Adam Boulton: Is Britain’s year of strikes headed for an uprising?
At this year’s Trade Union Congress (TUC), union leaders representing 5.5 million members called for “a special working group of willing unions which would organise coordinated action over pay and terms and conditions where possible with all TUC unions, including further demonstrations, national and regional rallies, and coordinated industrial action where possible”.
Mick Lynch, who is currently leading the highest profile strike by railway workers, declared: “I would support a general strike and co-ordinated action.”
Asked on Sky News about a general strike, Sharon Graham, general secretary of UNITE – one of the biggest unions – told Sophy Ridge: “If there are a number of strikes happening at the same time, people can call it what they like, quite frankly.”
Heading into this winter, the UK is facing its biggest wave of strikes for at least a decade, involving action by more than a million workers in the public sector led by the major trade unions.
Do these powerful calls for “synchronised action” mean the UK will soon plunge into a “general strike” to match the historic General Strike which took place just under a century ago in May 1926?
Only the general council of the TUC can call a general strike, and union bosses sit on the council.
Yet for all the rhetoric so far, there is considerable practical reluctance to escalate industrial actions in multiple sectors in what would turn into a formal confrontation with the government.
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UK strikes: What does the data show?
From nurses to teachers: The year in strikes
Come what may, 2022 will go down as a year of strikes.
Some 560,00 working days were lost in August and September – almost twice the total for whole years recently – and industrial actions are mounting.
In pursuit of their pay-claim, 40,000 members of the RMT union have announced more one-day strikes over the Christmas period on 13, 14, 16 and 17 of December, and 3, 4, 6, and 7 January 2023. There will also be an overtime ban in the weeks in between. Train drivers in ASLEF plan strikes for other days.
For the first time ever and following a yes vote in a ballot, the Royal College of Nursing is announcing strike days by more than 300,000 nurses. And 400,000 NHS workers in UNISON are currently voting on strike action, with the result due in January.
Christina McAnea, the general secretary of UNISON, said recently: “Co-ordinated action unites us, and we have a single goal: end this pay crisis in this country.”
• The Royal College of Midwives is also consulting its members. So are the junior doctors in the British Medical Association (BMA)
• 70,000 in the University and College Lecturers union (ULU) walked out this week
• 115,000 postal workers in the Communications workers union are continuing strikes from November into December
• 400,000 teachers and support staff in the NASUWT – National Education Union (NEU) are holding a strike ballot, with the result due in the new year. The separate Scottish teachers union is already taking action
• 100,000 civil servants in the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) have voted heavily for industrial action
• There are also disputes involving airline ground staff in the GMB, some dockworkers, London bus drivers, BT and Outreach staff amongst others
Read more:
Keep track of all this winter’s strikes
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Union boss has ‘positive’ talks with govt
Different strikes, same cause
These disputes all have the same root cause: UK inflation is now running at 11%.
The unions want above inflation pay awards to combat the cost of living crisis. Already, they point out, their members’ earnings have declined in real terms, and are now worth what they were in 2008.
Fourteen years is the longest period of wage stagnation in modern times. If they were to catch up in real terms, pay awards would have to be 15% or more.
Workers in the private sector are currently settling for below-inflation increases averaging around 6%, but many public sector employers have yet to match that with their offers.
Secondary complaints by the unions include protests at what they regard as the privatisation of public services and proposed changes in working practices which, they believe, would adversely impact conditions for those involved.
Employers often want to attach strings demanding changed working practices to potential pay awards.
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Post workers ‘don’t want to be on strike’
What history tells us about general strikes
Demands for more pay to avoid falling behind and against poorer working conditions were also central grievances in the 1926 General Strike, though in much starker form.
Then, 1.2 million miners in the privately owned (but strategically vital and government monitored) coal industry were locked out after opposing wage reductions and worse contracts. Eventually, negotiations between the unions, employers and outside advisors broke down.
Rail, transport, printing, dock and iron and steelworkers joined the General Strike in support of the miners’ claim of “not a penny off the pay, not a minute on the day”.
At its height, some 1.75 million workers were striking.
The Conservative government led by Stanley Baldwin was well-prepared for the strike. Special constables to ensure “the maintenance of supplies” had been recruited, although the proposal of then-chancellor Winston Churchill to deploy armed troops was rejected.
Middle class volunteers acted as strikebreakers, ostensibly to preserve essential services.
After nine days, the TUC General Council called off the General Strike. The miners lost and had to accept longer hours and lower wages.
The coal industry continued the decline, which would run all the way through full nationalisation to the Miners Strike of 1984-1985 during Mrs Thatcher’s premiership.
Historians say the General Strike has to be seen in the context of genuine fears of revolution in the wake of the communist take-over of Russia a few years previously. The Labour Party was only just establishing itself as a party of government and then, as now, it did not fully support the strikes.
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Pay rise ‘not affordable’
Sunak’s less confrontational approach
This has not stopped Rishi Sunak repeatedly demanding that Sir Keir Starmer should tell Labour’s “union paymasters” to call off the strikes.
