio Bristol Facebook page yesterday. On the face of it it makes sense.

Some occupations can make life dreadful by striking. Tube drivers can hold London to ransom. I remember the winter of discontent in the 1970s. Refuse remained uncollected. Bodies unburied.

Airport baggage handlers. Nurses. Fire fighters. Ambulance drivers. Employees in the power industry. And, of course, teachers. Each can cause misery.

Christians should not be in the business of shouting for their own rights. But we should shout loudly for the rights of others. Have we taken the trouble to listen to the grievances of our teachers?

A strike is a last resort. All lose. The employer loses its workforce. The workforce loses its pay. The customer loses the service.

Asked to comment on the development of a Trades Union for armed forces personnel, Lord Dannatt, when Chief of the General Staff, said:

'In my book, looking after individuals should naturally be a principal duty of the chain of command, and I was determined to make the group's existence superfluous.'

I love that. I will make my employees pay and conditions so good they will never need their union.

We don't notice that the crematorium staff are getting quietly on with their work, or that the electricity flows when the kettle is turned on.

Maybe we should notice our service-sector employees more?

Seven centuries before Jesus the prophet Amos spoke out that his people trampled on the heads of the poor and denied justice to the oppressed.

So if there are certain jobs where striking should not be allowed, who should decide?

Up in the Air

What's the job no-one likes? Firing people. So Ryan Bingham, (George Clooney) in this smart movie, plays a nation-circling businessmen who has the job of doing the job no-one likes. And he does it well. He fires people for a living, telling them just the right words to calm them down but never getting emotionally involved. He is aiming for an award from the airline he frequents for miles travelled. On one plane journey he is asked where he comes from and he looks around and says, 'Here.' He spends over 300 days a year away from home. His flat looks emptier than a hotel room. His family don't really know him.

Natalie (Anna Kendrick), a young, female employee straight from business school, joins his company and comes up with a plan for Skype-firing people. This puts Bingham's job on the line but he persuades his boss that she needs to go on the road with him to learn the ropes. She appears more emotionally detached even than Bingham but is looking for love in her private life and has followed a boyfriend to her current home town. Bingham falls for another globe-trotting executive, Alex (Vera Farmiqa), as a casual relationship turns serious.

This is a serious movie (from Jason Reitman, the Director of Juno) with great observation about life, some funny moments and many ponderable quotes. Bingham's firm does well in a recession but we see lots of interviews with those who have lost their jobs, wondering what they are going to do, how they will tell the kids etc. Some of the more poignant moments are simply shots of rooms full of unwanted desks and chairs, or open plan offices where work stations have been removed.

At a time of crisis everything can go up in the air. Bingham asks his interviewees, not particularly sincerely, 'Are you going to make this the start of your dreams?' He promises support and follow-up but then disappears as quickly as possible. He knows it's a hollow promise.

All he wants is their desks cleared and their passes handed back.

One interview leads to disaster. When Bingham is asked if he can remember anything unusual about it (we can) he says no. Is this his genuine memory? Has he so distanced himself that nothing strikes him as extraordinary as he delivers the news that wrecks lives? Or is he covering?

What is the value of a human being?
Where do you come from?
How do you handle crisis moments and turning points?
If you are to be made redundant, how would you like it to happen?
From what do you emotionally detach in order to do your job?

Five star first act; four star the rest. See it.