UK faces biggest strike in 11 years

Schools are closed, trains are paralyzed, officials from many ministries are missing. The United Kingdom is experiencing its biggest day of strike in eleven years on Wednesday, with stops across many sectors united by demand for higher wages amid 10.5% inflation.

About 20,000 schools in England and Wales were affected by the first of seven days strikes convened for February and March by primary and secondary school teachers, who thus join the protests that began a few months ago in many other sectors.

“I work as a teacher in London and it’s very difficult for me to pay my rent,” Ciara Osullivan, 38, told AFP near her school. “I have small children and I would like to give them something more than the basics,” he lamented, assuring that nowadays “being a teacher is very stressful” and involves a ten-hour workday.

strike professors coincides with one of the many stops approved by the drivers of a dozen railroad companies and employees of 150 universities.

Also involving some 100,000 officials from ministries, ports, airports and even driving test centers. Up to 500,000 people in total strike.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan was ‘disappointed’ and ‘very concerned’ strike and felt it would be “inconsistent” to grant the claimed pay increase when the public treasury was under heavy pressure and in debt.

“In the same boat”

The shutdowns promised a day of chaos for many, but things have been calm at normally busy stations like King’s Cross in London, thanks in large part to the spread of teleworking in the wake of the pandemic. Thus, the paralysis of activity experienced during the last mass strike of civil servants in United Kingdomin November 2011

Kate Lewis, a 50-year-old NGO worker, considers herself lucky to have a train home in Newark, in the north of England, and says she “understands” the strikers. “We are all in the same boat. We are all subject to inflation.”

While each sector has its own demands, they are all united in demanding higher wages in the face of inflation, which has exceeded 10% for several months (10.5% in December) and leaves many families no choice but food banks.

This deep crisis prompted the nurses to stage their first nationwide strike in the more than 100-year history of their union in December.

After unsuccessful negotiations with the conservative government of Rishi Sunak, they went on strike for two more days in January and two more on February 7 and 6.

That final day will coincide with an action by ambulance crews in England and Wales in what could be the biggest strike in a shattered British health care system, plagued by years of austerity, since its inception in 1948.

popular support

Despite the chaos caused by the ongoing strikes, 59% of Britons support a nurses’ strike and 43% support a teachers’ strike, according to a Public First poll released by Politico.

Several student parent organizations said in a statement Wednesday that they were “supporting” the movement, pointing to the “impact of years of underfunding” in schools.

For its part, the executive branch is advocating the need to introduce minimum services in key sectors and has introduced a bill for this purpose, the approval of which in parliament is proceeding smoothly.

“The position of the government is untenable. It cannot ignore the unprecedented strike movement that continues to grow,” Marc Servotka, general secretary of the civil servants union, told Sky News, calling for a “more realistic attitude.”

strike Wednesday came at a bad time for Sunak, ahead of his 100 days in office, marked by crisis and coinciding with the third anniversary of Brexit, which only 20% of Brits see as the right path, which 56% now vote against (compared to 48% in the 2016 referendum) , according to a December YouGov poll.

The icing on the cake was an International Monetary Fund (IMF) report predicting on Tuesday that the UK will be the only G7 country to contract by 2023.

(According to AFP)

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