HALF-MILLION BRITISH WORKERS GO ON STRIKE OVER PAY (VIDEO)

Wed 01 February 2023:

Up to half a million British teachers, university staff, train drivers and civil servants went on strike on Wednesday in the largest coordinated action for years amid lengthy disputes over pay.

Teacher members of the National Education Union in England and Wales walked out in the first of several days, affecting 23,400 schools.

There is a crisis of recruitment and retention within the school system, and a decade of falling pay is a key reason for this move and needs to be addressed by the government, the union said.

Around 70,000 staff at 150 universities across Britain were on strike in the first of 18 days in disputes over pay, working conditions and pensions, and their action will impact 2.5 million students through February and March, the University and College Union said.

Such widespread strike action has not taken place, since a dispute over public sector pay in 2011, when more than a million workers, are estimated to have taken industrial action.

Most unions are holding several days of strikes, some, like rail, spread across months. Wednesday has been co-ordinated by the unions, as a day of mass walkouts, to send a message.

It follows strikes by National Health Service ambulance drivers and nurses, who are calling not only for a pay rise, but say labor shortages have made working conditions, near-impossible.

Postal workers have also been on strike, and firefighters have voted for future strike action.

While inflation has begun to cool slightly, it remains at historic highs, and acute in areas that most impact workers on lower salaries. Grocery price inflation hit a record 16.7 percent in the four weeks to Jan. 22.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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