Surrey, United Kingdom – Wearing a luminous yellow vest stamped with the words “PCS” and “Public and Commercial Services Union”, Mark Dollar, 50, stood on the pavement of an industrial estate in southwest England one January morning. Next to him, outside the National Highways office, three other picketers held furiously flapping PCS flags and red placards announcing an “official picket”.
Their conversation flowed from work frustrations to gossip, periodically interrupted by beeps and waves from passing car and truck drivers as they pulled into the surrounding car parks.
