(04 Dec 2023, 2:30 pm)DeltaMan wrote As unwise as some of the staff comms were, I can't recall seeing defamatory comments in what has been made public or anything derogatory being shared from his or Feathams social media accounts.....
Maybe not from their social media accounts, but company communication tools, the website and mailing lists were all used in some vein attempt to whip up frenzy towards striking workers. Some of the staff comms in particular were outrageous and lacked basic professionalism.
(04 Dec 2023, 5:01 pm)Ambassador wrote As much as I hate the comms from GNE, the behaviour of some drivers on that GNE Facebook strike debate group has been incredibly ill advised. I get the emotional context and getting riled up by the average thicko who uses Facebook
Would have hoped the Union might have given some advice out
I haven't seen the posts in question, but generally I don't condone people getting involved in spats on social media. I agree it would have been pertinent to put out some advice, but I'd say this was also inevitable, given the company's insistence on playing out this dispute in the public domain. As soon as you start doing that, people start talking about it, and those involved in the dispute feel that they have to defend their position - which usually ends up going too far.
I think there's a lot of lessons to be learned here for everyone, but I don't think suspending people en-mass and going down the route of disciplinaries, in an industry that is already marred by a disciplinary culture, is the best way forward. They're already going to be dealing with issues at each depots between those who stuck it out and those who scabbed, those who voted to accept and those who didn't and managers who undermined the dispute.
Sometimes it's better to simply speak to people, try and draw a line under it and move on.