The UK is experiencing the highest price increase in 40 years. Inflation is currently over 11 per cent. Many are now noticing that wage growth is not keeping pace. This has led to a number of strikes affecting, among other things, the health sector and public transport. British media are already referring to the season as a new “winter of discontent.” The term refers back to the winter of 1978-79, when strikes paralyzed society. At the time, the crisis led to the fall of the Labor government and Margaret Thatcher became prime minister. The crowd shows support for strikers during a soccer match in Glasgow on December 24. Photo: RUSSELL CHEYNE / Reuters Bringing in the military Before Christmas, nurses went on the first ever national strike. It happened after several years of real wage decline. The nurses’ union wants a 19 percent pay rise. The state says the economic situation makes it impossible with an increase of more than 4-5 percent. After two strike days on 15 and 20 December, a new round of strikes on 18 and 19 January has already been announced. Nurses on strike in London. Photo: MAJA SMIEJKOWSKA / Reuters In addition, there have been strikes among employees of the ambulance service in England and Wales. A new day of strike has been announced on 11 January. British health authorities ask that people on strike days only use the emergency number in serious and life-threatening situations. The ambulances will then still be able to move out, but there are life-threatening situations that must be prioritized, the NHS states. If there is no danger to life, patients may risk not being helped by an ambulance. Military personnel have been prepared for deployment. Military personnel practice to be able to take over for strikers in the ambulance service. Photo: Victoria Jones / AP Affects travelers on road, train, bus and plane Around 1,000 employees in the border guard have gone on strike in the days before and after Christmas. Passport controllers are among the strikers. This affects the airports of Birmingham, Cardiff, Gatwick, Glasgow, Heathrow and Manchester as well as the port of Newhaven in the middle of Christmas traffic. Train workers have also gone on strike during the Christmas period, and have announced further strikes in January. Travelers have been asked to avoid some train lines and only travel if absolutely necessary, writes The Guardian. The train strike causes cancellations and delays. At King’s Cross station in London, many passengers had to be patient on Tuesday 27 December. Photo: James Manning / AP Limited train services further lead to greater pressure on the roads, with delays and traffic jams. This year, the shops are worried that the train strike would affect Christmas sales, writes the BBC. This could take a toll on an industry that has still not fully recovered from the corona pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of working days lost Public employees react to the fact that they have lost purchasing power over several years. In addition, official figures from December show that the gap in wage growth between the public and private sectors is close to a new record, writes the BBC. Employees in the private sector received an average wage increase of 6.9 per cent between August and October. At the same time, the figure for public employees was 2.7 per cent. For several years since 2010, employees in the public sector have experienced a pay freeze or a maximum increase of one per cent. This has led to the wave of strikes in 2022. Because the autumn was also characterized by work stoppages. According to the National Statistics Agency, strikes in October led to around 417,000 lost working days. It is the highest figure for a month since November 2011, writes the BBC. Now a significantly high number can also be expected for the winter.
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