Many schools have been closed, trains halted, ticket offices lowered in certain administrations… The UK saw its most massive day of strikes in a decade on Wednesday amid the massive inflation that has fueled the economic crisis.
The day after a day of social mobilization in France against pension reform and on the eve of Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s first 100 days in power, up to half a million Britons are being called on strike for better wages. The union confederation TUC warned that it would be “the biggest day of strikes since 2011” and that social movements involving teachers would take part for the first time in several months.
“We are on strike because our real wages have fallen over the past ten years. Some of our members, even when they work, have to go to food banks,” Graham said indignantly on a picket line outside an employment agency in London.
It was exceptionally quiet early in the morning at London’s King’s Cross station, through which thousands of workers pass every day, as the railway workers’ strike prevented many people from going to work.
“I want to go to Leeds but there is no direct train,” says Edward, 45, a manager at a technology company. While Kate Lewis, a 50-year-old charity worker, thinks she’s “lucky” to count on a train to get her home.
She says she “understands” the strikers. “We’re all in the same boat. All affected by inflation.”
Several thousand schools are being closed, particularly at the call of the NEW teachers’ union, forcing parents, who are sometimes informed at the last moment, to stay at home to look after their children.
Like social movements that enjoy relative support from public opinion, several parent organizations have released a joint statement saying they “support” the movement and pointing to “the consequences of years of underfunding” in schools.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said she was “disappointed” and “very concerned” by this move and thought it was “economically incoherent” to grant the wage increases being demanded.
“We’ve said we’re going to look at future salaries, we’re going to look at the workload and the flexibility that teachers are asking for,” as well as the problems with hiring teachers, she defended on Sky News on Wednesday morning.
No “magic wand”
Despite the Border Police strike, London’s Heathrow Airport was “fully operational” on Wednesday morning, a spokesman said, recalling that soldiers had been deployed to make up for the absence of the strikers.
“I really want nothing more (…) than to have a magic wand and pay you all more,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak assured on Monday during a visit to health sector workers. But in his opinion, wage increases would fuel inflation and further damage public finances.
Strikers across all sectors are demanding wages in line with inflation, which has exceeded 10% for months and is pushing millions of Britons into poverty.
And according to the latest IMF forecasts, the country is likely to be the only major economy to experience a recession this year, with GDP falling by 0.6%.
“Untenable”
The standoff also concerns working conditions, pensions or the government’s desire to limit the right to strike, and the TUC is organizing several rallies in the country on Wednesday to defend it.
The movement has been running since the spring. According to the National Statistics Office, 1.6 million working days have been “lost” since last June.
If there are any hopes of progress in rail, a new strike is planned for Friday, while the fire service is voting for a first strike in twenty years. Nurses and paramedics will also go on strike again in February.
British customs officials based in France announced on Wednesday they would go on strike during the February holiday.
“The government’s position is untenable. He cannot sit on an unprecedented and growing strike movement,” PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka responded to Sky News, calling for “a much more realistic stance”.