Q: What has a stone axe and striking got in common?

Answer: they're both outdated tools that ought to be bannished to history.

Royal Mail... British Airways... they all think that it is a good idea to stirke. I can only presume that their Union leaders are getting thick brown envolopes from UK mail, TNT and Virgin Airways because anyone who has two brain cells even vaguely in communication will be able to decern that such action will merely speed up the demise/privatisation of their companies.

Lets take the Royal Mail as most of the arguments here apply to both:
You're going to stirke... during the most busy time of the year (run up to Christmas). We know for certain that the Royal Mail isn't going to be making money hand over fist. If it was the the government wouldn't really care about modernising the company. They wouldn't be trying to make the RM take on different terms if they were already massively successful, the reason why they are looking to change the system is because it is not efficient and isn't making much money.

According to their own reports
(ftp://ftp.royalmail.com/Downloads/public/ctf/rmg 200809RM_Group_Accounts_May_2009.pdf)
The Royal mail lost £229,000,000 after tax. Nice.

Obviously this is how the mind of Mr RM Union leader is working:

Our company is loosing a lot of money.
They are now trying to modernise the company
This could lead to jobs losses!
There is only on thing to do stirke.
The workers come first!

The thing is Mr Union leader is labouring under a misapprehension. It appears he still thinks it is the 1970's.

In the 1970's the UK was unsure of what was best Communism or Free Market. We didn't know whether is was best to prop up inefficient companies with goverment money in order to ensure people keep their jobs or whether it was best to let the dying die and put the money to good use in new up coming industries that actually had a hope of turning a profit this side of eternity.

That was then, this is now. The Soviet Union has collapsed, the largest political land mass and all it had to show for it was a few potatoes and a few bags of cement. The country was so hideously ineffient it make 'its a knock out' look like a programme on transport efficiency. China, now one of the worlds largest economies has a backbone of Communism but still really blends in the benefits of free market capatalism. The 70's are over and so is the discussion. The most effective thing to do with companies that can't turn a profit is to modernise them so the can or if that proves impossible take the 'old horse' to the vet and have them put down.

Refusing to modernise when you are getting sub'ed by the government is now little more than saying "I could make the system work but screw it I'm getting a free ride off the tax payer so why bother". It is just not an acceptable scenario anymore and no one will put up with it. The governement know that, the public know that but for some reason the Unions don't. I guess they never got that memo.

I think the character of the RM Unions can be seen best in an interview between Andrew Marr and the CWU general secretary Billy Hayes. Apart from the fact he got every name wrong in the interview, even that of Andrew Marr himself, Mr Hayes made one point that demonstrates a bit of a lack of understanding:

"This is about a culture of management who seem to think in a democracy the workforce just have to do what they're told."

Democracy... work force? There seems to be some confusion Mr Hayes about where democracy applies and where it doens't. We get to choose our leaders in a democracy because being subject to the law of the UK is not optional. You are born here, you live here and therefore you are subject to the law. You cannot declare your house to be a new country and subject to your own laws.
Conversely when you work for an employer you do not choose who leads the company, neither do you tell management what to do, the reason is because if you don't like it, you can get up and quit and join a different company or even set up your own. However as long as you draw a wage, generally you are required to do what management tells you (don't get me wrong every now and again you have to tell them to 'take a long walk off a short pier' but generally if the request is reasonable then you are to do it.

All BA and the Royal Mail will do is cause customers to go else where, which means profit will drop further and will speed up the death of their current situation. To make an analogy these days striking is a fire extinguisher, one that just so happens to be filled with petrol.