Almost 4 million strike days in the last 12 months, but is it working?
According to the Resolution Foundation around 4 million days have been taken in strike action in the last 12 months or ‘lost’ as its officially known.
The strikes have focused on the post, rails, education and health where the Government has a considerable say on what wage rises are given.
Strike action has achieved wage offers well above what has been originally tabled but mostly still below inflation. The large scale action has largely been in the public sector where wages are still lagging significantly behind inflation. This does suggest that the link between the two is not quite what the Bank of England claims.
The gap in the private sector is less but without Government intervention at least in some areas employers have given rises of inflation or above.
One way of looking at this might be to suggest that matters would play out differently with a Labour Government. The experience of Wales where there have been less strikes and more agreements suggests there is something in this but wage increases still don’t match inflation. In addition its difficult to see Rachel ‘fiscal’ Reeves conceding large rises.
Another way of looking at it is to suggest that perhaps all out rather than strike days might get better results. There are currently all out strikes at St Mungos (Unite) and Brighton University (UCU). The focus is often on terms and conditions and jobs as well as wages.
The issue is there is whether there is the confidence to sustain all out strikes when even left union leaders are not pursuing the strategy and how to change that
These issues are discussed a lot in workplaces, pubs, clubs and cafes but not of course in the national media.
Working class organisation at the grassroots which recently won victories at Hinckley Point comes as much of a surprise to official society as it did 40 years ago. We might reflect however that despite more and more anti-union laws the pressure of having to exist tolerably motivates workplace action come what may
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