In practice, Sunak’s government seems to be taking a less confrontational approach than his immediate predecessors.
Transport Secretary Mark Harper readily agreed to meet with the RMT. Mick Lynch described their encounter as “positive” though he said he was no closer to calling off the Christmas strikes.
Society is much less polarised about the strikes now than it was in 1926. The Conservative government may have changed the law to allow railway companies to bring in agency workers to keep services running, but they have so far declined to do so, even if such substitute workers were readily available.
There was no NHS in 1926. The centrality of public health workers in the current disputes has increased public sympathy. After a rolling dispute with health workers back in 1982, Mrs Thatcher won re-election and then gave the nurses an annual pay award of up to 14%.
In polls, around 60% support the current strikes, with between 24% and 33% opposing them. But less than half agree that pay awards should be as big as the unions are asking for.
The RMT risks losing public sympathy with its strikes disrupting the Christmas festivities, including “Black Eye Friday”, the biggest day for office and work parties.
After two Christmases wiped out by COVID, the hospitality industry in London alone reckons the disruption will cost it some £300m, with an estimated national bill of £1.2bn. The media-savvy Mick Lynch has been forced to deny he is a “Grinch” on national TV.
More from Adam Boulton:
Lessons to be learned from strikes past and present
Next two years will reveal if Sunak is a safe pair of hands
US midterms an unreliable way of predicting next president
In these straightened times, the UK is by no means the only country being hit by waves of industrial protests. South Korea, Bolivia, Portugal, Greece, Italy, and France have all recently been hit by national waves of cost-of-living strikes.
The US Congress passed a law to block a planned railway strike.
Yet the membership of organised trade unions is in decline. The unions lost the General Strike of 1926. Since then, most governments have taken steps to weaken the effectiveness of mass action.
In this country, most citizens and workers are caught in the middle and suffer the consequences without being directly involved.
A class confrontation or co-ordinated “uprising”, along the lines hoped for by Mick Lynch, is unlikely.
Instead, continued widespread and sporadic disruption are near-certainties in the coming months. Individual disputes will eventually be settled above what employers and the government say they can afford, but below what the strikers are asking for.
UK
Woman’s body found in car boot in east London – as murder investigation launched by two police forces
UK
Police investigating criminal offence after Daily Telegraph columnist ‘dumbfounded’ by social media post probe
Essex Police say they are investigating an alleged criminal offence of inciting racial hatred, after Daily Telegraph columnist Allison Pearson said she was “dumbfounded and upset” when officers knocked on her door last Sunday.
Ms Pearson revealed she was told she was being investigated over a year-old deleted post online.
She said she wasn’t informed which post had been reported, but suggested it could have been related to the 7 October attacks in Israel or pro-Palestine marches.
She claimed the officers told her she was being investigated for a NCHI (a none crime hate incident) an incident involving an act which is perceived to be motivated by hostility or prejudice towards persons with a particular characteristic, but is not illegal.
NCHI reports have long been controversial, with many citing free speech concerns, and Ms Pearson’s account of the police visit has led to widespread support from Conservatives and online commentators, including Tory leader Kemi Badenoch.
But an Essex Police spokesperson has told Sky News its investigation was never for an NCHI, and that the matter was always being treated as an investigation into an alleged criminal offence of inciting racial hatred.
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Speaking on her Planet Normal podcast on Wednesday, Ms Pearson said she found the visit “chilling”.
“I was dumbfounded, upset, it’s not very nice,” she said. “I was in my dressing gown on the step of the house, these two coppers were there just outside the door.
“There were people gathering for the Remembrance Day parade so there were people watching from the other side of the road.
“Whatever I did or didn’t tweet, if somebody found it offensive, that to me is still not a reason for two policemen to come to my house on a Sunday morning.
“You know, they don’t do that for burglars, do they? We know policing is under-resourced and they are unable to attend often quite serious crimes.
“This was the most extraordinary overreach and state intrusion into my private life and I don’t think I did anything wrong and I think their response was outrageous.”
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In a statement, Essex Police said: “Officers attended an address in Essex and invited a woman to come to a voluntary interview.
“They said it related to an investigation into an alleged offence of inciting racial hatred, linked to a post on social media.
“For clarity: a complaint of a possible criminal offence was made to the police and this is why we called; to arrange an interview.
“Everyone was polite and professional throughout the brief conversation.”
They said an officer told Ms Pearson: “It’s gone down as an incident or offence of potentially inciting racial hatred online. That would be the offence.”
Essex Police say they have complained to the Independent Press Standards Organisation (IPSO) over what they call “false reporting” regarding the ongoing investigation.
In an interview with The Telegraph published yesterday, Kemi Badenoch said police visiting a journalist over a social media post was “absolutely wrong” and that “we need to look at the laws around non-crime hate incidents”.
“There has been a long-running problem with people not taking free speech seriously,” she said.
She challenged the prime minister to review the laws, saying: “Keir Starmer says he is someone who believes in these things. Now he needs to actually show that he does believe it. All we’ve seen from him is the opposite.”
Ms Badenoch added: “We need to stop this behaviour of people wasting police time on trivial incidents because they don’t like something, as if they’re in a nursery.
