Labour relations will always be delicate-the creative tension for growth demands that that should be so.Things will go wrong, sometimes unexpectedly, a surge of boredom or resentment, an unheard grievance or unanticipated slight,an injustice,an unfair dismissal.

A man should have the right to withdraw his labour in a dispute without having to lose his job,the owner to close his factory when the work is faltering and lay off excess workers; but to strike or to lock out is the final action and usually the least effective.

The union is an essential element in negotiating from experience and able to compare similar problems across different employers and places. The task is to represent the grievance, to communicate with management but also to reflect back the problem to the workers. The task is to reflect opinion but also to lead and shape it.

There needs to be a mechanism for negotiation , for “cooling off’ before industrial sanctions can bite e.g a 3 week gap between declaring a strike and its occurrence and a system of binding arbitration by a trusted and objective third party.

Perhaps positively the workers can provide valuable feedback upon the industrial process and the design and can suggest improvements, safety extras and an organised system of support in an accident-trained first aid workers, conscientious fire drills, procedures for emergency evacuation.