Leader: Three strikes and you're IT

Strike actions are normally received in a number of ways by the public. Take tube strikers in the capital for example - London transport's hated 'ransom brigade' - who in recent years found themselves on the receiving end of unfavourable comparisons with fire fighters who risk their lives for a fraction of the tube drivers' pay and earned greater empathy from the public for their actions.

And then there's the BBC which enjoys a privileged position atop a pedestal where its actions, motives and existence are beyond reproach for many members of the public.

But like the 'love the team, hate the club' mentality threatening to drive a rift through Manchester United, whose almost unimaginable defeat formed the centrepiece of BBC programming this weekend, the popular front and the business end are increasingly at odds.

The foot soldiers are today manning the BBC picket lines, while the management and a number of top name presenters are sat inside Television Centre and BBC locations nationwide.

To each their own but silicon.com did enjoy a reference on BBC Radio 1 this morning from presenter Chris Moyles (rumoured to command a salary in excess of £350,000) to the fact that his webcam wasn't working.

'That'll be because of the techies on the picket line who you passed on the way in,' thought this correspondent. Perhaps it wasn't the case at all but it sounded like the first dawning of the importance of those who know how to wire the plugs and make the lights come on.

Of course IT departments wield a lot more power than simply performing the public service of protecting us from Chris Moyles' breakfast-challenging appearance and increasingly they are realising the power of strike action if situations in Swansea and Bradford are any indication.

Increasingly their non-compliance can be a powerful tool for change. There isn't a business or industry in the world which doesn't hinge on its IT systems now and that's a pretty strong stance from which to start bargaining.

BBC staff, including many IT workers, are rightly angered by the threat of mass layoffs from within an organisation which for years has been built on false economies. There are many in the country who will empathise and support their cause. There are others who may say it's the inevitable result of the BBC failing to modernise but such a reaction does not exclude empathy also.

In Swansea and Bradford staff have been up in arms about the threat of IT outsourcing claiming their jobs - an issue which arose also at the BBC last year. Often obscured by the inevitable arguments about 'sending our jobs abroad' are very real concerns about what impact such trends will have on communities, long term development and the short term family life for those affected.

These are all human factors we must empathise with.

This is not to condone strike action as a rule per se but every cause has its acceptable level of protest. While those holding commuters and their own paymasters to ransom for more pay may elicit little sympathy there are those genuinely staring at a bleak situation who can't be blamed for using the power to mobilise in numbers.

But inevitably such actions are most powerful when the IT workers aren't the ones for the chop.

In recent years this has all too often been the case.