LONDON – It was one of the more unusual public displays in a city long accustomed to loud and colorful protests: protesters wore black robes and coiled ponytail wigs. waving banners on Monday outside the London courthouse.
But with Britain bracing for a “summer of discontent” and growing labor unrest as The cost of living skyrocketedEven the lawyers are on strike.
Criminal defense attorneys are just the latest group to demand more pay, after the largest railroad workers’ strikes in a generation, in June. Employees at the national airline, British Airways; state teachers; and medical and postal workers have also threatened the walk.
As energy costs soar, hyperinflation doubles, taxes and borrowing costs rise, Britons are demanding higher wages with a militia unseen in years.
Speculation that the country will be paralyzed by strikes this summer has raised fears of a return to the 1970s, when labor unrest left trash on the streets, preventing the dead from dying. buried and dealt a fatal blow to the government of the time.
“It was a moment of uncertainty,” said Steven Fielding, professor of political history at the University of Nottingham in central England. He said that unrest occurs when government authority has been vanished by recent scandalsbut also due to rising inflation, the long-term effects of the pandemic and the realization economic costs of leaving the European Union last year.
“That is the context in which this is happening,” Professor Fielding said, “and this poses a serious threat to a government tied to all of this.”
Even some of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s allies seem to agree. Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Daniel HannanA Brexit enthusiast and member of the House of Commons, lamented the feeling of “chaos – the feeling that Britain was falling apart as taxes, inflation and strikes began their terrible spiral. “
Public services, long under strain, appear to be collapsing in some cases. Almost 6.5 million people in the UK are waiting for hospital treatment (usually a knee or hip replacement, or eye surgery) and there are 100,000 staff positions in the country’s healthcare system, according to the Consortium. British Medicine, the body representing doctors.
Britons are currently advised to wait 10 weeks if they want to renew their passports because of the backlog of requests. Average waiting time to driving license test 14 weeks, the government said.
But the return of offensive action is the most visible symbol of the unease facing the British – and it is affecting visitors, too.
Steven Freudmann, president of the Institute of Travel and Tourism, a lobbying group, says that tourist numbers are about 30% to 40% lower than they were before the pandemic and that, while there is an integer multiply – include ongoing impact of coronavirus – rail strikes and threats of further disruption “are certainly among the factors.”
A solution to the requirements of different groups of workers seems far-fetched. While inflation is eroding spending power across the country, the government remains determined to limit wage increases for fear that they will drive inflation higher and fuel demand for ever higher wages.
However, Mr Johnson also saw a political opportunity in the fallout and he tried to blame the opposition Labor Party, which is closely linked to unions and wary of going up. strike workers.
Mr Johnson said there had been “unbelievable silence from Labor leader”, Keir Starmer. In Parliament on June 22, he accused Labor politicians of “supporting the strikers, while we support the protesters.”
Mr Starmer, who blamed the government for failing to resolve the rail dispute, ordered his lawmakers not to join the protests along with striking workers, only to feel ashamed when Some people ignored his instructions.
But the strikes also created problems for Mr Johnson. Last year, he promised to build a “high salary, high skill“ economy, a pledge that had gone up in smoke, only to be replaced by a demand to limit pay.
He also faces double-standard charges because he plans to shield retirees from inflation with corresponding state pension increases. Critics see the move as a way to benefit a key constituency for Mr Johnson’s Conservative Party.
And a host of different groups demanding higher pay, including middle-class professionals, further complicate Mr Johnson’s political story.
Striker attorneys rely on government funding to pay them to act for clients who lack the funds for their legal protection. They attacked to demand an increase in those payments, but it’s hard to describe any lawyer as a left-wing agitator.
And in Scotland, even the police are embroiled in a pay dispute and, despite not threatening to attack, say they will “withdraw goodwill” by fulfilling their duties in a manner seriously at the time indicated in their schedule.
Mr Johnson’s critics argue that inflation is caused by external factors such as soaring energy costs and the war in Ukraine, rather than wage increases that are often below inflation. The company’s profit is a larger driver of inflation than wagesthey say.
They also blame the government for holding back wages for public sector workers for years, pushing workers to their financial limits and driving demand higher now.
“Inflation today is not because nurses and care workers want enough pay to keep food on the table,” said Frances O’Grady, secretary general of the Trades Union Congress, a labor union. “The main drivers are global energy prices and the pandemic disrupting supply chains.”
She added that refusing to raise wages now could reduce spending and push Britain into recession.
She said: “The cost of living crisis has hit the UK particularly hard as it follows a decade of wage repression. In most of the top economies, she added, “wages have increased over the past decade, but not in the UK”
Prof Fielding says memories of the 1970s haunt the British political class, but he notes there is a big difference between then and now. About 23% of workers are now unionized, he said, compared with about half 50 years ago, and worries about union violence have eased.
Polls tend to show public divisions over opinions about rail workers’ strikes, and Mr Johnson’s attempt to blame Labor and unions for the disruption fragment seems to have failed, so far.
But the opposition failed to capitalize on Mr Johnson’s moment of weakness, Prof Fielding said, adding that “without counter-measures, the risk to the opposition is that the public could arrest focus on government explanations.”
It may not be clear for months which Britons ultimately blame the labor unrest while the country settles a series of disputes that threaten to inconvenience the lives of millions.
As the season of uncertainty unfolds, Britons may have to look for small solaces where they can find them.
One place – at least for motorists – could be Wiltshire, in the west of England, where parking violators have also threatened strikes.
