Dec 16, 2016
Christmas of Discontent
The unrest is all the more unusual because for the last 30 years strikes have been falling to record low levels in the UK. "We've not seen much strike action really since the mid-1980s," says Dr Alf Crossman, an industrial relations specialist at the University of Sussex. "We would not be talking about a Southern Rail strike, it would be a nationwide rail strike," says Dr Crossman. "The causes of recent strikes differ from strike to strike, ranging from safety on the railways to closures of post offices. Each dispute is specific to that workplace," says Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the TUC trade union body. "Going on strike is always a last resort, especially for the hardworking staff who take pride in their work, and will lose pay while on strike," she adds. The number of working days lost to strikes in the first 10 months of 2016 has already passed last year's total, largely because of the junior doctors' strike in April and the teachers' strike in July.
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