LONDON Feb 1 (BUS): Up to half a million British teachers, civil servants, train drivers and university lecturers will strike on Wednesday in the biggest coordinated action in a generation, which the government says will cause widespread disruption.
Reuters reports that the mass strikes will see schools closed, the army on standby to help at the British border, and rail services not operating in much of the country.
Union leaders estimate as many as 500,000 people will take part, the highest number in at least a decade, and there will be rallies against a planned new law to limit strikes in some sectors, a proposal they argue will further poison relations.
said Paul Nowak, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress (TUC), the union’s umbrella group.
“Instead of plotting new ways to attack the right to strike, ministers should get increased salaries across the economy – starting with adequate pay increases for workers across the public sector.”
The government says “mitigation measures” will be in place, but the strikes will have a major impact.
“We are on the fore that this will disrupt people’s lives and that is why we believe negotiations and not picket lines is the right approach,” Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s spokeswoman told reporters.
With inflation soaring more than 10% – the highest level in four decades – Britain has seen a wave of strikes from health and transport workers to Amazon warehouse staff and Royal Mail employees.
They are demanding above-inflationary wage increases to cover food and energy bills that they say have left them exhausted, feeling undervalued and struggling to make ends meet.
On Wednesday, some 300,000 teachers will take action, along with 100,000 civil servants from more than 120 government departments, tens of thousands of university lecturers and railway workers.
Next week, more strikes are scheduled for nurses, ambulance staff, paramedics, emergency call operators and other healthcare workers, while this week firefighters also supported a nationwide strike.
ZHB