Behind the British ＂strike＂: inflation continues to live high, the cost of living h

Source: Workers Daily

Author: Liang Fan

Recently, many European countries strikes. Among them, Britain's continuous "strike" is particularly fierce, which has a huge impact on the field of social and people's livelihood.Behind the strikes of many industries such as transportation, medical care, and postal services, there are actually hidden social contradictions under the pressure of continuous high inflation.

According to British media recently, Britain is experiencing a round of strike in the history of the country.

According to British media reports, thousands of British ambulance staff will hold a strike on January 11 and 23 next year.Earlier, the "Royal School of Nursing" of the British Nursing Practitioner Trade Union launched two major strikes on December 15th and 20th. Tens of thousands of nurses left their posts, took the streets, protesting salary benefits and working conditions, and requested to add increaseSalary 19%.

It is understood that the strike of the British medical system is very rare.Prior to this, the British "Royal Institute of Nursing" never called for strikes in its 106 -year history.Ambulance strike is also the first time since 1990.In addition to nurses, other workers of British emergency personnel and national medical service system also held strikes on the 21st.

Before the strike, the British medical system was seriously under pressure.Nurses complained that inadequate manpower led to overload work, and the waiting time for calling ambulance services was getting longer and longer.Nursing staff and ambulance staff protesting heavy work and only 4%of the previous salary increase, they believe that this constitutes a actual salary reduction.

Before the strike of the health system, the most interesting thing was the British transportation system for several months.On November 10th, the strikes organized by the National Railway, Sea and Highway Transportation Unions and the United Kingdom's United Union were paralyzed by the London Metro.As the negotiations between the union and the railway company have not yet been successful, employees of the British railway system strike again from December 24th to 26th.The train driver plans to take action in January 2023.

Following the wave of strikes such as railway, medical care and other industries, tens of thousands of civil servants in the UK have also voted to support and adopted a decision to increase the government's salary increase.The British Times reported that these people covered about half of the government and public service agencies, of which nearly 90 % were in favor of strikes, and they were from Britain's postal, border defense, immigration, and other departments.

Peninsula TV reports that a large number of personnel of health, transportation and multiple government agencies may make the British government and society's operations facing huge challenges.And the billions of pounds of economic losses came.

The strike of the medical system has specially caused concerns, and some hospitals have announced that they have entered the "emergency" state.This strike occurred in the "worst time". At present, the British new crown epidemic, the outline and continuous fluctuation cases of the type A. -type A. The medical system has been pressed. Even if there is no strike, the operation of the system is very difficult.

The British government is worried that the continuous continuous strikes will cause the public to have a backlog of demand, which will cause the busy medical system during the Christmas season to add a heavy burden.To this end, the British government has persuaded the public to call the 999 emergency calls only with life -threatening and avoid doing any "adventure".

For most British people, the difficulty of travel during Christmas and New Year is probably the most headache.From December 23rd to 31st, there are strike activities every day in the British transportation system to comprehensively cover the fields of national highways, railways and civil aviation transportation.According to the BBC, the British Railway, Maritime and Transport Workers National Alliance will hold a four -day strike this month, and participants will reach 40,000, which means "the British railway system is fully stopped."

In addition, according to the European News Network, the strikes organized by the public and commercial service unions mainly serve as international airports such as Hizaro, Gatewick, Manchester and Glasgow, Britain.Airport security and luggage consignment services.The industry analysis believes that this strike will affect 10,000 flights and affect 2 million passengers.

Behind the British strike, although there are special reasons for different industries, the more fundamental common cause is that the continuous inflation has made the people's living costs soar, and the days are more difficult.

In October, Britain's inflation rate was as high as 11.1%, a new high of 41 years. Although it fell to 10.7%in November, it was still at a high level in 40 years.According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics of the UK, considering factors such as inflation, British household income next year will fall by 7%, falling to the level of 2013, which is the largest decline since the record in 1956. Public sector employees are the first, and in the middle of 2022The average salary of the private sector increased by 6.9%, and the average growth of the public sector was only 2.7%.

The rise in energy and food prices is a direct fuse that causes British inflation to soar rapidly.Especially since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, energy prices such as oil and natural gas have risen, and the family purchasing power and corporate production capacity of Britain have been greatly created.

In addition, the previous Brexit and crown diseases that occur earlier have further limited the government's financial expenditure capabilities.Under multiple pressures, the British government tried to get rid of the fiscal austerity policy that lasted more than ten years, and it was even more constrained, which was more difficult.

The British Guardian reported that from the public's view, the current situation is largely reflected in the "incompetence of the government".In recent years, the British government's senior management has continued to be turbulent. The country has appeared in five prime ministers in the past six years. This year, three prime ministers have come and go like horselights this year, making it difficult for the government's economic and social policies to be continuously implemented.

It is worth noting that the pressure of inflation and stagnation of economic stagnation is not only in the UK.Due to the high level of inflation, France has also continuously staged various strikes and protests recently. The number of workers in the United States this year reached a new high in nearly 17 years.