The British are engaged in a widespread strike, the largest of its kind since the eighties of the last century, with the participation of teachers, employees, train drivers, university lecturers and security personnel stamping passports at airports.
The strikes prompted the closure of about 23,000 schools, while the movement of trains was disturbed, as protesters took to the streets to demand better living conditions.
The data indicates that 100,000 employees working in more than 120 government sectors went on strike on Wednesday, in an escalation that threatens Rishi Sunak’s government with more trouble during the coming period.
The strike expanded in Britain, to the extent that it was described as a “partial closure” by the media, in a reminder of what the situation was like during the Corona epidemic.
It is estimated that the strike, which was launched on Wednesday, could cost the British economy nearly 200 million pounds sterling.
According to the New York Times, the British are facing the biggest deterioration in living conditions since the 1950s, while Rishi Sunak’s government does not have a clear roadmap out of the crisis.
There is no second choice
NSU president Mary Bousted said teachers in Britain felt they had no other choice but to go on strike.
The trade union official indicated that a large number of teachers leave their teaching work because of what she considered a weakness in salaries compared to the cost of living.
And she stressed the need for change, saying, “Those behind me do not want to strike today, but they were forced to do so, and we say it today, enough means enough.”
This strike resulted in the partial or complete closure of about 85 percent of schools in Britain.
The rate of inflation in Britain exceeded 10 percent, a level not recorded in the country in four decades.
A difficult test for Sonak
According to the newspaper “The Independent”, these widespread strikes in Britain constitute a difficult test for Sunak, who barely assumed power, amid complex crises surrounding him from every side.
For his part, the leader of the opposition Labor Party, Keir Starmer, criticized Sunak’s reaction to the strikes, describing it as “pathetic”.
The opposition leader said that Sunak chose to blame the striking workers and employees, when they came out to demand an improvement in their conditions.
Starmer criticized what he considered a resounding failure of the ruling Conservative Party 13 years ago, saying that the impact of its poor performance is getting worse and worse in the country.
Sunak is being criticized for what opponents consider “intransigence” and an escalation towards the unions of employees and workers, instead of sitting at the negotiating table, in order to find a solution to the crisis.
Critics mention that the British Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, herself, who was described as the Iron Lady, approved a 25 percent increase in the salary of government employees when she came to power in 1979, in an effort to put an end to strikes.
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