Wrapped in scarves and wool hats, holding thermoses of coffee and tea, they protested in front of their hospitals. “With heavy hearts and cold hands” they stood in front of entrances rather than in their wards: tens of thousands of nurses and nurses formed on Wednesday with their placards in front of English hospitals to protest against starvation and miserable working conditions”. The strike will last two full days for the first time, including Thursday – and is expected to last for longer periods from February if the government does not agree to a deal.
With the prolonged labor dispute, those affected considerably intensified their actions. In many hospitals, which are barely able to meet daily needs anyway, only the emergency services kept operations going during the strike. Thousands of surgeries and treatment appointments had to be cancelled. Meanwhile, other clinic workers and residents’ associations also plan to join the protest. Ambulance drivers went on strike again on Monday.
teacher in labor disputes
And hospital workers are not alone in their discontent. Trains and buses will soon be stopped again for several days after all talks break down. The post office is also on strike again. Ministry officials and employees of important authorities joined the actions, as well as university professors.
In addition, hundreds of thousands of teachers in England want to stop working from February on days yet to be announced. Most schools are expected to have to close for extended periods of time. In addition to hospital strikes, this will have a particularly noticeable effect – possibly until spring.
Teachers’ unions complain that real salaries in schools have fallen by a quarter over the last 12 years and that current record inflation, which is still above 10%, is “unmanageable” for many teachers. The government offered about a five percent wage increase. The situation is similar for nursing staff in hospitals.
Altogether, wages in public services rose just 3.3 percent from the previous year – in the private sector, 7.2 percent. Campaigns therefore focus mainly on the public sector. The TUC trade union federation is already planning a “national day of protest” in all areas of society for February 1st.
There hasn’t been a wave of industrial stocks since the Margaret Thatcher era. In the six months of June to November 2022 alone, more than 1.6 million working days were lost due to strikes. According to calculations by the Financial Times, this is the most strike days in the UK in 30 years.
dismiss the undisciplined
After initially refusing to do so, Rishi Sunak’s government agreed to talks with unions but rejected a full inflation adjustment. She explained that giving in would jeopardize the fight against inflation, which must be an absolute priority at the moment.
The situation has also worsened as a result of the new anti-strike laws that Sunak has introduced in parliament. They aim to allow the government to ensure “a minimum level of service” in some areas of work during strike periods and to fire recalcitrant strikers if necessary. This should directly apply to hospitals, ambulances, railways and fire departments.
However, it should be possible to extend it to schools and universities, the area of border security and the decommissioning of nuclear power plants and other sectors as needed. TUC Secretary General Paul Nowak called this “draconian” bill “undemocratic, impractical and probably also illegal”. Angela Rayner, Deputy Leader of the Labor Party, spoke of a “violation of civil rights principles” – of a restriction of “freedoms that have been fought against for centuries”.