02/01/2023

Britain Grinds to a Halt as Half a Million Workers Strike

The strike will cause Britons significant disruption

A long-running dispute over pay and working conditions came to a head on Wednesday, with hundreds of thousands of British workers taking part in what organizers said was the biggest day of industrial action in over a decade.

Around 500,000 workers joined in the day of mass action, with teachers, train drivers, bus drivers, university lecturers, civil servants and airport staff staging a walkout. The huge show of discontent comes amid rampant inflation and years of stagnant wage growth, and puts further pressure on the long-ruling Conservative government grappling with a cost-of-living crisis.

Downing Street warned Britons that the strike would cause “significant disruption.” Thousands of schools were closed — about 85 percent of schools in England and Wales were said to be affected — and most trains in England were not running.

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