I've been watching the sympathy strike aspect with interest to see how that might shake out. Not out of wondering whether there is support - I'm sure there is. But I'm wondering about the good old LRA and the collective agreements.

First off - can labour just serve notice it's going out on a sympathy strike. There's a process to be followed, surely. Including declaring a dispute - the basis of which should somehow be related to conditions of employment. And then some attempt at dispute resolution, no matter how token.

But it goes beyond just procedure - there has been a tendency of late towards multiple year collective agreements, with something written in that there will be no industrial action for the agreed period. I understand the municipal workers collective agreement might fall in this category as it was sorted last year and runs for three years.

It is possible labour could be calling certain members into an unprotected strike.