Blog: The dispute between workers and bosses at Shropshire Council was always going to be resolved by talks – it was just a question of timing.

It will be a relief all round that prospects for a speedy resolution have brightened considerably. The mood music from the peace talks has been very positive and holds out the hope that the county will be spared strife on this front during the autumn and winter.

Industrial action would have done nobody any good. Not the workers, not the council as a body, and least of all the ordinary members of the public who use or depend on council services.

The council has a very difficult hand to play in the current environment. Any union leaders worth their salt would bridle at the threat that their members will all be dismissed and only be re-employed if they sign up to inferior pay and conditions.

It is a cocktail which could have deteriorated into rancour and trenchant positioning, locking Shropshire into a long dispute.

Unions are often portrayed in such situations as stubborn and destructive, but the indications are that there has been constructive give and take on both sides of the table, which is the very essence of compromise.

Last week’s one-day strike has concentrated minds. Unison says it is suspending further planned industrial action as a sign of goodwill.

If the conciliatory tone coming from the talks does prove the path to a peace deal acceptable to both sides, an episode which could have been a dark and depressing period of recent Shropshire history will, rather surprisingly, turn out to be a model of how difficult issues can be thrashed out by reasonable people actually talking to each other.