Did Britain just see the biggest day of industrial action in more than a decade?

 

This Wednesday saw train services getting paralyzed and thousands of schools in the UK closing a noteworthy number of their classrooms. As unions increase pressure on the government to demand better pay amid a seemingly never-ending cost of living crisis, the day was shaping up to be the biggest day of industrial action Britain has witnessed in over a decade.

Up to half a million workers across the country, including bus drivers, civil servants, teachers, and border officials, the Trades Union Congress - a federation of unions - estimated, would walk out of their jobs.

Although Brits have been enduring disruptions to their daily lives for months now, Wednesday's strikes are considered an escalation of disruptive action across scores of key industries. A bitter disagreement has been dragging on between unions and the government over pay and work conditions for a while now.

The last time the UK saw mass walkouts on this massive scale was in 2011, when more than a million public sector workers staged a one-day strike in a major dispute over pensions.

Driven by growing food and energy costs, inflation in the country stands at 10.5%, the highest in four decades. Despite some pay rises, union bosses say a number of public sector workers have effectively been taking a pay cut as their wages have failed to keep pace with soaring inflation, consequently plunging them into financial difficulty.

While some experts expect price rises to slow down in 2023, Britain's economic outlook hasn't turned pleasant yet. It will be the only major economy to contract this year, according to the International Monetary Fund, performing worse even than sanction-hit Russia.