The largest number of teachers have gone on strike this time, but according to data on Wednesday afternoon, 100,000 employees of 124 state or government institutions have joined the action.
UK Border Force staff are on strike again. Their outage affects passport control for people arriving from overseas, although Britain’s largest airport, Heathrow, which operates on London’s western border, said on Wednesday that disruption this time around was minimal.
Scheduled flights from Hungary arrive at four of London’s five international airports – plus Heathrow, Gatwick, Luton and Stansted.
Great Britain left the European Union three years ago, so the same entry rules apply for those coming from EU countries as for those from other regions of the world. British Border Force staff went on strike almost continuously over the Christmas and New Year period.
Express trains directly linking Heathrow and Gatwick with central London were not running on Wednesday due to a strike by rail workers. Due to a strike by primary and secondary school teachers, most schools in England and Wales were closed on Wednesday, although online distance learning was organized for the day in many places and primary schools also provide childcare.
According to the National Education Union, the largest representation of public education workers, more than 150,000 teachers joined the strike on Wednesday afternoon.
The government offered teachers a 5 percent pay rise, but according to the union’s argument, in the current inflationary environment, this would correspond to a substantial real wage decline.
Britain is experiencing a wave of strikes unprecedented in decades these weeks, mainly because the cost of living is rising at a rate not seen for forty years.
According to UK Statistics Office (ONS) data, the 12-month inflation rate in Great Britain was 11.1% in October, 10.7% in November and 10.5% in December.
Railway workers, teachers, hospital nurses, medics, bus drivers and border police have also been on strike in recent weeks, and unions have announced similar measures in coming months if wage demands are not met.
(MTI)
