* LinkedIn

New styles of strikes and protest are emerging in the UK

   This article by Emma Sara Hughes, PhD Candidate in Employment
--
   published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

   The image of strikers picketing outside factory gates is usually seen
   as something from the archives. Official statistics show an almost
   perennial decline in formal strikes. In the month of January 2018 there
   were 9,000 recorded working days lost due to strikes – a tiny fraction
   of the 3m recorded in January 1979.

   Yet there has been a noticeable increase in private sector working days
   lost from strike action. In January 2018, the figure stood at 231,000
   working days lost. That is 146,000 more days than in January 2017 and
   166,000 more than than January 2016.
--
   O’Leary, once proclaiming that “hell would freeze over” before his
   company recognised a union. McDonald’s workers in Cambridge and London
   also went on strike over pay and zero-hours contracts late last year,
   with talk of more action to come.

--
   Working days lost in the UK (cumulative 12-month totals, not seasonally
   adjusted). : Labour Disputes Inquiry, Office for National StatisticsThe
   beginning of 2018 witnessed some high profile strikes in key sectors:
   at a number of railways over safety; at water company United Utilities
   over pay and working conditions; at IT giant Fujitsu over job losses;
--
   of Economic and Business consultancy reports year-on-year increases in
   absenteeism since 2011. Short disputes and other types of protest are
   excluded from official strike statistics – hence, many go unnoticed.

   Newer patterns of resistance include social media campaigns over
--

   Another reason may be because real wages have plummeted, while
   unemployment is at its lowest since the peak of strike activity in the
   mid-1970s (now 4.3%), thereby giving workers a greater degree of
   confidence in pressing their demands.