The UK labor strikes are years in the making

British workers have reached breaking point, with half a million people including nurses, railway workers and teachers striking on Wednesday for wages that match inflation and the cost of labor. Although the UK’s cost of living crisis has affected most sectors of society, this is just the latest in a series of problems for workers in the country.

Attacks arise from the background austerity program decade-plus and cut social services that have hit the poor and middle income class particularly hard, as well as dramatic changes in the UK economy which some experts say has exacerbated inequality.

Wednesday’s strike was the biggest in a decade, closing schools and halting the country’s train service. The UK’s public services, including the National Health Service (NHS), schools, rail and maritime services, firefighters, and the police, have suffered from a lack of government investment over the past decade and especially, in the British Conservative Party. The lack of investment has been exacerbated for the NHS especially due to the Covid-19 pandemic, which has overwhelmed the already established system.

Rail workers, led by National Rail, Maritime and Transport Union General Secretary Mick Lynch, have been on strike since the summer over what the union says are proposed pay cuts over the next two years, as well as proposed job and service cuts. cut the upgrade. The government under the leadership of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak responded by admonishing workers, condemning strikes, and supporting legislation on minimum service levels, which would limit workers’ right to strike if it passed Parliament.

The strike has spread to civil servants, such as those at Her Majesty’s Treasury and workers who manage passport applications and driving tests, due to similar concerns about wage stagnation.

UK inflation peaked at 11.1 per cent last year according to the Financial Times, and has been around 10 per cent, but wages for public sector workers have not kept pace. A proposed salary increase for public sector workers averages around 5 percent, with civil service workers given a raise of only about 2 or 3 percent.

“[NHS workers] had an average pay rise of £1,400 (regardless of pay grade) last year,” Anthony Barnes, a spokesman for UNISON, the public service union, told Vox. It may sound ok but inflation has been around 10-11 percent for months. Barnes also pointed to “catastrophic staff shortages” as workers leave the service for better jobs. “This puts extra pressure on those who remain, but with wages far from inflation, the ‘rise’ in wages becomes a pay cut.”

Wednesday’s strike – and further planned action – shows that the government, employers and unions are far from a resolution. He also spoke about the bigger issues in the UK economy, going back to Brexit and before.

However, more than an economic demand, the attack is about politics and policy – asking what kind of government can not only negotiate with workers, but also reduce some of the problems that cause the current economic and labor situation.

British economic and political decisions have led to this period

The current cost of living crisis caused by inflation and energy shortages due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine is beyond doubt. But it didn’t come from nowhere; rather, it is the apotheosis of a series of economic and political decisions that have weakened social services when depending on both practical and economic angles, increased inequality, and cut off opportunities for growth.

The cost of living crisis is “probably more of a tipping point, than a causal driver” of the attacks, Liam Stanley, professor of politics and international relations at the University of Sheffield, told Vox. “It’s quite difficult to disentangle all the different factors, because the UK has been dysfunctional for a long time.”

The British economy may not reflect dysfunction. But this past September, former Prime Minister Liz Truss was exposed to some of the country’s economic precarity when she announced a tax plan – quickly reversed – which will lower taxes for the richest nations and provide tax breaks for companies.

The plan has caused chaos in the financial markets because it is a radical way of understanding mainstream economics: injecting money into the economy through tax cuts only increases inflation. Corporations and the rest of the government no longer believed in the British economy under Truss’s leadership, so they cut it off, causing the British currency, the pound sterling, to drop to its lowest value against the dollar.

In addition, the government needs to find money for the services it provides, such as schools, health services, taxes and benefits, etc. Taxes and foreign investment are the two obvious ways, and when Truss and Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng announced the plan, it raised questions about how their government would pay for services, including the expensive NHS, which has been struggling for years. from underfunding.

Mark Blythe, director of the William Rhodes Center for International Economics and Finance at Brown University, pointed out to Vox in an email interview in September that the British government has done “amazing things on its own” over the years, including “cutting spending in a country that has been cut.” to the bone.” After the 2008 financial crash, the UK government under Tory Prime Minister David Cameron drastically cut resources for everything from food safety and air quality inspections to aged care.

Technically, the NHS and public education should be exempted, but the austerity program in general is harming British society and increasing inequality, so much so that in 2018, the UN Special Rapporteur on poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, sent a scathing report on the issue. effect. Because of the program, he wrote at the time, “great suffering … has been inflicted unnecessarily, especially on the working poor, single mothers struggling against strong odds, the disabled who have been marginalized, and millions of children. who are locked in a cycle of poverty that most will find difficult to escape.”

Another aspect of the economic crisis, Blythe said, is Brexit, which “lost the British export market that could have been used to grow from this crisis.” The assessment was announced in data from the 2022 report by the Center for Economic Policy Research, which shows a decrease in exports of goods and services to Europe due to Brexit and trade policies, in addition to causing shortages and increases in the price of imported goods. Europe.

Brexit has led to more insularity in the economy – which has moved away from industry and manufacturing and towards what Stanley calls “rentier capitalism” – the ownership of some valuable assets like land, intellectual property, or natural resources, which are then rented out, for a large cost and gain benefits of some.

Instead of industry and manufacturing, the British economy is now based on services and so-called rentier capitalism, increasing economic inequality over the past few years and also failing to produce innovations that can promote economic growth. At that time, the International Monetary Fund has estimated that the British economy will contract by .6 percent this year, performing worse than other developed economies, and even Russia’s, which is under the regime of punishment.

In the near term, the labor force is set to continue

Wednesday’s attack was the biggest in a decade, but it won’t be the last. Barnes told Vox that UNISON members will strike again on Friday February 10. Other actions in various sectors are planned for February and March.

Lynch promised further action in a speech at Westminster on Wednesday. “We’re not going to win in one day,” he said. “We will win by staying on the field. We have to dig in.”

This doesn’t just mean constant attacks, though that’s certainly part of the plan. It also means taking political and legal action.

The strike bill is currently moving through Parliament, for example, facing potential legal action from the Trades Union Congress, Tim Sharp, senior policy officer for employment told Vox in an interview on Friday. “We think that what the government is proposing is illegal,” Sharp said, and violates Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights. “We think this is the opposite of what it is [International Labor Organization] require the right to strike.”

The UK does not have the right to strike in law, although work stoppages are legal if unions follow certain government procedures. What the minimum service bill would do, Sharp said, would be to give the government more leverage over layoffs because the minimum service would be decided by government ministers – not employers or unions.

If they take control at the next general election, the Labor Party has promised to scrap the minimum services bill if it is signed into law. But ultimately what unions and striking workers want is a government that is responsive to the needs of workers – one that will prioritize funding for the public services many depend on, and work towards an economy that serves its people. Lynch’s speech on Wednesday called on politicians to respond to workers’ demands for better pay.

“If not, he’d better get out now,” he said. “Let’s start a general election, and let’s get a new government that acts on behalf of our people.”