#LABOR STRIFE. UPGRADE#

UK inflation peaked at 11.1 percent last year according to the Financial Times and has been hovering around 10 percent, but pay for public sector workers hasn’t kept up. The strikes have spread to civil service workers, like those in His Majesty’s Treasury and workers who manage passport applications and driving tests, over the same concerns with wage stagnation. The government under Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has responded by admonishing the workers, condemning the strikes, and backing legislation around minimum service levels, which would limit workers’ right to strike if it passes Parliament.

#LABOR STRIFE. UPGRADE#

Railway workers, led by National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers General Secretary Mick Lynch, have been holding strikes since the summer due to what the union says is a proposed pay cut over the next two years, as well as proposed job and service upgrade cuts. That lack of investment has been further amplified for the NHS due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which overloaded the already-stretched system. The UK’s public services, including the National Health Service (NHS), schools, rail and maritime services, firefighters, and police, have suffered from a lack of government investment over the past decade and, in particular, under the UK’s Conservative Party. Wednesday’s strikes were the largest in a decade, closing schools and stopping the country’s rail service. The strikes emerged following a decade-plus of austerity programs and social services cuts that have hit the poor and middle class particularly hard as well as dramatic shifts in the UK economy, which some experts say have exacerbated inequality.

Though the UK’s cost-of-living crisis has affected most sectors, it’s only the latest of a cascading series of problems for the country’s workers.

British workers have hit a breaking point, with half a million people, including nurses, railway workers, and teachers, striking Wednesday for wages that match the pace of inflation and the actual value of their labor.

Labor strife.