Pay back !

On July 17 - " Super Thursday " Pope Benedict XV1 will lead a " boatacade " down Sydney harbour, tour the city is his Popemobile - and be welcomed by an expected seven hundred thousand people.

That is also the day that the unions are threatening to hold a twenty-four hour strike and shut down the city rail system.

It sounds like a disaster in the making, but this is just politics ! Recently the New South Wales government rejected the vote of unions and party branches and decided to go against their wishes and sell off the state electricity system.

The unions have grabbed a chance to show Premier Morris Iemma who is boss.

World Youth Day will feature as a headline item on news channels across the entire world - and this state and it's premier will be humiliated if the cameras pan across a city in gridlock, huge numbers unable to get to see the Pope - and a government frustrated and unable to prevent such a crisis.

It's called - pay back !

The official reason for the strike threat is a pay claim - but even that borders on farce. The state government has been limiting pay rises to 2.5% for most workers - with inflation at an official 4.2% - but the rail union has been offered 4%. Hardly a reason to be taking strike action.

Of course this strike will not happen. The unions will take great delight in frightening the government and dangling the prospect of chaos until the last moment - but they know the damage that actually disrupting World Youth Day would cause to public support for the union movement. It would be a return to the bad old days of union thuggery of half a century ago.

This is simply what some pundits refer to as " argy-bargy " when a union and a political party go head to head over a policy difference.

Wait for the " silver lining " to miraculously appear at the last moment - and the loud claims from both sides that they are the " winners " !