The UK has been largely paralyzed by a wave of reportedly protracted strikes supported and organized by unions from various sectors. Health care and education workers went on strike throughout December, starting today the railroad workers are also on strike. Only 20 percent of services are expected to run.

According to correspondent Lia van Bekhoven, it was the biggest strike in a generation. “Everyone is going to see something in the coming days because practically every day for the next month life is going to be interrupted somewhere.” Today the train staff went on strike, from Thursday about 100,000 nurses went on strike. Postal workers and ambulance workers are also demanding their wages keep pace with inflation.

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“They all want a raise that millions of UK workers have not seen for years and are now being sidelined by rising energy costs and rising food costs, while wages are still at 2008 levels.”

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Scotland

According to Van Bekhoven, this wage demand will be respected in some areas. ‘In Scotland, a number of strikers called off strikes because the Scottish government wanted to go further than London. Scots are prepared to raise wages more than inflation, but less than strikers demand.’

However, the British government did not want to go that far, according to Van Bekhoven, withholding everything and leaving negotiations to employers. Nurses want a 5 percent increase on top of 11 percent inflation, but the government is sticking with 4.5 percent. Although the nurses said they were willing to negotiate, the British government did not seem interested.

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Good grief

Van Bekhoven thinks London is hoping public support will decline rapidly as the strikes continue. However, in the case of nurses, this support is huge. ‘The NHS is a sacred cow and is held in high esteem. Everyone also knows that the same NHS is on ventilators and they are barely working because there has been almost no investment in them for the last 12 years. People died because they had to wait 19 hours for an ambulance, or because they lay on stretchers in the corridors for 24 hours more. Everyone also saw how hard the nurses worked, and there was a lot of understanding for the nursing staff.’

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