“It’s like children reporting each other. And I think that in certain cases, the police do it because they’re afraid that if they don’t do it, they will also be accused of not taking these issues seriously.”
Essex Police said the officers went to the address to invite Ms Pearson to attend a voluntary interview as part of their investigation, which was passed to them by another force.
“The report relates to a social media post which was subsequently removed,” the statement read.
“An investigation is now being carried out under Section 17 of the Public Order Act.”
Essex Police also said they made attempts to contact Ms Pearson before the visit.
Other prominent Conservative voices such as Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Chris Philp have also leapt to Ms Pearson’s defence online, as has X owner Elon Musk, who quoted a post about the incident and said: “This needs to stop.”
Police commentator Graham Wettone told Sky News the police are “duty bound to investigate allegations of crime”.
“They’ve had an allegation of crime made there,” he said. “They will investigate it. If at the end of this they decide that no criminal offence has been committed – and we’re not at that stage yet – then it can still be recorded as a none crime hate incident.”
The police, he said, are duty bound to keep a record of none crime hate incidents.
“Parliament said they want the police to do this, to investigate and record incidents like this. So they are doing exactly what parliament and society asked them to do, and they are getting criticism for doing what people want.”
UK
Sir Keir Starmer vows to defend budget decisions ‘all day long’ as farmers slam ‘disrespectful’ PM
Sir Keir Starmer has said he will defend the decisions made in the budget “all day long” amid anger from farmers over inheritance tax changes.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced last month in her key speech that from April 2026, farms worth more than £1m will face an inheritance tax rate of 20%, rather than the standard 40% applied to other land and property.
The announcement has sparked anger among farmers who argue this will mean higher food prices, lower food production and having to sell off land to pay for the tax.
Sir Keir defended the budget as he gave his first speech as prime minister at the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales, where farmers have been holding a tractor protest outside.
Sir Keir admitted: “We’ve taken some extremely tough decisions on tax.”
He said: “I will defend facing up to the harsh light of fiscal reality. I will defend the tough decisions that were necessary to stabilise our economy.
“And I will defend protecting the payslips of working people, fixing the foundations of our economy, and investing in the future of Britain and the future of Wales. Finally, turning the page on austerity once and for all.”
He also said the budget allocation for Wales was a “record figure” – some £21bn for next year – an extra £1.7bn through the Barnett Formula, as he hailed a “path of change” with Labour governments in Wales and Westminster.
And he confirmed a £160m investment zone in Wrexham and Flintshire will be going live in 2025.
‘PM should have addressed the protesters’
Among the hundreds of farmers demonstrating was Gareth Wyn Jones, who told Sky News it was “disrespectful” that the prime minister did not mention farmers in his speech.
He said “so many people have come here to air their frustrations. He (Starmer) had an opportunity to address the crowd. Even if he was booed he should have been man enough to come out and talk to the people”.
He said farmers planned to deliver Sir Keir a letter which begins with “don’t bite the hand that feeds you”.
Farmers’ tractor protest outside the Welsh Labour conference in Llandudno, North Wales
Mr Wyn Jones told Sky News the government was “destroying” an industry that was already struggling.
“They’re destroying an industry that’s already on its knees and struggling, absolutely struggling, mentally, emotionally and physically. We need government support not more hindrance so we can produce food to feed the nation.”
He said inheritance tax changes will result in farmers increasing the price of food: “The poorer people in society aren’t going to be able to afford good, healthy, nutritious British food, so we have to push this to government for them to understand that enough is enough, the farmers can’t take any more of what they’re throwing at us.”
Mr Wyn Jones disputed the government’s estimation that only 500 farming estates in the UK will be affected by the inheritance tax changes.
“Look, a lot of farmers in this country are in their 70s and 80s, they haven’t handed their farms down because that’s the way it’s always been, they’ve always known there was never going to be inheritance tax.”
On Friday, Sir Keir addressed farmers’ concerns, saying: “I know some farmers are anxious about the inheritance tax rules that we brought in two weeks ago.
“What I would say about that is, once you add the £1m for the farmland to the £1m that is exempt for your spouse, for most couples with a farm wanting to hand on to their children, it’s £3m before anybody pays a penny in inheritance tax.”
Read more:
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Farmers ‘could block ports and disrupt food supply’
Welsh farmer Gareth Wyn Jones
Ministers said the move will not affect small farms and is aimed at targeting wealthy landowners who buy up farmland to avoid paying inheritance tax.
But analysis this week said a typical family farm would have to put 159% of annual profits into paying the new inheritance tax every year for a decade and could have to sell 20% of their land.
Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News
The Country and Land Business Association (CLA), which represents owners of rural land, property and businesses in England and Wales, found a typical 200-acre farm owned by one person with an expected profit of £27,300 would face a £435,000 inheritance tax bill.
The plan says families can spread the inheritance tax payments over 10 years, but the CLA found this would require an average farm to allocate 159% of its profits each year for a decade.
To pay that, successors could be forced to sell 20% of their land, the analysis found.
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