About half a million workers will take part in Britain’s biggest strike in more than a decade on Wednesday, including teachers, transport workers and border guards, to demand better pay.
Classes are expected to be closed or canceled at universities, primary and secondary schools. It is to be expected, however, that several establishments will be open for some students, especially those who are going to take their secondary school exams.
For the National Education Union (NEU), the main teachers’ union, this is the first of seven days of called strike, which will affect some 23,000 schools nationwide in England and Wales, while the remaining days of strike will focus on certain regions.
The NEU rejected the 5% increase offered by the British executive, demanding a value above the inflation rate, which slowed down in December to 10.5%, but which remains at one of the highest levels in 40 years.
Some 100,000 officials from the Ministries of Health, Environment and Economy are also expected to join the protest day.
The strike should also be felt in the transport sector, namely trains and buses, which began labor protest actions last year and will continue on Thursday and Friday, and in various sectors of the public service.
The British government has already warned passengers about longer wait times at passport controls at airports and seaports, despite mobilizing the military, other civil servants and volunteers to minimize potential delays.
Next week, more strikes for nurses and ambulance crews are planned, while firefighters are about to decide the dates for their first strikes in the profession in 20 years.
On Tuesday, the British Prime Minister, the Conservative Rishi Sunak, reiterated that the increases in civil service wages would translate into a tax increase, which he wants to avoid in the face of the crisis of the increase in the cost of living.
“Nothing would give me more pleasure than waving a magic wand,” Rishi Sunak told reporters on a visit to a hospital, arguing that there are “many things to consider and it’s not an easy job.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Conservative Party broadly approved legislation aimed at restricting labor disputes in some services considered essential, such as ambulances, firefighters and trains, by requiring the introduction of minimum services.
The minimum level of services will be determined by the Government and if the unions do not meet it they can be prosecuted and sanctioned and the workers fired.
Legislation is yet to be implemented to reduce the impact of upcoming strikes, it must still pass through the House of Lords, the upper house of the British parliament, which is expected to take several months.
The unions are challenging this legislation, which they have called “anti-strike”, and the Labor Party, currently the main opposition force, has vowed to repeal the law if it comes to power.
Despite the paralysis of public services and the economy, strikes and work stoppages in various sectors of activity continue to have great support from the population, according to various surveys.
A poll published by the company Public First found that 59% of respondents support strikes by nurses, teachers (43%), postal workers (41%) and railway workers (36%).
British television channel Sky News also released a study in which 37% of respondents expressed support for unions, up from 35% in November, while 28% were unfavourable, down from 34% a year ago. two months.
Source: TSF
