Pension Levy Cuts and Strike Action

I’ve stayed fairly quiet on the whole pension levy on Anseo.net.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  Firstly, there have been a lot of IWBs to review and secondly, I really thought the government would have fallen by now.  Sadly, it hasn’t and now we’re being balloted for industrial action.  To be honest, I don’t know what we should do.
As far as I can see, the government are on the verge of collapse.  They are showing no leadership and the pension levy seemed lazy and was done to further divide the public and private sector.  People, I feel, would have taken a cut to their wages if it wasn’t done in such a cowardly, underhanded way.  I think it was unfair to levy everyone, especially those in the lower income bracket.
As much as I didn’t want to take a hit to my pay, I will just spend less each week and perhaps take on some extra work if possible.  Had the government tried something original or, at least, tokenistically punished the higher echelons of banking, again, most of us wouldn’t mind chipping in a bit.
So, anyway, we’re being balloted to strike and I’m stuck.  Lots of people initially said they would not go on strike, (a few weeks ago).  Now, looking at various fora, it looks like a fair majority are going to vote in favour of strike action.  My main sticking point with the ballot is it is asking us to team up with other teaching unions.
If, let’s say, we did vote in favour of strike, and so did all the other teaching unions, what if the other unions (IMPACT, INO, etc.) did not vote in favour. That would mean that it would be the teachers out on the streets again with no support from the public.  I would probably vote “yes” if the ballot asked if I was in favour of strike with all other public sector unions, but I’m not so sure with this.
It’s looking like no matter what we do, Fianna Fáil and the Greens are screwing up the country.  I feel particularly aggrieved by the Green Party because they would be a party I would have seen as being a little bit smarter than the average party.  But their performance with the initial budget cuts, their constant voting with government for indefensible issues (cf cervical cancer vaccine) and now the pension levy, it looks like they are going the way of the PDs.  I feel they’ve wasted their chance to jump ship when it was sinking.  It’s a great shame – I think they could have done some good.