Many schools closed, trains stopped, ticket offices lowered in certain administrations… The United Kingdom experienced its most massive day of strikes in a decade on Wednesday, in the face of massive inflation which fueled the economic crisis.
The day after a day of social mobilization in France against the pension reform and on the eve of the first 100 days in power of Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, up to half a million Britons are called to strike to demand better wages. The TUC union federation warned that it would be “the biggest day of strikes since 2011” with the participation of teachers for the first time in several months of social movements.
“We are on strike because over the past ten years our real wages have fallen. Some of our members, even if they work, have to go to food banks,” Graham said indignantly on the picket line in London outside an employment agency.
In the early morning, London’s King’s Cross station, through which thousands of workers pass every day, was exceptionally quiet, with the strike of rail workers preventing many people from going to their place of work.
“I want to go to Leeds, but there is no direct train,” worries Edward, 45, an executive at a technology company. While Kate Lewis, a 50-year-old charity worker, considers herself “lucky” to be able to count on a train to get home.
She says she “understands” the strikers. “We are all in the same boat. All affected by inflation”.
Several thousand schools are notably closed at the call of the NEU teachers’ union, forcing parents, sometimes informed at the last moment, to stay at home to look after their children.
Like social movements relatively supported by public opinion, several parents’ organizations have published a joint statement in which they say they “support” the movement, pointing out “the consequences of years of underfunding” in the schools.
Education Minister Gillian Keegan said she was “disappointed” and “very worried” about this movement, and considered it “economically inconsistent” to grant the requested salary increases.
“We have said that we will study future salaries, that we will look at the workload and the flexibility that teachers ask for”, as well as the problems of recruiting teachers, she defended Wednesday morning on Sky News.
No “magic wand”
Despite the border police strike, London’s Heathrow airport is “fully operational” on Wednesday morning, a spokesman said, recalling that soldiers have been deployed to compensate for the absence of the strikers.
“I really wouldn’t like anything so much […] than having a magic wand and paying you all more,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak assured Monday during a visit to workers in the health sector. But according to him, wage increases would fuel inflation and further damage public finances.
In all sectors, strikers are demanding wages in line with inflation, which has exceeded 10% for months, pushing millions of Britons into poverty.
And according to the latest IMF forecasts, the country should be the only major economy to suffer a recession this year, with a contraction of 0.6% of its GDP.
“Untenable”
The standoff also relates to working conditions, pensions or the government’s desire to limit the right to strike and the TUC is organizing several rallies on Wednesday in the country to defend it.
The movement has been going on since the spring. Since last June, 1.6 million working days have been “lost”, according to the National Statistics Office.
If hopes for progress are perceptible in the rail, a new walkout is planned for Friday, while firefighters voted in favor of a first strike in 20 years. Nurses and paramedics will also be on strike again in February.
British customs officers stationed in France announced on Wednesday that they will be on strike during the February holidays.
“The government’s position is untenable. He cannot sit on an unprecedented and growing strike movement,” reacted the general secretary of the PCS administration union Mark Serwotka on Sky News, calling for “a much more realistic attitude”.