Small businesses and the unemployed are hoping for a reprieve from floods and recession when up to 250,000 public servants bring their considerable spending power to towns around the country.
Hairdressers have recruited extra staff for the day while coffee shops are hopeful that cappucino and latte sales will be at a level not seen since the height of the boom.
A number of enterprising people who have become unemployed recently have offered a range of services to the public servants to help them get through their one day strike.
“I’m happy to man the picket for them while they do a bit of shopping,” an unemployed barrister told The Mire. “If they prefer, I could go shopping for them while they man the picket.”
Other unemployed people have offered to fetch soup and hot whiskies for the striking public servants. “We’ll happily do that for tips. We’ll take any small change,” a former developer said.
Any public servants who have been shopping in Asda in the North recently are asked to bring foam cups with them for the hot whiskies.
Small retail units are hopeful that the public servants will boost their meagre sales. Many shops have banner signs saying: ‘Public servants welcome here’.
“We’re offering great incentives to get them into the shops,” one retailer said. “We know they have money to spend. Our only fear is that they are so angry at having secure pensionable employment that they might spend the whole day on strike.”
A trade union spokesman acknowledged that the strike would cause hardship to people who depended most on public services. “However,” he added, “at least public service pay, work conditions, pension provision and lack of productivity hits everyone equally.
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