The strikers ask for increases in priority to compensate for inflation, which reaches 10.5 %. According to the latest IMF forecasts, the United Kingdom will be the only major economic power this year to undergo a recession.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
Unions expect half a million strikers. Teachers, railway workers, civil servants, speakers of universities … The United Kingdom, plagued by an economic crisis attributed by inflation, is preparing, Wednesday 1
On the eve of the hundredth day of the Conservative government of Rishi Sunak, the Tuc union federation promises “the biggest day of strikes since 2011”.
Disturbances will be strong both in transport and schools but will concern the whole economy, by domino effect for British, even non -striker, forced to stay at home to keep their children or by impossibility of going on their workplace. Travelers passing through British airports are also likely to see their movements jostled by a strike in immigration services.
“I would really like nothing so much (…) that having a magic wand and paying you all more,” said Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak on Monday during a visit to employees in the sector , which plan to continue their actions in the coming days. According to him, wage increases would feed inflation and degrade public finances, already deteriorated from the pandemic and the energy crisis.
Some 23,000 schools are expected to undergo disturbances on Wednesday during a first day of seven of the disengagement provided for by the Syndicat of Teachers Neu. To maximize the impact of their movement, teachers’ representatives estimated that it was “completely appropriate” that teachers or teachers do not reveal their intentions in advance to the leaders of the establishments.
Recession in sight
“The government refuses to discuss the causes of the strike,” deplored the secretaries of the Neu, Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, in a statement. According to them, the lack of revaluation of wages leads to recruitment problems, which “disturbs every day the education of children”.
The strikers of the various sectors ask for increases in priority to compensate for inflation, which reaches 10.5 %. According to the latest IMF forecasts, the United Kingdom will be, in 2023, the only major economic power to undergo a recession, with a contraction of 0.6 % of its GDP.
The showdown also relates to working conditions, pensions or government projects to limit the right to strike. The movement has been going on since spring. In November alone, the National Statistics Office counted 467,000 work days lost due to social conflicts, an unprecedented figure since 2011. Nearly a million days of cumulative strikes had then been recorded. Since June 2022, 1.6 million days of work have been “lost”.
The TSSA rail union, however, has hoped for the hope of an advance, indicating in a press release on Tuesday that it has received “two formal offers” more consistent than the previous ones, who are now under study by its executive committee . In the meantime, a new rail slipping is scheduled for Friday, while the firefighters voted in favor of a first strike in twenty years.