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After a summer of disruption, several sectors have decided to go back on strike in a bid to improve wages, pensions and working conditions. Surprisingly large social movements in universities and hospitals.
From a distance, it looks like a traffic jam has formed and disgruntled drivers are shouting at each other on their way to work. Up close, we understand that it is the postal workers who are on strike, camped in front of their workplace, waving at them with signs “toot if you support us!” and create joy. For several weeks, the scene has been repeated in several areas of London.
Elsewhere, at bus and metro stops, yellow posters warn of “disturbances on the lines”. And in front of 150 universities in Great Britain pickets have been set up. Almost 70,000 professors, researchers and trade unionists took out tea and speakers on the forecourt of the amphitheaters to take part in the biggest social movement ever recorded in the faculties, according to the University and College Union (UCU).
“More sustainable”
The problem is the same everywhere: after a decade of austerity, working conditions have become unbearable for many workers in the context of a drastic increase in the cost of living. “The situation is no longer tenable”, sums up Lucy Mercer, co-president of UCU at Goldsmiths University in London. Wrapped in his down jacket, this literature teacher is there for the taking “an opportunity to secure a salary
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