Biggest UK strike in 11 years could stop up to 500,000 workers

SÃO PAULO, SP (FOLHAPRESS) – The UK is facing its biggest strike in 11 years. This Wednesday (1), a day before Prime Minister Rishi Sunak finishes his 100 days in power, the country is facing school closures, halted trains and absent employees in ministries due to ‘Exit Wednesday’, as unions baptized these acts.

Workers across sectors rallied to demand better wages amid inflation that hit 10.5% in December — two months earlier, the index reached 11.1%, a record in 41 years.

According to the unions, the strike includes drivers from ten railway companies, employees from 150 universities, 300 thousand professors and about 100 thousand employees from ministries, ports and airports – and the number of strikers may reach 500 thousand, which is the most expressive number since the servant strike in 2011.

said Mark Sirotka, general secretary of the Confederation of Public and Commercial Services (PCS), a union representing 100,000 public employees from more than 120 government departments.

In recent months, the country has seen a wave of strikes across the public and private sectors, including healthcare, transportation and postal services. The crisis prompted the nurses to stage, in December, the first national strike in the area’s union’s more than 100-year history. After failed negotiations with the British government, they called a two-day strike last month and two more in February.

This Wednesday, nearly 20,000 schools in England and Wales will be affected by the first of seven strike days called by teachers in February and March from kindergarten to secondary school.

The Foreign Newsletter receives in your email a weekly selection of the most important events in the world; Open to non-subscribers. *** Ciara O’Sullivan, 38, tells AFP: “I’m a teacher in London and I’m having a really hard time paying the rent.” “I have young children and would like to give them something beyond the basics.”

And the Minister of Education, Gillian Keegan, in turn, defended that granting the required salary increases is not in line with the conditions of state coffers under severe pressure and indebtedness.

Keegan told the BBC that giving in to workers’ demands could worsen the country’s economic situation. “What we can’t do is give wage increases that reduce inflation for one part of the workforce and make it worse for everyone else. It’s not the most economical thing to do,” he said.

The strikes promised a chaotic day, but the situation at busy train stations such as London’s King’s Cross has been calm – thanks in part to the spread of remote work in the wake of Covid. Kate Lewis, 50, who took a train to Newark in northern England, said she understood the attackers. “We are all in the same boat. We are all affected by inflation.”

Dr Jonathan Novell told Reuters news agency that the UK was in a difficult situation and resources were limited. “It’s sad, teachers,” he said near London Bridge station. “Children want to take their exams and there’s a lot of pressure on the whole population. It’s sad.”

Despite the unrest, 59% of Britons support a strike for nurses, 43% for teachers and 36% for railway workers, according to a poll by the consultancy Public First. So far, the economy has not experienced major shocks from the lockdowns. According to the Center for Economics and Business Research, the strikes over eight months cost £1.7 billion. The authority estimated the daily impact of the teachers’ strike at about £20m.

The lockdowns are particularly affecting the image of the Sunak government. The prime minister’s Conservative Party is second only to Labor by about 25 percentage points in opinion polls, and polls indicate that the public thought the government’s handling of the crisis was poor.