Industrial Action & the Cost of Living: A lot done, a lot still to do
The BBC has published a graphic showing tne range of national strike action in December 2022. Of course there are lots of other strikes at employers around the UK mainly addressing the cost of living and many of these end in a decent result.
The big national action from the CWU, RMT,ASLEF, RCN,GMB and PCS has found making headway more difficult because the Government ultimately holds the purse strings. While settlements could be reached the Tories appear intent on class war and talk of further legislation to limit strikes, while also admitting that this will have little impact or even promote further action.
Yet as the socialist economist James Meadway has pointed out in no year since 1990 have days lost to strikes exceeded 1.4 million whereas before then they invariably did. 2022 has been a peak but still not breaking the post-1990 picture.
Part of the reason for this is the big national actions have been discontinuous. This means that the employer still faces an impact but workers lose less money than with an all out strike. The problem is that momentum and pressure on the employer is less.
It is not a new debate but it’s one that needs to be had particularly at the grassroots of strikes
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