Britain is preparing for a "bleak winter", amid a flurry of strikes in several industrial sectors that threaten to shut down the country ahead of Christmas.
Postal and rail workers have gone on strike - causing Christmas package delays and travel disruptions for millions two weeks before the holiday.
This morning (Thursday), they were joined by about 100,000 nurses who went on strike - the first in the history of the National Health Service (NHS) - which could delay treatments in hospitals across England.
Driving examiners in the Department of Transportation are going to strike, as well as cargo workers, bus drivers, road maintenance crews and energy company workers.
Local newspapers have even started publishing calendars with different colors to help readers keep track of the different dates when disruptions are expected.
Strikes are also planned to begin on Friday among the hundreds of remaining airport workers, according to union leaders, and more strikes will take place between Christmas and the New Year.
According to Organize Unite, workers at Britain's biggest airport have rejected the latest pay offer from employer Menzies.
The workers sat for 72 hours, starting at 4 a.m. on Friday, December 16, and again on December 29 and January 1, also for 72 hours.
There are more than 400 workers in terminals 2, 3 and 4 in the permit.
Railway workers are on strike (Photo: Reuters)
The nurses went on strike (Photo: Reuters)
100 thousand brain nurses (Photo: Reuters)
The discontent that is spreading among the workers has provoked comparisons to the winter of early 1979, called the "Winter of Discontent", in which public sector strikes reached new heights.
The phrase was coined by the then Labor Prime Minister, James Callaghan.
This winter cost Labor the May 19179 election, which was won by Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative Party.
While trade unions do not have the same influence they had in the 1970s in Britain, strikes still pose a threat to Rishi Sunak's conservative government.
A wave of 1970s-style strikes also broke out in June across Britain in all sectors of public services, starting with the railways.
The teachers and the National Health Service (NHS) workers also threatened a similar step due to their demand for salary increases.
Nurses' strike (Photo: Reuters)
Train strike (Photo: Reuters)
Sunak told the Daily Mail today that he plans to introduce anti-strike legislation next year.
"I hope the union leaders will understand that it is wrong to cause such misery and disruption to so many people, especially at Christmas."
The government's hope is that the public will turn against the unions, and the one who will pay the price in that case will be the Labor Party, as happened in 1979.
But the polls show that people continue to support the striking workers, whose wages have barely increased over the years, and who were at the forefront of the fight against the Corona epidemic.
In a survey by the Yogov research company, 59% of those surveyed said that railway and subway workers should be allowed to strike, 30% opposed.
In the case of the nurses, 52% supported while 38% opposed their strike.
The Royal College of Nursing, which represents nurses, is demanding a 19% pay rise.
The government refuses to negotiate.
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