Overworked and Underpaid: Workers on Strike in the UK
Walkouts across the country. Hundreds of schools closed. Protests labeled as “damaging,” and “disappointing,” by the UK government. Teachers, university lecturers, and bus drivers all leaving their posts in their thousands, resulting in school closures and the lack of public transportation. The driving force behind these protests is the cost of living crisis, with workers’ pay staying the same, while inflation rises to new heights every day. Many have had to cut their living costs substantially just to stay afloat, whether it be by stopping gym memberships or rationing their food. The government has continued to say that what they provide is more than enough; for example, teachers have been given a pay rise between 2.5 and 5 percent. Even though that raised their pay, it came from the government budget used for public schools and education, resulting in a lack of educational development and leaving the country at a crossroads between the workers and the government.
To first understand this situation, we must first understand the political changes that have happened throughout the United Kingdom over the last year. In July of last year, Boris Johnson stepped down from his position as Prime Minister after a turbulent three years. Somehow, the UK’s leadership somehow got worse, with Liz Truss following Johnson and only lasting six weeks as Prime Minister, after several failed economic reforms left her reign, and the country, in turmoil. In October, her successor, Rishi Sunak, was appointed. Born in Southampton to immigrant parents of Indian origin, Sunak made a name for himself through his economic reforms during the Covid-19 pandemic, which garnered him much public favor and political recognition. Even so, his stock plummeted after a series of scandals including the notorious “Partygate” scandal. Since his appointment, Sunak has overhauled all departments throughout the government, whilst also bringing down inflation in his first few months in the job, but has failed to make any advancements on other issues, such as worker’s pay.
Rakhi and her sister Esi, both pride themselves on their attendance at school. Their father, Ohi, works as a finance manager but had to take a day off during his busiest time of year, January. “I’ve had to let the team down today to look after the kids today as they’re not having any schooling today. It’s impacting me, my career, the team, but most importantly the kids.” This is the story of hundreds of thousands of families throughout the UK, with many parents having to take days off, potentially threatening their family's source of income. Despite this, Ohi understands where the teachers are coming from: “The teachers go over and beyond what they should do every day. I know lots of teachers who use personal funds to purchase books for their schools because the government help is not sufficient anymore.”
That lack of funding for educational resources was a result of the raises the government gave teachers when protests originally started to occur. That wound has reopened rapidly, with teachers struggling to pay for their own living expenses on top of those they spend trying to get their students the resources they need to learn.
Streets were completely blocked by those protesting, demanding that those in power finally take notice of the issue that affected so many of them. This protesting caused serious travel issues when coupled with the hundreds of thousands of other transportation services that were inactive due to the strikes, a large majority of the public simply could not get to work for several days. However, many workers believe this is their only way to get any attention from those that can cause any change. A female protester stated, “I’d like the impact to be bigger, but I also recognize that not being able to travel, we don’t want to put anyone in distress. But how else do you make your point?” She continued talking about what she thinks the impact of the protests would be, stating, “Not enough, maybe, I wish more, I think a lot of the public maybe don’t understand where we’re coming from. It’s not just about pay, certainly not for me, it’s about all the other stuff going on in schools. The pressure that’s put on us, the amount of hours we work, how people think we’re paid for our holidays but we’re not.” Her situation is, unfortunately, shared by thousands of other hard-working teachers and workers throughout the United Kingdom.
In the space of a year, the vacancies of teachers have spiked from sixty-five thousand to over a hundred thousand, a nearly forty thousand increase. When Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, was asked about this issue, she said, “What I’ve said to [workers] is that we will not be able to consider inflation pay increases, it would just be the wrong thing. What we need to do is halve inflation, and get inflation down.” David Phillips, head of the Chilwell School in Nottingham, has struggled with cuts to his secondary school’s budget over the past few years. Half of the schools’ workforce left during the strikes, causing many students to stay home. “It’s caused a lot of disruption, but I think we all have to take the bigger picture in mind here. We’ve got students missing a day of learning absolutely, and parents will be concerned over that. But what’s education going to be like and what will the provisions be like in fifteen, twenty years' time.” The question of “what’s going to happen” is still very much undecided, with strikes set to continue until at least early July and leaving a problem that only the government can solve, a problem they need to solve sooner rather than later.
By Luke Birch