London, 31 Jan.
Teachers, civil servants, train and bus drivers, and university employees, among other workers in the United Kingdom, will go on strike tomorrow, Wednesday, in what is anticipated to be the biggest day of protests facing the country in more than a decade.
Nearly half a million people are called to support the strikes to demand better wages in the face of soaring inflation, which has ignited a labor conflict that began last summer with massive strikes in the railway sector and has expanded to multiple sectors in recent months.
About 23,000 schools will be affected on Wednesday by the first of seven strikes called by teachers, while around 100,000 civil servants in 124 government departments will stop work.
Train drivers from 14 operators will also strike again on Wednesday and Friday, February 3, in one of the regular stoppages they have called since the summer, which usually paralyze a large part of the country’s rail network.
In addition to demands for wage improvements in the face of the cost-of-living crisis, the unions will protest against the law being processed by the government to give itself powers to set certain minimum services in the event of strikes in key sectors such as healthcare.
“We know the problems are going to be significant, given the scale of the strikes that will take place tomorrow,” a spokesman for Downing Street, the office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, said today.
“It’s going to be very difficult for citizens trying to go about their day to day lives. We are clear, this is going to disrupt people’s lives, that’s why we think negotiations, rather than picketing; are the right way forward,” he added.