UK braces for chaos as half a million teachers, civil servants, train drivers walk out

Hang tight strikers! Your cause is just and the world's workers are with you.

More than 500,000 workers are on strike. The most in over a decade.

Sunak's government has so far taken a hard line with public sector strikes, saying that to give in to demands for large wage increases would only fuel inflation.

Says the billionaire PM. Just fired the party chairman, Nadhim Zahawi over his taxes.

The party of sleaze.

 ...it’s cynical and selfish to strike. Negotiate with your bosses privately, or quit your job, or suck it up until more stable times

Cynical? Selfish? When you can't pay rent and bills, are overworked, underpaid and underappreciated, it's time to down tools and take the gloves off. The decades of Tory misrule celebrating greed, selfishness and the cynical exploitation of the good faith/will of British workers and their hard-working families rewarded for dedication to their job with austerity and neglect by smirking champagne-quaffing public schoolboys is the only rightful place to root out the usual suspects with their supreme cynicism and selfishness born of silver-spoon privilege and entitlement.

Seigi....

Pray for UK!

Or just do nothing. It will have exactly the same effect.

More power to them.

@Paul,

'They should all look for jobs outside UK, like I did. UK is dying. And BREXIT was the last nail in the coffin...'

They all said that in the very early 1990s when I first came to Japan.

The Sterling had just crashed out of the ERM and had lost big against the other currencies.

The Yen and the Japanese economy was about to take over the world since the local economy hadn't quite burst its bubble.

The UK was dead in the water and there was no stopping Japan.

Fast forward 30 years and it is a completely different kettle of fish.

Granted the UK rose again due in part to the EU but mainly due to the innovation that Great Britain is famed for.

The UK has a lot of people hungry for success.

It will rise again.

You can't just sack people or dock their salaries.

Not much of a society if you do that although that probably is what the tory party want.

No hours contracts at the minimum wage.

They've destroyed the country.

Young people want out .

Social services in a mess.

The only good thing is there might be good music made like in the 80s.

Even the IMF says you're a mess.

The most valuable thing in the UK is an Irish parent or grandparent.

Some people I know can't afford to turn the heating on and are taking cold showers. People are struggling to pay their bills, rent, and mortgages.

@cenobite Read your own post and think the opposite and then you will understand the reason why the people are striking. Corporations are raking in crazy profits, they wash the hands of the government. Now ask yourself when is the government going to strike? Either way they will get paid, LMFAO you would fire them all then guess what the situation doesn't change because they aren't at work anyway!! Quit and find another job LMFAO what for did you read the article they want better pay, quit and find the same low wages, these people are not saying they don't want to work they are saying they want a better living wage, this is what they are unhappy about. Yes, everyone suffered from the pandemic so did these companies blah blah blah everyone is suffering but the large corporations and the government. I agree with the people staging the protest. If people don't go to work the large corporations lose these profits and on the other end the government don't get the taxes. Yes you have to give up something to get something and this is what they are doing, people need jobs with better pay to survive, companies need people to work to stay in business, the government need both to pay taxes to keep the country running. Yes, everyone is going to suffer as they did with the pandemic but everyone has to do their part to come to an agreement for all that includes the people, the corporations and the government. LMFAO and you say it’s cynical and selfish to strike. Negotiate with your bosses privately, or quit your job, or suck it up until more stable time. I ask you when has any one PERSON found a stable time? Everyone situation is different but nowadays the only way you can make a statement is in large numbers especially in a situation as this going in asking your boss for a raise individually is like talking to your pet horse you can get on the back for a ride but it doesn't mean he going to move!!! People work to live, and that is making a livable wage, and to enjoy their lives. No one want to just live to work!!! I know I don't!!!

I’d fire ‘em all, or dock their salaries. Or why don’t they just quit and find another job? Not because I don’t sympathize with people that are low paid. But because we have just come out of a pandemic, and are now in a war with inflation and high energy prices. Everyone is suffering, and those that strike, are sticking the boot in for the rest of the population who want a hospital appointment or need to catch a train somewhere. At this moment in time, hate to say it , but it’s cynical and selfish to strike. Negotiate with your bosses privately, or quit your job, or suck it up until more stable time

It was a democratic referendum, and voted on by mature adults.

Yes, and it was also:

a direct result of the UK sanctioning themselves with Brexit. It was a bunch of people who gave into a fear-based campaign. It's a case-in-point why nihilistic cynicism is toxic. It causes people to react in fear, and against their own best interests, due to short-term immediate panic.

I've never been to the UK, though my maternal side hails from Scotland.

As is often the case, I glean more from the comments than I do from the article. Thanks, guys.

At the end of the day, the western governments have billions to give to a foreign comedian, but not a penny for its own poor people.

Spot on comment but it’s not a gift to Z. It’s an investment or a transfer of public money into the private. Britain made its final debt payment to the US on 31st December 2006 some half a century plus post WWII.

Granted it’s printed money but you need a cause and war is the cause. The U.S. cannot survive without war.

In essence, the Brits are being asked to suffer so that a war can continue far far away and certain rich people get richer.

My home country has become incredibly ghastly and many places that were nice are now very dirty and in disarray

I was born in Croydon and lived in a nicer part, my parents left to live in the countryside a while ago, the city center is like the Wild West after dark and the elderly are afraid to go there.

Many are using food banks and so much has been left to rot, such as public transport.

I find it terribly sad and queer that the people allowed this to happen. Everytime I go back it seems more and more soulless.

They should all look for jobs outside UK, like I did. UK is dying. And BREXIT was the last nail in the coffin...

We have a government that is bereft of any economic competence.

