Crossing the line
Crossed my first picket line today, oooh... The BBC unions are having a strike over plans to make almost 4,000 people redundant.
I approached the main entrance from the front, a feeling of forboding, having not crosed a line before. Thoughts of what to expect a mixture of the miners strikes of the 80's and Carry on at your conveinience. The approach was relatively low of pedestrians, I figure people decided they didn't want to come in and cross the line. The line seen ahead being a few friendly looking people handing out flyers and chatting, oh scarey.
Proceeded round to the entrance to my building, noting the side entrance (the canteen entrance, damn, no canteen lunch for me) was similarly covered. I saw the line I had to cross, personally I'd wanted to stay home and work from there, but 'they' wouldn't let me. I saw faces I knew, does that make it easier or harder, I'm still undecided, but it kinda took away the "La, la, la, i can't see or hear you" option, in favour of a nod and pleasant smile and taking a flyer.
So, I made to to my desk, with no bruises, bad feeling or guilt about crossing the line, and I read all the way through the leaflet and agreed with most of it. Then I took the camera and took some shots of the line I'd been through (above) and the deserted BBC 'street', which is normally pretty busy by now.
What can I say in conclusion? It was a well mannered picket line, that gave me nothing to rant about, Damn! :-) Weirldly (?) the kind of picket line that makes you proud to be part of the BBC, standing up for what it believes, but not being offensive about it.