Winter of discontent: UK comes to standstill as workers go on strike in lead-up to Christmas
Nurses are going on strike, while postal workers are refusing to deliver letters and parcels during one of the busiest periods of the year.
LONDON: A series of strikes are under way in the United Kingdom, with hundreds of thousands of workers walking out in the lead-up to Christmas.
Nurses, railway workers and postal workers are among those taking industrial action in disputes over salary, working conditions and proposed layoffs.
The labour disputes, which have continued since the summer, have been called Britain’s new winter of discontent.
The strikes have been criticised by some for disrupting British residents' festive plans and worsening backlogs within the National Health Service.
DISRUPTION ACROSS SECTORS
For the first time in more than 100 years, nurses in one of the biggest healthcare unions are walking out in a national strike.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is demanding an almost 20 per cent pay rise to keep up with soaring inflation and undo years of real-term pay cuts.
The nurses will continue to provide urgent care for patients during the strikes, but routine services are being disrupted.
With energy and heating bills at a record high, some healthcare professionals are struggling to stay afloat.
"Personally, I don’t want to be called a hero and I don't want to receive applause. I find that quite condescending,” said one nurse in southwest England, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals.
“I just want to be paid appropriately and I represent all other nurses, I’m not just representing myself, for the skills that we have and the life-saving work that we do."
Postal workers are also going on strike and refusing to deliver letters and parcels in the run-up to Christmas, which is usually one of the busiest periods of the year for the postal industry.
Such collective actions will have a huge impact, not just on the operations of industries, but on the larger British population.
Some workers told CNA that they feel the UK is at a tipping point.
"The working class, we’ve had enough. There’s never enough for us but there’s always enough for them. They come in and they take and take and take. So we don’t have any other option, really,” said one postal worker.
Another postal worker said: "Everything is up now, the bills, the electric, the gas, everything. Even the food. It’s not enough (with) our wages."
MOVEMENT OF PEOPLE
Major train strikes across the country also mean that people’s plans to see their loved ones have been stopped in their tracks.
Members of the RMT union, which represents many rail workers, are walking out because of salary disputes and proposed layoffs.
This has caused restaurants, bars and event venues to have mass cancellations during the festive season, costing them thousands of pounds.
Mr Sammie Ellard-King, marketing director of K&G Hospitality, said: “We respect strike action, it’s just the timing of it. It feels like they wanted to achieve a media storm with this, and they’ve succeeded with that.”
However, he noted that “unfortunately” the hospitality industry is the one that is hardest hit every time mass strikes happen.
The British government has said that the unions’ demands are unaffordable.
It is currently working on changes to the law to mitigate the impact of strike action, including the proposal for military reinforcement to help run key infrastructure around the festive season.
With neither side willing to back down, the strikes and disruption to the nation could continue into the new year and beyond.
