“What is striking is the scale of the movement, but also the number of companies in which the workers voted to go on strike” in the UK, analyzes Marc Lenormand, lecturer at Paul Valéry University in Anglophone Studies and British Civilization. Specialist in social movements and the history of British trade unionism.
He goes back to the proliferation of strikes, particularly in transport, against inflation and for higher wages in the UK, a movement that is already historic as it marks the first strikes “in twenty, thirty, even forty years” depending on the industry. are , emphasizes Marc Lenormand.
franceinfo: Are we facing a movement of historic proportions?
Marc Lenormand : What is historic about this movement is the striking sectors. Over the past thirty years the main strikes in the UK have mainly hit the public sector, mainly against austerity. This was the case, for example, during the so-called “Winter of Discontent” of 1978-1979. What is special today is that private sectors, sometimes industries, are on strike, which has not been the case for twenty, thirty, even forty years, depending on the sector. For example, an eight-day strike will begin tomorrow in the country’s most important container port. And this is the first time there has been a strike in this port since 1989. For the railroads, this is the first nationwide strike since 1994. What is striking is the scale of the movement, but also the number of companies in which workers have voted to go on strike.
Strikes are relatively rare in the UK, are they considered extreme action? As a sign of a very difficult situation?
Above all, it is something that is very complicated to implement. In France, the right to strike is enshrined in the constitution. This is not the case in the UK, as Conservative governments introduced an extremely restrictive framework in the 1980s and 1990s. This means that today, in order to go on strike, the trade union organizations have to conduct a long campaign with their members, they organize a vote and that vote is mainly in favor of the strike. Even higher thresholds apply in certain sectors, as transport requires not only at least half of the members consulted, but also 40% of the electorate, ie all workers at risk of striking.
Is this a sign of a very deep malaise among British workers?
It is worth noting that in these consultations there are indeed very high participation rates, often over 80%. This was the case, for example, in rail transport at the docks. And the votes for strikes exceeded 90%: in the postal sector, 98% of postal workers voted in favor of the strike. So it shows a determination and certainly a situation where a large number of workers feel it is imperative to take action to achieve pay increases. Because we know UK inflation is set to top 13% this year and it’s possible that almost two-thirds of UK households won’t be able to pay their energy bills this winter.