Are The Planned Strikes Justified Or Unnecessary?

A cold wind is blowing through the streets of towns and cities in the UK right now as an Arctic blast hits our shores. The cold weather has come as quite a shock, as before this the temperatures had been very mild during the autumn months.

Series Of Strikes Planned By A Number Of Organisations

What is also going to come as a shock to the country is the series of strikes that are being planned for the coming weeks and months by a number of different organisations. It is probably the nearest to a ‘General Strike’ that we have seen for a few decades and it is going to lead to some serious unrest.

So far we have had a raft of strikes announced by health workers, firefighters, civil servants, lecturers, teachers and transport, postal and security workers, many of these strikes being planned before Christmas. But are these strikes justified and should health workers for example strike when their doing so could lead to tragic consequences?

Deadlock Between Unions, Employers And The Government

The problem is that many of these workers feel like they have no other choice and strike action is the only way they can get their message across. There seems to be deadlock between the unions, the employers and the government over pay and working conditions, with the government particularly keen to show that they will not budge an inch. The government say that it is not up to them to get involved and that it is up to the employers to strike a deal with the unions. However the unions believe the dead hand of Westminster is stopping the employers from giving workers a fair pay rise. The Secretary General of the RMT union Mick Lynch certainly thinks so and has been very scathing of former Transport Secreatary Grant Shapps for not coming to the table and attending meetings with him.

Workers At The End Of Their Tether

Downing Street has urged public sector unions not to get involved in any ‘unnecessary’ strike action but many workers are at the end of their tether. Inflation is hitting their pockets hard and after the years of austerity and then the pandemic, they feel like they cannot hold back any longer. The number of workers who are having to use food banks to supplement their income in order to get by is a sorrowful state for the UK to be in and it is only going to get worse as we go deeper into winter.

People have to be paid enough money so that they can live decently, the UK is not a third world country, so it is vital that deals can be struck that all sides can live with, the trains, buses, airports and hospitals etc keep running at full capacity and we can all get back to work.