Ambulance staff - in half of the ten service areas in Britain - announced their intention to go on strike next Friday, after members of the Royal College of Nursing, in the United Kingdom - who make up a third of emergency service providers in the country, today, Tuesday, joined successive strikes organized by the health sector. Within a series of widespread strikes in all sectors of the country; Protesting stagnant salaries and not keeping pace with inflation.
Fears of stagnant wages push the health sector to join the strikes in Britain
"wage stagnation"
This comes after nearly half a million British workers, including nurses, railway workers and teachers, went on strike last Wednesday - in what was described as the largest labor movement the country has witnessed in a decade, to demand wages commensurate with the pace of inflation and the actual value of their work. Inflation in the UK peaked at 11.1 per cent last year after hovering around 10 per cent, but the average proposed salary increase for public sector workers did not exceed 5 per cent while civil servants got an increase of between 2 and 3 per cent.
And according to the veteran "vox" editor, Eileen Iwans, the labor strikes are the result of the accumulation of austerity measures pursued by Britain and are not born today. Austerity, Brexit, stagnant wages and the cost of living crisis have pushed British workers to the heights of anger.
The strikes emerged after more than a decade of austerity programs and cuts in social services that hit the poor and middle class in particular, as well as dramatic shifts in the UK economy, which some experts say have exacerbated "inequality" and widened the gap between social classes.The British government, headed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, refuses to respond to the demands of the protesters, blaming the workers. It condemns the strikes, stressing its adherence to supporting legislation related to minimum levels of spending on public services, which would limit workers' rights, if Parliament approved these legislations.
Sunak has repeatedly announced his administration's adherence to "easing" measures. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak accused the Labor Party of helping unions "push Britain to a halt" by opposing a new law to limit strikes, while his spokesman said last Wednesday that the government is confident. That strikes will only save people's lives, and that negotiations - not strikes - are the correct approach to resolving the crisis.
A wave of strikes continues in London, since last spring; Since June 2022, the National Statistics Office recorded 1.6 million “lost” work days as a result of successive strikes, and last November alone witnessed about 467,000 days of work stoppages, which is a record since 2011.
Since Monday, health workers have joined teachers, civil servants and railway workers in successive union-led strikes across the UK.