Status: 08/31/2022 2:35 p.m
Inflation in the UK has recently climbed to over 10 percent. Even higher values are feared for the near future. Now there are strikes for higher wages, which offset inflation.
Tens of thousands of Royal Mail and British Telecom workers have walked out in a fight for higher wages. 115,000 Royal Mail workers and 40,000 British Telecom workers are taking part in the strike today, the BBC reported. This delays the delivery of letters and parcels. More strikes are expected in September.
Offer well below inflation compensation
“We cannot live in a country where our bosses make billions in profits while their employees are forced to use boards,” said Communication Workers Union general secretary Dave Ward.
The union rejected a previous offer from employers to raise salaries by up to 5.5 percent in view of skyrocketing consumer prices. Royal Mail, on the other hand, warns that the strike is costing the company a million pounds – the equivalent of around 1.16 million euros – a day, endangering jobs and making wage increases more difficult to finance. Further strikes have been announced.
Strikes in other areas too
Collective bargaining conflicts are also raging in many other sectors in the United Kingdom, which is why the British media are reporting on the “summer of strikes”. For example, the employees of a number of train companies and ports stopped working several times a day to fight for better working conditions.
UK inflation climbed to 10.1 percent in July, a 40-year high. According to estimates by the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, consumer prices could even rise to more than 22 percent in the coming year if gas prices remain high, as reported by the “Financial Times”. In less drastic scenarios, the investment bank expects UK inflation to peak at around 15 percent next year.