but why on earth not, peachy?
yes, in theory I would. I was the shop steward in the last two charities I worked for and we certainly considered strike action on occasion, yes.
The bottom line for me is that charities NEED decent working conditions and decent pay for their staff. They already tend to pay around 80% of the civil service rate, which is itself under the private rate for the relevant skills. But meanwhile, due to their limited resources, charities need quality workers. And they simply can't attract and keep those workers if they don't have decent pay and working conditions, there is plenty of stats to back this up.
The last charity I worked for had excellent staff retention, and was the only one not to be bascially taking the piss and relying on goodwill in negotiations with staff. It was a big, professional charity. It also NEEDED to recruit graduates, preferably out of law school, and so was competing with the local legal firms which could offer decent packages.
This contrasts to another charity I have worked at where most work was one-to-one with clients, and it was relatively low skilled. Wages were continually eroded, managers constantly asked for goodwill in chopping and changing our contracted hours, and the only thing keeping most of us there was the clients. Fine for me, a student temping in my holidays. But no way on earth would I work there when I had a family reliant on my income. Had we struck, the mangement would have had to get in agency care for the strike days BUT had an improvement in conditions resulted, the clients would have massively benefitted from reduced staff turnover.
I will accept a certain amount in order to work in the third sector. I will accept low pay, and long, underpaid, working hours. I shouldn't have to accept this. Charities should be professional organisations, IMO. But if management take the piss then yes I will strike. It is a job like any other. Charities need to recognise this, especially the smaller ones.
I am currently considering becoming a trustee and my first action has been to revise the employment contracts to give the workers decent, fair rights. And if they are unhappy, and they can't resolve the problem any other way, I fully expect striking to be their bottom line.
The absolute best and cheapest thing for any business or charity to do, of course, is just to LISTEN to employees, make the little changes that matter to them (like family friendly working) and thusly actually retain staff.