Some sectors of the IP community do not strike, the most obvious of which is the band of self-employed and small-scale IP private practitioners. With no employer (or no large, well-endowed and well-resourced employer) to whom one can make one's demands and/or threaten to withhold one's labour, solos and their colleagues just have to get on with their work as best they can. The reality is that they can't withhold their labour even when they're not working. How many times have holidays, family outings, precious leisure breaks and moments of intimacy been shattered by the intrusion of a client's call? How many times has the recipient of such a call made a swift calculation as to whether it's better (i) to tell the client to get lost or call back later or (ii) meekly pretend that he's been looking forward to the call all along?
The truth, it seems, is that medical practitioners, religious and spiritual leaders, parents of small children and solo IP practitioners are truly never off duty and have no chance, rightly or wrongly, to withhold their labour ...