The economy today
United Kingdom: the return of the social question?
Audio 04:06
Eurostar trains wait at St Pancras International station in London.
The British railway will be paralyzed this Tuesday, June 21, 2022 by the railway strike (illustration).
Neil Hall/Reuters
By: Dominique Baillard Follow
3 mins
British rail will be virtually paralyzed today by the railway workers' strike.
They are fighting for their wages and the preservation of employment.
We are already talking about a historic movement that could snowball.
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It has been thirty years since there has been such a mobilization in the railways.
50,000 rail employees are called to stop work.
In the 1990s, it was privatization that triggered a movement of comparable magnitude.
Today the railway employees are scattered in a dozen private companies, some remain integrated into the public, and all fear new social plans with the closing of the counters.
Their worries are exacerbated by inflation.
The rise in prices of around 9% has brutally impoverished them.
It should continue to climb throughout the year.
This strike is spread over the whole week, with a strong mobilization today, Thursday and Saturday.
Rail workers are determined to continue their movement if they are not heard by the government of Boris Johnson
Mick Lynch, the leader of the rail union already speaks of a “summer of discontent”.
In the memory of the British this expression is charged, it refers to the winter of discontent which had preceded the coming to power of Margaret Thatcher.
Many other public sector employees could join the railway workers.
The teachers, for example, are demanding an 8% increase;
nurses, young doctors and all the staff of the National Health Service.
School and health have been devastated by the Covid and these two sectors are in the grip of a vocations crisis.
Postal workers, lawyers, are also very upset against the government.
In the public service, wage increases are far from offsetting inflation
The government wants at all costs to limit the rise in salaries to a maximum of 3%.
It chooses to firmly control wages to avoid the formation of this inflationary spiral rising prices/rising wages which is very difficult to break.
Giving in to the demand of the railway workers, they are demanding a 7% increase, could jeopardize its anti-inflation strategy.
On average, British civil servants had increases of 1.5% this year, while the increase was 8% for private sector employees.
By excluding bonuses, and adjusting wages to the level of inflation, they fell to their 2016 level. Those who work full time are reduced to going to the food bank, deplores the leader of the rail union .
Could the social discontent that is rising in the United Kingdom contaminate Europeans?
In the euro zone, inflation is lower and, like in the United Kingdom, companies favor the payment of bonuses to avoid feeding the inflationary spiral.
Social tension could increase this fall, at the time of major wage negotiations.
In the countries of Eastern Europe, where inflation is much higher, well above 10%, the pressure on wages is already very noticeable.
In Poland and Hungary, where the labor market is tight, companies are preparing for a double-digit wage increase without waiting for the mobilization of their employees.
In both Eastern and Western Europe they are once again in a position of strength, especially because of the recurring staff shortages in multiple sectors.
In the UK where the strikers are ready to lose money
►In brief
As a result of the war in Ukraine, Cape Verde declares an economic emergency
With inflation at 8% fueled by the rise in oil and food products, 9 out of 100 inhabitants of the archipelago are threatened with food insecurity.
It was only 2 in 100 during the pandemic, the Prime Minister observes.
With this solemn decree, he seeks to attract aid from donors so that his government continues to support families and businesses in difficulty.
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