The Rusty Wire Service

Leverage: a very elastic term, ambivalent even. When banks use it, they usually mean debt but when trade unionists talk about leverage, the word assumes an altogether higher purpose, or, depending on one’s perspective; it becomes a euphemism for intimidation. The news recently that strikers at the Ineos-owned Grangemouth refinery had targeted the homes of managers for public protests raised some interesting questions about the changing nature of industrial disputes. Predictably however, the media circus has largely focused on links between the Grangemouth strike and Unite’s machinations in the selection of Labour’s Falkirk candidates. I suppose one shouldn’t blame the journalists who live in Westminster for wishing to keep the focus of the story on what is essentially just another dreary power struggle between the Labour Party and its biggest backer; who would presumably (and probably not unreasonably) like to see some value for money. After all, what have these plump, ...