Coupled with an opposition that response is ambiguous and vague to the point of any circumstantial recourse irrelevant.

The price of gas and electricity is about 3-5 times the cost here in Japan.

An increase in the highest tax bracket of 40%-45%.

A wealth tax on the energy and oil companies.

Reduction of sales tax now the UK is no longer a member of the EU.

Reorganisation of NHS management.

In 2020/21, around one in five people in the UK (20%) were in poverty – 13.4 million people. Of these, 7.9 million were working-age adults, 3.9 million were children and 1.7 million were pensioners. Therefore, one in four children in the UK are living in poverty (27%).

https://www.jrf.org.uk/data/overall-uk-poverty-rates

Everyone is hurting and people are pointing fingers at one another but its the rich large corporations I received my utility bill last month my gas bill was $270 last month this month its $500 the same usage time of last year this time was $150. My electricity bill is $850 this month I did last months comparison it was $420 last year this time and the same amount of usage $310. I received a letter in the mail saying because I am using more than the average people in my neighborhood I was moved into a different "TIER" I talked to my neighbors, co-workers and friends and everyone said their utilities and food bills have double. Its everywhere and you have people who are out there suffering they have a right to strike to get better pay if not things are going to get worse. In the mean time the media makes things worse and you have selfish people thinking that people shouldn't strike they should endure. Heck they have endured enough!!!

@quercetum You could have just posted the "Devil made me do it", its always the US fault. Its the powerful rich, large corporations thats who you blame!! If its and investment or a transfer of public money into the private then ask yourself who ends up with the loot? The rich the powerful the large corporations, they control the government the government only makes the rules.

At the end of the day, the western governments have billions to give to a foreign comedian, but not a penny for its own poor people.

Spot on comment but it’s not a gift to Z. It’s an investment or a transfer of public money into the private. Britain made its final debt payment to the US on 31st December 2006 some half a century plus post WWII.

Granted it’s printed money but you need a cause and war is the cause. The U.S. cannot survive without war.

This is a direct result of the UK sanctioning themselves with Brexit. It was a bunch of people who gave into a fear-based campaign. It's a case-in-point why nihilistic cynicism is toxic. It causes people to react in fear, and against their own best interests, due to short-term immediate panic.

You don’t get paid when you are striking, and it is illegal to sack someone who is taking part in a lawful strike. I’m on strike again next week, public sector workers have dug in for the long haul.

Luddite

Hope the loss of earnings is worth it and you get at least some if what you and your union are asking for

Wallace, where do any government tie that safety net

The most vernable, who affords only a cold shower and a freezing flannel.

Over a family able to fully appreciate warmth?

Bills, rent, mortgages?

That safety net is ultimately at the behest of the electorate at the ballot box.

Brexit took sterling down from $1.65 to $1.23. Everything is pried in USD, even North Sea oil, so everyone in the UK is now 25% poorer. That equates to rampant inflation.

The Tories won't fix anything, as it would just makes things easier for Labour in 2024. They think they will be out of power for a term, but it is more likely that they will be wiped out as a political party at the next election, for what they have done to the country. Brexit Britain is an isolated, failing toilet. They conned people into voting for clown policies, but the consequences of those policies cannot be avoided and cannot be fixed.

Thatcher earned the UK the sweetest spot in the EU with a range of opt outs. The Tories dumped those and walked away. The mess that the UK now is, is on them. They may win fewer seats than Sinn Fein at the next election.

Stay strong, workers! Society needs you to function and you should be compensated fairly for your efforts.

kaimycahl

do you live in the UK?

Gas $500 plus electricity $850. $1350/¥174,150.

Kill the Bill….do they really mean the police too?

The average wage of a train driver in the UK is 10M JPY. On average! Yet they are demanding more. Let's face it; AI can do their job better than they can so fire the lot of them.

Nurses however, yes pay them more, not just in the UK but here in Japan too.

UK society is on a permanent downward spiral.

This is a direct result of the UK sanctioning themselves with Brexit. It was a bunch of people who gave into a fear-based campaign. It's a case-in-point why nihilistic cynicism is toxic. It causes people to react in fear, and against their own best interests, due to short-term immediate panic.

It was a democratic referendum, and voted on by mature adults.

Collateral damage, the blanket nature associated with industrial action, a so called general strike will always be justified on pretence that its a placard for social justice.

What a load of hogwash.!!! total nonsense.

The most vernable, will foot the bill, those that desperately need social care, or essential operations.

The next generation that require a formal basic education.

All will be sacrificed at the altar of political Ideology.

Call it government (tory) and opposition, for heaven's sake cannot or will not define a man from a women.

Wallace,why you saying how miserable life in England is,can you find any redemption in your country

and are now in a war with inflation and high energy prices. 

The UK is in a war against the U.S. and don’t even know it. All by design.

The govt really can't do anything?

I think it was a few months ago when NHS personnel walked out, and the army was brought in. British citizens noticed a marked improvement in NHS services!

The teachers' strike will definitely raise the kids' IQ and put them at less risk of ending up woke.

Pray for UK!

I’d fire ‘em all, or dock their salaries. Or why don’t they just quit and find another job? Not because I don’t sympathize with people that are low paid. But because we have just come out of a pandemic, and are now in a war with inflation and high energy prices. Everyone is suffering, and those that strike, are sticking the boot in for the rest of the population who want a hospital appointment or need to catch a train somewhere. At this moment in time, hate to say it , but it’s cynical and selfish to strike. Negotiate with your bosses privately, or quit your job, or suck it up until more stable times

@cenobite,

Great comments.

Was initially in support of the strikers until I read your comments.