2023-05-31 11:35:54
The wave of strikes and protests summoned in the United Kingdom since the beginning of the year far from over. This Wednesday have been the train engineers who have carried out new strikes in England to claim better working conditions that compensate the loss of purchasing power derived from high inflation. Other professionals from the railway sector will join the train drivers’ protests this Friday, as well as medical residents of the National Health Service (NHS), which have convened a three day strike in mid June.
Las massive strikes in sectors such as educationthe health and the transport have had a significant impact in recent months. something that the government Rishi Sunak is trying to reverse offering salary increases to public workers and that it has managed to solve in some cases. The offer of extraordinary payments this year and from increases of 5% of salaries in 2024 have convinced part of the sanitary unions in England, although others, such as the one representing the nursescontinue demanding better conditions and new mobilizations are being considered.
railway stoppages
In the case of rail transportthe train drivers’ strike called by the syndicato ASLEF —representing more than 90% of all workers— has led to the shutdown this Wednesday of the service of the main companies of trains in the country. Some strikes that will also take place on Saturday, when it is expected that thousands of fans soccer move to London to attend the FA Cup final, which will face Manchester United against Manchester City. The strike of nearly 20,000 workers at the RMT syndicateincluding catering workers and station staff, also will reduce the frequency of trains this Friday.
Workers in the sector are in full negotiations with the employers, represented by the Rail Supply Group (RDG), which offered salary increases of 4% annually for two years. But for now the unions consider the proposals insufficient, since, they say, they do not compensate for the high inflation in recent months, which kept above 10% until the month of April. “The government is preventing the RDG from making an improved offer that we can consider. We must insist on our strike to get an agreement that improve jobswages and conditions,” said RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch.
Medical residents
Another union that is in full negotiation to improve its conditions is the British Medical Association (BMS), which has been fighting for months to raise wages for medical residents. The young toilets demand the Government to compensate the wage loss suffered since 2008 —which are quantified in and 26%— with increases of up to 35%. A demand that for now is very far from that offered by the Minister of Health, Steve Barclaywhich has proposed 5% increments. “The government’s offer to increase wages by 5% is an insult to doctors residing in England,” the union denounced on Twitter last week after confirming the call for a strike, which will take place between June 14 and 17.
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He NHS chief medical officer In England, Stephen Powis, has assured that these stoppages will be “among the most damaging” in the history of the health service and will mean a “unprecedented turmoil“. It is predicted that 350,000 queries and non-urgent operations have to be postponed as a result of the strike.
New law
Social unrest has led to Government of Sunak to present a law to limit the rights of strikerswhich grants, among other measures, the capacity of the Executive to set minimum services and includes the possibility of lay off workers public in case they do not comply with those same services. The norm is in full parliamentary processing and could still undergo modifications, but for now it has already put the unions on a war footing, which have described it as “undemocratic” e “illegal“.
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