Leaders of the British Trade Union Congress are warning that they are prepared to carry out synchronized strikes by civil servants and public sector workers throughout the winter. They made their announcement it is announced that official inflation is now at a 40-year high of 10.1% and food inflation 14.8%. A TUC study revealed that one in seven people across the U.K. is skipping meals because of the high cost of living. The same study found more than half of Britons are cutting back on heating, hot water and electricity.
Speaking at the Oct. 18-20 annual TUC congress in Brighton, PCS union head Mark Serwotka, representing 150,000 civil servants, said the union stood ready to strike on the same day as others, when it votes for industrial action in November. “If we win those ballots, we stand prepared to take action on the same day as any other union to show the government we strike together,” he was quoted as saying according to the Guardian.
Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT railway union, which has already held several nationwide railway strikes and is balloting to extend its mandate for strikes, told a side meeting: “We need an uprising. We need a whole wave of synchronized, coordinated action.”
