‘Hot Strike Summer’: Hundreds of Thousands of UK Workers Are Going on Strike
This op-ed discusses why so many UK workers are taking collective actions to improve their jobs.
Organized labor has coordinated a long, hot summer of strikes across the United Kingdom, with close to 200,000 workers from vital sectors fighting for decent wages and fair working conditions. Many are also opposing cuts to pensions, the introduction of grueling working hours, and compulsory layoffs. Dubbed “hot strike summer,” this recent wave has set the scene for some of the largest walkouts in decades — and it shows little sign of fizzling out soon.
Since April, industrial action has been springing up across sectors whose “key workers” have sustained essential services since the start of the pandemic: railways, buses, garbage collection, telecoms, postal services, ports, and criminal courts. More are likely to follow, with unions for nurses, teachers, university staff, civil servants, airport staff, and firefighters considering votes for possible action.
Why now? Because several calamities have curdled into one. After enduring more than a decade of wage stagnation, workers are now grappling with runaway inflation, set to top 22% in the UK by the end of this year. What’s more, some unions are accusing employers of capitalizing on COVID-19 as an “opportunity” to push through cost-cutting measures and contract changes. Many workers claim they face pressure to sign away certain conditions that would have them “working longer and harder for less” and to accept changes that would undermine job security.
There is significant public support for those striking for a fair deal, particularly among young people, who are overrepresented in precarious, low-wage work with poor union density.
Sydney, 25, is a hospitality worker who recently joined the Bakers, Food, and Allied Workers Union and won a 44% increase in pay, with the help of local campaign group Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise. Tired of moving from one job to another, they decided to organize with colleagues who wanted to improve on the same things: low pay, health and safety issues, and the insecurity of zero-hour contracts.
“The fact we were together gave me confidence,” Sydney, who has asked to withhold their last name to protect their privacy, tells Teen Vogue. “I felt hopeful for the future. Once I realized we had strength in numbers, it felt good. I felt powerful.”
“I can actually pay my bills consistently now," they continue. "But we want our employer to recognize our union too. We want to permanently be consulted on the place we work. Everyone should form a union in their workplace if they want better. Don’t let them tell you they can’t afford it.”
Outside of the labor movement, there’s a rising tide of public anger over the government’s failure to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, which is already beginning to bite hard. When inflation hit a 40-year high of 9.4% in June, UK workers faced the fastest drop in real-terms wages in at least 20 years. Energy bills are set to triple, eclipsing the (rising) cost of rent, while the cost of groceries grows weekly. It’s predicted that by the end of the year, annual household spending on electricity and gas could hit £4,200, equivalent to more than two months’ wages for the average worker. Next spring, that could rise to £7,000. Keeping warm and well fed is in danger of becoming “a luxury only the wealthy can afford.”
Without offering meaningful solutions, both candidates in the running to become the next prime minister have threatened to outlaw the right to strike for many public workers. And both candidates have proposed piecemeal financial support packages that would leave swathes of society still struggling to come up with thousands; one leans into regressive tax cuts that would disproportionately benefit the wealthiest.
This begs the question: Is this a cost-of-living crisis or the cost of greed? Record corporate profits, extravagant CEO salaries, shareholder payouts, and pay squeezes for workers are a common feature of industries now beset by price hikes and labor disputes. An investigation by Unite the Union concluded that excess corporate profits were driving almost 60% of inflation in the first half of 2022. And while UK energy bills far exceed the levels in mainland Europe, calls to bring key utilities into public ownership are enjoying mass appeal.
In the absence of systemic change, grassroots campaigns are experiencing a groundswell of support. Economic disobedience is gaining traction. The Don’t Pay UK movement is gathering support for a mass nonpayment strike against unaffordable energy bills. It leverages strength in numbers, requiring one million people to pledge to cancel their energy bills beginning October 1 in order to trigger the collective action. It sounds like a lot, but not when one in four people may not be able to pay their bills, no matter how much they try.
Frankie, a 21-year-old from Manchester who also asked to withhold his last name, is one of more than 130,000 people who have signed up to strike so far. “I was homeless from December to May this year, the whole time being secretly grateful I didn’t have to worry about my old rent going up with utilities,” he recalls. “Frankly, it feels like I’ve walked into a prequel of The Hunger Games.”
“The threat to my loved ones and community seems too existential to sit at home and swear at my TV," Frankie adds. "If Don’t Pay can make the public trust that consumer strikes work, it would be a benchmark moment in the British political scene and, ultimately, people’s lives depend on it.”
Unions and community organizations are coalescing around the Enough is Enough campaign, which fights for five clear demands to return prosperity, security, and dignity to the working class. Supported by Senator Bernie Sanders, it lays bare a society rigged in favor of the rich, building a solid case for public ownership and the redistribution of wealth. In a stirring launch-rally speech in London union leader Mick Lynch put it simply: “We refuse to be meek. We refuse to be humble…. And we refuse to be poor anymore.”
Speculation is growing that there could even be a general strike on the way, but due to the UK’s thorny trade union regulations, there are few circumstances that would be legally viable. Some unions, however, are exploring coordinated strike action, which would synchronize strike dates across sectors to make industrial action as effective as possible.
For now, at least, it feels like a turning point to see new movements being built from the bottom up, expanding the popular imagination. The challenge now is to keep up momentum, and transforming anger into action.