Teachers, railway workers, civil servants, university lecturers… The United Kingdom was preparing on Wednesday February 1 for another day of massive strikes, the largest in a decade.
Up to half a million people could strike on the eve of the date marking the first hundred days – restless – of the conservative government of Rishi Sunak. The TUC trade union federation warned that it would be “the biggest day of strikes since 2011”.
Wage increase
The strike movement started last summer by railway workers gradually spread to the entire public sector this winter. To the point of being now compared by some observers to “the winter of discontent”, in reference to the mobilization of 1979 under Margaret Thatcher – although the number of strikers will remain much lower in 2023.
At the top of the demands of the British is the rise in wages in the face of galloping inflation. This is above 10%, its highest level since 1982. And the economic situation should not improve since, according to IMF forecasts, the United Kingdom should be the only G20 country to record growth negative for 2023 (-0.6%), worse than Russia, which is still subject to sanctions.
Salary loss of 6,600 pounds
The public sector has so far been particularly mobilized, hit hard by the rise in energy, gas and even food prices. Higher education teachers, for example, have suffered, according to the British Institute for Fiscal Studies, a real loss of salary of 13% between 2010 and 2022, or 6,600 pounds annually (around €7,500). Despite the 5% salary increase announced by the government last summer, the teachers’ unions voted for the mobilization.
The health sector is no better off, with wage increases having been limited in recent years. The workers of the National Health Service (NHS), the public hospital, are also demanding increases as well as a bonus, in the face of the pressure suffered by medical personnel and the lack of means. The NHS is suffering from the vacancy of 130,000 positions, due to the lack of attractiveness of the profession and to Brexit, which restricts the movement of workers.
Political instability
Even if the Covid-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine have considerably aggravated the situation, Brexit has also largely contributed to the deterioration of the British economy. According to the public budget forecasting body OBR, leaving the EU will shrink the UK economy by around 4% in the long term.
Added to these economic upheavals is the political instability of recent months. Succeeding Boris Johnson as prime minister in September 2022, conservative Liz Truss resigned after just 44 days in power. Hostile to strike movements, his successor, Rishi Sunak, legislated in January in favor of a minimum service, making it more difficult for certain workers such as firefighters, teachers or train drivers to mobilize, in a country where the right to strike is not protected by law. What further reinforces the dissatisfaction.