Ringa Ringa Roses (Strikes!)

2008-10-04T11:47:00.000-07:00

14 years in service and I have lost count of the number of times I've struck work. Correction: forced to strike work. The number of colleagues participating in the masochistic drill, being ordered at alarming frequency of late, easily runs into lacs, well, almost a million. And surely there have to be grave reasons for such unreasonable acts? Your ubiquitious union leader should have the answer. The list suspiciously reads like a Marxist's/Leninist's/Maoist's favourite list of recipes. Computerisation, Liberalisation, Privatisation, Merger, Outsourcing, Inflation, Wage Revision.... Or can you think of a better one?

Folks, If you have taken enough care, there is a common refrain to nearly all of their issues. Lets see what some of these 'flagrant issues' mean to the common banker and their enlightened guiding angels:

Probable Issue of Strike	What it means to the Union Leader	What it means to the average banker

Computerisation	Loss of Power	Participte or Perish!

Liberalisation	Loss of Power	Participte or Perish!

Privatization	Loss of Power	Participte or Perish!

Merger	Loss of Power	Participte or Perish!

Outsourcing	Loss of Power	Participte or Perish!

Inflation & Other Policies of the incumbent government.	Loss of Power: How come they are not the Government itself?	Participte or Perish!

Wage Revision	Loss of Power: If the bank management had gumptions enough to fix up the wages right away, what would we do?	Participte or Perish!

Reminds one of the popular nursery rhyme:

Ringa Ringa Roses
Pocket full of Poses
Husha Busha!
We all fall down!

It is probably a less acknowledged fact that this innocuous sounding rhyme which can often flow from a toddler's lips has a grave reference. It has its origins in the great plague attacks of the 17th century Europe. The killer disease first bloomed as rosy rings of rashes on the bodies of unfortunate victims followed by frequent sneezing bouts. People carried poises in their pockets to ward of bad smell and thus the disease. No antidotes were available and people died in heaps due to the contagion.

Thus, we fall down again and again and yet again and carry home lesser and lesser and still lesser salaries.

Surely the Better Bankers' Journal

Ringa Ringa Roses (Strikes!)