ALTHOUGH we cannot do without the public sector who are striking tomorrow, why do they think they are so special?

There are many hard working individuals who are trying to survive independently while self employed and working seven days a week, 52 weeks a year as my husband did before he retired as a plumbing and heating engineer and before the high rates charged nowadays.

Recently retired, I worked as a retail manager for 24 years for a national company and frequently had to work a seven day week. The doors closed at 5.30pm but there was cashing up, work to be done changing promotions, sales, stocktaking, etc. before the next day, therefore working 12 to 14- hour days.

Time off ? Three weeks per year, two guaranteed days off a year (Easter Sunday and Christmas Day), working late Christmas Eve often to 10pm clearing away Christmas decorations before we opened on Boxing Day for the sales even if it fell on a Sunday when all other employed people choose to enjoy their time wandering around the shops.

We in the retail trade are lucky to be able to have a cup of cold coffee sipped in between serving customers because we wouldn’t have time for a proper break.

Lunch was a quick sandwich.

Even with the heating on in the winter, working by an open door (company policy) could make your fingers and toes numb. This of course is not necessarily the large supermarkets but the smaller units on the High Streets nearest to where people live such as newsagents, food stores, etc.

Employees pay tax on meagre basic pay salaries and many, like myself, as managers do not get paid overtime.

Like ALL employments, there are drawbacks but some employees are more privileged in sit-down jobs, working in a decent environment having more holidays and still not appreciating what they have.

Do we strike? No, being glad to have employment and know we are giving a service to the general public, helping to raise our families where we can but now having to support those on higher salaries and a good pension.

Shouldn’t we be supporting one another in this country to try to sort this mess out left by the previous government giving higher salaries when we couldn’t afford it and now creating a bigger gap between the well paid and the lower paid without whom the country would come to a stand still?

Now we are both OAPs but could not afford to put by for a pension on my salary having to raise our three sons and support my husband through the recession of 1991 when many local companies went into liquidation. Asking for a higher pension with fellow employees being made redundant seems inconsiderate and selfish.

Why follow the unions? You are paying them when you could have put their money into your pension too. In the end strikers are losing respect of the public.

Incidentally, my grandfather and my mother when she was aged 12 helped in the soup kitchens in the Great Strike in the 1930s when people were REALLY poor and couldn’t feed their children, very often had nowhere to live and no sign of a job in the future. During this time, my father wore wooden clogs for shoes. The unions were indeed needed then. We are not exactly in these conditions now and I have no wish to see this again. Why do they feel the need to strike?

One last word on behalf of shop workers. Please support them during this busy time and for the rest of the year. Politeness works both sides of the counter.

SALLY BELL, Fair Oak.