Railway and postal staff, also dockworkers. Britain’s workers are on strike in droves as decades of inflation erode the value of wages at a record pace.
Britain’s train network faces further severe disruption on Thursday and Saturday from major strikes, which follow this summer’s biggest strike action in the sector in 30 years.
Tens of thousands of workers are expected to go on strike over the two days, leaving a skeleton train in its wake that will hit holidaymakers and commuters even as home working continues for many office workers after Covid restrictions are lifted.
London Underground, the Tube, is hit by a strike on Saturday before dockers at Felixstowe, Britain’s largest freight port in east England, are forced to take an eight-day break from service from Sunday.
“We will continue to do what is necessary to defend jobs, wages and working conditions during this cost of living crisis,” said Sharon Graham, leader of Britain’s major union Unite, this week.
Official data on Wednesday showed UK inflation at a 40-year high of over 10 percent as rising food and energy prices hurt millions of Britons.
– Inflation is set to rise further –
And the situation will worsen under a new prime minister as the under-fire Boris Johnson prepares to step down.
The Bank of England has forecast inflation of over 13 percent this year, which would plunge the UK economy into a deep and protracted recession.
“This record drop in real wages shows how important it is for unions like Unite to defend the value of workers’ wages,” Graham said while responding to suggestions, including from BoE Governor Andrew Bailey, that wage increases would fuel inflation.
“Wages are not driving inflation,” she stressed ahead of the latest UK inflation data, which showed skyrocketing food prices were the main reason for July’s surge.
Inflation has soared globally this year, also on the back of rising energy prices, fueled by the invasion of Ukraine by major oil and gas producer Russia.
– Pay offers –
Some planned strikes planned for the UK summer were halted after unions and companies agreed last-minute collective agreements.
But while British Airways ground staff and Heathrow airport fuel tankers have scrapped planned strikes, other sectors are holding on.
More than 115,000 British postal workers at the former state-owned Royal Mail are planning a four-day strike from the end of August.
Telecoms giant BT is facing its first shutdown in 35 years, and strikes by Amazon warehouse workers, criminal lawyers and garbage collectors have all taken place or are about to occur.
The big British business lobby group CBI this week acknowledged workers’ ongoing “struggling with rising costs such as energy prices” and said employers were “doing their best to support employees”.
However, it has also been claimed that “the vast majority” of companies “cannot afford high enough pay rises to keep up with inflation”.
With regard to the partially privatized British railway sector, the unions have accused Transport Secretary Grant Shapps of not helping to solve the impasse.
Shapps is part of the Conservative government that recently amended a law allowing agency workers to fill gaps caused by strikes, further angering the RMT rail union.
According to Unite, London luxury department store Harrods has informed its workforce that it is prepared to use agency workers if its employees go on strike.
Analysts are now forecasting industry-wide disruptions that will last beyond the summer as inflation continues to rise.
It comes as teachers and health workers have warned of possible walkouts if they do not get new wage agreements deemed acceptable.
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