{"id":4639,"date":"2022-07-28T20:04:59","date_gmt":"2022-07-28T20:04:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/2022\/07\/28\/are-we-set-for-a-general-strike\/"},"modified":"2022-07-28T20:04:59","modified_gmt":"2022-07-28T20:04:59","slug":"are-we-set-for-a-general-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fusefornews.com\/?p=4639","title":{"rendered":"Are we set for a general strike?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Iain Watson<\/strong>
Political correspondent, BBC News<\/span><\/p>\n<\/header>\n

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\"General<\/span>Image source, <\/span>PA Media<\/span><\/div>
Image caption, <\/span><\/p>\n

Some workers required a military escort during the great strike of 1926<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

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With inflation soaring, unions representing several professions are threatening strikes unless their wage increases keep pace. But how widespread could the disruption become?<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

What is a general strike?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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The dictionary definition of a general strike is “the stoppage of work by a substantial proportion of workers in a number of industries in an organised endeavour to achieve economic or political objectives”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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This was last attempted in the UK in 1926, when three of the then five million trade unionists took industrial action for nine days.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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There have been many strikes which have had economic and political impact since – famously the miners’ strikes of the 1970s and 1980s, and the “winter of discontent” in 1978\/9 which saw many public service workers withdraw their labour.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But these weren’t “general” strikes, as the action was not widespread or co-ordinated enough to meet the definition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Could we see a general strike this year?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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It’s highly unlikely. Only the TUC – the umbrella organisation for most of the UK’s unions – can coordinate a strike of this scale.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The leader of the RMT rail uniom, Mick Lynch, says there are circumstances where he would call for this, but his union has only around 80,000 members.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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It would need much bigger unions – such as Unite – and those regarded as more moderate, such as Usdaw, on board if it were to succeed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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However, this does not mean we will not see lots of industrial action this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Thursday, Unite workers at the country’s largest container port, Felixstowe, voted for strikes.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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But there is the potential for much more widespread action this autumn, with teaching and nursing unions, for example, unhappy with their below-inflation pay awards. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

When is a general strike not a general strike?<\/span><\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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When it is “coordinated action”. The government is accusing the various rail unions – the RMT, Aslef, the TSSA – of coordinating action in their different disputes to maximise impact.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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And Mr Lynch has called for “enormous” and “coordinated” action from other unions if Liz Truss is declared the new prime minister on 5 September, after her Tory leadership run-off with Rishi Sunak.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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