Swathes of office staff have been forced to work from home Wednesday as widespread industrial action closes schools and cripples Britain’s rail network.
As many as 475,000 union members are on strike, demanding pay rises that do more to combat the cost-of-living crisis. Many were given salary increases of less than 5% last year, even as inflation climbed above 10%.
Major train stations in London are completely closed, including Victoria, Cannon Street, Marylebone and London Bridge, while more than a dozen key commuter rail lines aren’t running any services.
Some 85% of schools in England and Wales are estimated to be closed or partly shuttered, according to the National Education Union. However, Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said Wednesday morning that “the majority of schools” are open, with more precise figures to be published later today.
The day of coordinated industrial action is likely to be Britain’s most severe day of strikes for over a decade, piling pressure on Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservative administration to resolve disputes with public sector workers by making more generous offers on pay. Train drivers, teachers, university staff and civil servants are all protesting together.
Mass strikes may have cost the UK around £1.5 billion ($1.85 billion) in the final quarter of the year, according to Bloomberg Economics, with the economy expected to go backward in the first three months of 2023.
