Anyone who has landed at London’s Heathrow Airport in the past few days has had a thoroughly pleasant experience at passport control. There weren’t too strict border guards sitting there, but rather relaxed soldiers from the British army. They had to step in because the border force was on strike. But after the first day of the strike, it was already clear: the soldiers did it so well that there were no problems worth mentioning. Neither at Heathrow nor anywhere else.
However, things did not go as smoothly as at the airports everywhere. Great Britain is experiencing the biggest wave of strikes since the 1980s this winter. Not only border guards are involved in the industrial action, but also postal and railway employees, nurses and orderlies. They are all demanding higher wages to keep the cost of living under control. The inflation rate in Great Britain is now around ten percent.
The government has already made it clear that the state simply cannot afford to grant public sector workers a wage increase that would fully cushion the effects of high inflation. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is therefore faced with the question of how to react to the wave of strikes – without coming under too much pressure himself.
No strikes here: British Prime Minister Sunak in front of his official residence at 10 Downing Street.
(Photo: NIKLAS HALLE’N/AFP)
Sunak has already announced that the right to strike will be restricted. Otherwise, he should be guided primarily by opinion polls. Because the population’s understanding of the strikes varies depending on the industry. For example, the majority of Britons support the concerns of carers and nurses. On the other hand, the fact that border guards and police officers stop working meets with far less approval.
Ambulances are queuing in front of the emergency room
From a political point of view, Sunak has one problem above all: the underfunded national health service NHS. Its nurses, who are considered heroes of the corona pandemic in Great Britain, are demanding 19 percent more wages. The government thinks that is grossly exaggerated, so far it has only offered a plus of five percent. The fronts are quite hardened.
However, it should only be a matter of time before the government returns to the negotiating table. Because especially in winter, the sometimes catastrophic state of the health system becomes apparent. The president of the UK’s association of emergency medicine specialists, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), has already warned that up to 500 people could die a week due to the poor supply capacity in emergency medicine.
The situation is already extremely tense. This winter there is an above-average number of influenza cases that have to be treated in hospitals. The number of corona patients in clinics is also increasing again. Ambulances are queuing in front of many emergency rooms because the patients cannot be admitted immediately.
Waiting times this winter are longer than ever, according to RCEM. In November alone, almost 38,000 people had to wait more than twelve hours in the emergency room before they were transferred to a hospital ward – three and a half times as many as in the previous year.
What is missing in the state health system is not only money, but above all personnel. According to the organization NHS Poviders, there are 133,000 vacancies. After Brexit, however, these can no longer be filled so easily with workers from Europe.
No wonder many Britons blame the government for the plight of the healthcare system. A Yougov poll released in December found that two-thirds of respondents support the nurses’ strike. Most see the government as the main culprit. As a result, many in Westminster believe Prime Minister Sunak will have no choice but to approach NHS staff.
The situation is different with the rail strikes. At the beginning of the week, the head of the railway union RMT sounded a little resigned when he said that the government was apparently satisfied that the strikes were continuing. Sunak and his cabinet are said to be hoping that public opinion will turn against the rail union, which the government sees as becoming increasingly militant. Just before Christmas, the union had rejected an offer that provided four percent more wages for two years. For this week, the railway employees are now again called for industrial action.