The Budget

i know this is an ideological battle i'm unlikely to win

correct.

(but it has nothing to do with ideology)

but ultimately standing around outside your office complainign about it will piss people off, waste your own time, damage the income of your employer and steel the management/shareholders against you and make it more likely that things will get worse/ you'll still get made redundant.

Striking is the very very very last option (prior to killing your boss and burning down your workplace). No-one wants to strike. Ever. Not even "loony lefties" like me. It's horrible for you and everyone else. Everyone wants negotiation or other forms of action to succeed. All we want to do is perform decent work with dignity and fair treatment. However, sometimes striking is the only way to get a point across to management who won't listen and want to push their employees to the wire because they think they can get away with it.

Also, every single one of the things we take for granted (minimum wage, maternity/paternity pay, paid breaks, health and safety regs, equality in the workplace, anti-bullying/harassment regs, formal written contracts, protection for whistleblowers, abolition of child labour, i could go on and on and on and on...) were fought bitterly over and won by workers standing up for their and each other's rights. Although many have now become law through government, they were won by workers (usually unions) who demanded decent treatment at work. Often, these battles were won through strikes. Again, i'm sure no-one wanted to strike, but they felt that it was worth it.

Telling us that anyone who goes on strike for any reason should be sacked immediately is pissing on all the good things we take for granted at work. If you want to live in a hideous Dickensian dystopia where anyone who isn't lucky enough to be born into money is unlikely to live beyond 40 then be my guest, but don't impose it on the rest of us. Just move to Coventry instead ;)