#alternate Strikes Sweep Britain as Workers Demand Better Pay

   (BUTTON)
--
   Today’s Paper

   Business|Strikes Sweep Britain as Workers Demand Better Pay
   https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/02/business/uk-strikes-workers-walkout-
   rail.html
     * (BUTTON) Give this articleGive this articleGive this article
--
     * (BUTTON)

Strikes in the U.K.

     * What to Know
--
   Continue reading the main story

Strikes Sweep Britain as Workers Demand Better Pay

   Backed by unions and tired of years of low wage growth, workers are
--

   Image
   Workers on strike at the Port of Felixstowe last month.Credit...Max
   Miechowski for The New York Times
   Image
--
   of constant motion as Britain’s busiest container shipping dock — was
   almost devoid of activity, with few goods coming in or out. For the
   first time in more than three decades, its workers were on strike.

   The walkout escalated the workers’ eight-month pay dispute with the
   port and CK Hutchison, its Hong Kong-based parent company. But it is
   just one of dozens of strikes that have swept Britain this summer, with
   more probably coming in the months ahead.

--

   Image The Port of Felixstowe, Britain’s busiest container
   shipping dock, has been unusually quiet with its workers on strike.
   The Port of Felixstowe, Britain’s busiest container shipping dock, has
   been unusually quiet with its workers on strike.Credit...Max Miechowski
   for The New York Times
   Image
--
   pay cut in buying power.

   The strikers argue that the company’s multimillion-pound profit last
   year showed that it could afford to raise wages for workers who feel
   undervalued after working through the pandemic.
--
   country, as well as bus drivers, call center employees and criminal
   defense lawyers in England and Wales, are among those who have gone on
   strike in recent months over both new concerns about rising prices and
   long-running complaints about pay and management.

--
   expected to be the current foreign secretary, Liz Truss.

   In response to the strike, Hutchison Ports, a unit of CK Hutchison, has
   said it provides well-paid secure jobs and maintains that it is
   offering an increase in pay that is near the union’s demands. The
   company has also accused Unite of “promoting a national agenda” that is
   leaving its workers worse off. Logistics UK, a trade group, said
   disruption from the strike was minimal, as companies were able to move
   supplies in advance and Felixstowe tends not to be used for “just in
   time” supply chains.
--
   people.”

   The rail strikes this summer — the largest in three decades — brought
   much of Britain to a standstill, which could have ignited fury across
   the country. Instead, it made an overnight celebrity of Mick Lynch, the
--

   Image
   Strikes have brought to a halt train services, trash collection and
   port shipments around the country.Credit...Max Miechowski for The New
   York Times
   Image
   Felixstowe strikers argue that the port company’s profits show that it
   can afford to raise wages.Credit...Max Miechowski for The New York
   Times
--
   With so many vital public services being disrupted, bleak comparisons
   have been made to the late 1970s and Britain’s infamous Winter of
   Discontent. More than a million workers in 1979 went on strike to
   protest the government’s attempt to impose a public-sector pay ceiling
   to try to control soaring inflation. Trash piled up, schools closed,
--
   Dave Ward, the general secretary of the Communications Workers Union,
   believes today’s unrest will last longer than a wave of summertime
   strikes. “This is also signaling a complete break from the traditional
   ways that companies are being run,” he said. “And it’s potentially
   filling the vacuum that exists politically.”

   Many of the issues at the heart of these strikes, such as the
   privatization of public services and weak pay growth, are long-running.
   But the spur to action may have been the pandemic lockdowns, which
--

   Next week, criminal defense lawyers who appear in court with people
   using legal aid will begin an indefinite strike, causing a halt to
   thousands of trials. The lawyers, members of the Criminal Bar
   Association, are trying to force the government to increase their fees
--
   delayed or it’s denied.”

   The Ministry of Justice has called the strike “irresponsible.” Still,
   the issue will be in the in-tray of the next justice minister, and
   other ministers will be facing similar challenges. A large civil
   service union is preparing a vote for a nationwide strike in September,
   and similar votes are underway or being prepared for many National
   Health Service workers and teachers’ unions.