Britain grinds to a halt as half a million workers go on strike ~ February 1, 2023

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LONDON — A longstanding dispute over wages and working conditions came to a head on Wednesday as hundreds of thousands of British workers took part in what organizers said was the biggest day of industrial action in over a decade.

Around 500,000 workers joined the day of mass action, teachers, train drivers, university lecturers, bus drivers, civil servants and airport workers marched out. The major discontent comes amid rampant inflation and years of stagnant wage growth, putting further pressure on Britain’s long-ruling Conservative government, which is grappling with a cost-of-living crisis.

Downing Street warned Brits the strike would cause “significant disruption”. Thousands of schools have been closed – around 85 per cent of schools in England and Wales are said to be affected – and most trains in England have stopped running.

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“Walkout Wednesday,” is how the Daily Mail described the strikes, calling it a “general strike in all but name.” The Sun tabloid dubbed the disruption “Lockdown 2023.”

The day of coordinated action is just the latest in what British newspapers dubbed the ‘Winter of Discontent’, named after a period of 1978-1979 marked by widespread work stoppages.

Catherine Barnard, a British academic specializing in labor law at Cambridge University, said Britain has the toughest strike laws in Europe, with disgruntled workers having to jump through many hurdles before they can go on strike – and they are likely to get tougher.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has introduced a law mandating a “minimum service level” that allows employers to enforce basic services during strikes in areas such as health, railways, education, fire and border security.

Nevertheless, various workers have been on strike en masse since last summer – and since then the scale of the strikes has only escalated.

Workers say they are underpaid and overworked, and that their actual salaries have not kept pace with rising costs for many years. For example, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, mid-level teachers’ salaries fell by 9 to 10 percent in real terms between 2010 and 2022. The government says it cannot pay teachers what they are asking because it would fuel inflation, which is already over 10 percent.

Several unions say there is no sign of a breakthrough in wage negotiations and have pledged further action in the coming weeks.

More strikes are planned throughout February – and beyond. Newspapers have calendars and interactive tools to help readers find out what strikes are happening in their area and when. Nurses are expected to rejoin the picket line next week. When they went on strike in December, it was the first time in their union’s 106-year history.

“It’s not going the way Rishi Sunak hoped it would,” said Steven Fielding, professor emeritus of political history at the University of Nottingham. “He’s basically attempted a Margaret Thatcher makeover, but it doesn’t work.”

When Sunak became prime minister last year, he positioned himself as manager in charge of the economy, the person who would clean up his predecessor’s economic mess and, he hoped, get things back on track in time for the next election, which is due to be held by January 2025 will. Like Margaret Thatcher, the former Conservative leader who is still revered in the party, Sunak’s government is unyielding to the unions and has introduced new “anti-strike” legislation.

“Thatcher did that, she crushed the unions and legislated, but times were different and she had the wind in her sails,” Fielding said.

Sunak has no such wind. His government is being dogged by accusations of “dirt” and the economic outlook is bleak. The International National Monetary Fund forecast Tuesday that the UK will be the only major economy in the world to slide into recession in 2023.

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The public is divided over the strikes, with strong support for nurses, ambulance staff, firefighters and, to a lesser extent, teachers. Driving examiners, university staff and civil servants have less support. Research from YouGov found that support for the action correlates not with the disruption caused, but with how much workers’ perceived contribution to society and whether they are underpaid.

Fielding said today’s strike wave is much broader than that of the late 1970s. “These were intensive but relatively short months. It’s been like this since the summer. And it’s escalating in parts of the economy that were untouched in the 1970s. It’s not just garbage men. There are university professors, doctors, firefighters, ambulance drivers, everyone is on strike, much more reach of the economy.”

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(Bloomberg) — Swathes of office staff were forced to work from home Wednesday as widespread industrial action closed schools and crippled Britain’s rail network, while hundreds of members of the armed forces were drafted in to cover for strikes at the border.

As many as 475,000 union members are on strike, demanding pay rises that do more to combat the cost-of-living crisis. Many were given salary increases of less than 5% last year, even as inflation climbed above 10%.

“We want to have further talks with the unions, some of those discussions have been constructive,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokesman Max Blain said Wednesday. “The government will continue to take responsible action to ensure public sector workers are paid fairly but that it’s also affordable for the taxpayer.”

The public should be prepared for disruption at airports and ports, he said. The government has provided 600 armed forces and around 180 civil servants, as Border Force officials are among the public sector workers on strike. The Department for Education said in a statement that about 9.3% of schools had fully closed, with another 44.7% open but restricting access.