May 6, 2009
Union activists are getting more extreme in their demands and the lengths they are willing to go to get what they want for their comrades.
We all know about the French unionists' penchant for boss-napping, but those in Eastern Europe are prepared to go further, in disturbing Saw-style tactics.
A Serbian union official at a textile factory chopped off his finger with a hacksaw and ate it in a protest over unpaid wages. "We, the workers have nothing to eat, we had to seek some sort of alternative food and I gave them an example," Zoran Bulatovic told newswire Reuters. "It hurt like hell."
In turns out that his act was one of chivalry as Bulatovic knew of a desperate single mother that was planning on hacking off her pinky. "I could not allow her to do that," he said nobley.
Encouragingly, Bulatovic said his comrades would postpone planned self-mutilations while talks with the government took place. As a negotiating tactic, it's not one which can be pursued indefinitely (at some point you will run out of fingers and toes), but it worked: the Serbian bigwigs have agreed a deal to pay the workers the outstanding money.
Guru wonders what form of extreme industrial relations is next. And should HR teams be given a crash course in how to apply tourniquets?
We all know about the French unionists' penchant for boss-napping, but those in Eastern Europe are prepared to go further, in disturbing Saw-style tactics.
A Serbian union official at a textile factory chopped off his finger with a hacksaw and ate it in a protest over unpaid wages. "We, the workers have nothing to eat, we had to seek some sort of alternative food and I gave them an example," Zoran Bulatovic told newswire Reuters. "It hurt like hell."
In turns out that his act was one of chivalry as Bulatovic knew of a desperate single mother that was planning on hacking off her pinky. "I could not allow her to do that," he said nobley.
Encouragingly, Bulatovic said his comrades would postpone planned self-mutilations while talks with the government took place. As a negotiating tactic, it's not one which can be pursued indefinitely (at some point you will run out of fingers and toes), but it worked: the Serbian bigwigs have agreed a deal to pay the workers the outstanding money.
Guru wonders what form of extreme industrial relations is next. And should HR teams be given a crash course in how to apply tourniquets?
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