In my view there is no cut and dried ‘yes' or ‘no' to this question. The proverbial ‘it depends' raises its metaphorical head in this context.
For me it depends on why they are taking action. I know others will say there is a principle here - either it is okay regardless of the reasons, or it is not. But there are a variety of reasons why people want to take unofficial action, some of which may indeed be in the interests of the employer. Take the case, for example, of healthcare workers trying to protect the financial position or even survival of a particular trust, or postal workers concerned about the survival of a universal postal service (and not just about their jobs).
Where I would be more hard-nosed, is if I see the unofficial strike as totally self-interested - that is, where employees benefit at the expense of the general public or consumers to further their own pecuniary or job protection interests, particularly now when so many people have been or are likely to be made redundant.
It is just not sustainable for workers today to demand higher wages (above the rate of inflation), their final-salary pension schemes to be retained or their jobs to be guaranteed when so many people have lost theirs and the economy is likely to take four to five years to recover to pre-recessionary times. When it is about collective bargaining that leads to a decision about official strike action, that is an entirely different matter, although it is still fundamentally essential for shop stewards and local union representatives to understand how important ‘realism' is in times of economic hardship.
In the difficult times we are going through, we all must think about our customers, suppliers, neighbours and communities when taking any kind of disruptive action. As the Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius (AD 161), wrote about taking action: "Go straight to the seat of intelligence-your own, the world's, your neighbour's. Your own - ground it in justice. The world's - remind yourself what it is that you're apart of. Your neighbour's- distinguish ignorance from calculation, and recognise it as like yours."
Cary Cooper is professor of organisational psychology and health at Lancaster University Management School
