Thousands of train workers in Britain began a fresh round of strikes Thursday, paralyzing rail service across the country in an ongoing dispute over pay and work conditions exacerbated by a deepening cost-of-living crisis.
Only around one in five trains ran across the U.K. as a result of the walkout by union members, who have already staged multiple strikes in recent months. A strike planned for Friday is expected to affect the London Underground subway network as well as bus service in the capital, while another walkout on Saturday is set to disrupt national train travel again.
Mick Lynch, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), alleged an "anti-union agenda" of the U.K.'s Conservative government was prolonging the labor dispute.
He said rail workers, like other public sector employees in the U.K., are struggling to cope with soaring food and fuel prices.
The country's inflation rate jumped to a new 40-year high of 10.1% in July, official figures showed Wednesday.
"People in this country are fed up with low pay. Many millions of people have not had a proper pay deal for decades," Lynch said Thursday at the picket line in London’s Euston train station. "So public sector workers in health care, education, transport, all sort of services, have been subjected to pay cuts and rampant inflation."
The government has argued it had to use public funding to protect rail workers' jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and officials want the train system to be financially sustainable for the future. They say a fair pay offer was presented to rail workers.
A Department for Transport spokesperson said union leaders were "opting to inflict misery and disrupt the day-to-day lives of millions" for the sixth time since June instead of working to reach a deal.
"We will continue to do whatever is necessary to defend jobs, pay and conditions during this cost-of-living crisis," Sharon Graham, head of major British union, Unite, said this week.
Inflation to keep rising
And the situation is set to worsen under a new prime minister, as under-fire Prime Minister Boris Johnson prepares to step down.
The waves of industrial action could continue into the autumn, since the Bank of England (BoE) forecasts inflation will top 13% later this year, tipping the economy into a deep and long-lasting recession.
"This record fall in real wages demonstrates the vital need for unions like Unite to defend the value of workers’ pay," Graham said, while hitting out at suggestions, including from BoE governor Andrew Bailey, that pay rises were fueling inflation.
"Wages are not driving inflation," she insisted ahead of the latest U.K. inflation data that showed rocketing food prices were the main factor behind July's spike.
Inflation has soared worldwide this year also on surging energy prices, fueled by the invasion of Ukraine by major oil and gas producer Russia.
Pay deals
Some proposed strikes planned for the British summer have been halted after unions and companies agreed pay deals at the eleventh hour.
But while British Airways ground staff and plane refuellers at Heathrow Airport have scrapped proposed walkouts, other sectors are holding firm.
More than 115,000 British postal workers employed by former state-run Royal Mail plan a four-day strike from the end of August.
Telecoms giant BT will face its first stoppage in 35 years and walkouts have recently taken place or are soon to occur by Amazon warehouse staff, criminal lawyers and refuse collectors.
Major U.K. business lobby group, the CBI, this week acknowledged workers’ ongoing "struggle with rising costs like energy prices" and said employers were "doing their level best to support staff."
It also claimed, however, that "the vast majority" of companies "can’t afford large enough pay rises to keep up with inflation."
Analysts are meanwhile forecasting sector-wide stoppages to last beyond the summer as inflation keeps on rising.
It comes as teachers and health workers have hinted at possible walkouts should they not receive new pay deals deemed acceptable.