The appointment was at Paddington station, west of London.
It is one of the ones that registers the most passenger traffic every morning.
This Wednesday it was deserted.
Just a handful of people who took advantage of the minimum services to travel.
The railway drivers had joined the wave of strikes, anticipating a historic day:
Walkout Wednesday
(Wednesday of strikes).
More than half a million people have left their jobs, in the UK's largest recorded labor protest in the last decade.
In 2011, close to a million civil servants stood up and demanded a salary increase.
The day had, however, some clear protagonists: the teachers.
A handful of them were sitting on public benches in Paddington drinking coffee.
They finished preparing their banners, joked and encouraged each other.
They came from Newham, to the east of the metropolis, to participate in the great demonstration called before Downing Street, and Parliament.
“We don't want to be here.
The strike is spread over several days apart to cause as little damage as possible, ”explains Anna Kettle, a 25-year-old teacher, appointed as spokesperson for the group.
According to figures from the unions and schools themselves, nearly 300,000 teachers have supported strikes that have closed more than 23,000 schools throughout the country.
Aware of their ability to alter the lives of many citizens with their actions, they have made an effort to convey to the parents of their students the reasons why they have decided to call a strike for the first time in 15 years.
Professor Anna Kettle (second from the left), along with other colleagues, this Wednesday at London Paddington station.Rafa De Miguel
“We know that they support us, and many of them have even wanted to join the demonstration this Wednesday in London.
It's not just about our salaries, it's about funding schools.
It cannot be that, in the last five years, practically three out of four people who trained to be teachers have decided to leave the profession and emigrate to other sectors”, says Kettle.
The political battle
“This is not a game for us.
We are not engaged in politicking on this issue.
Education should be at the top of any government's agenda," defends David Job, a science professor at the San Agustín Institute, a public education center in the London neighborhood of Kilburn.
There are barely six teachers from the center, with their banners.
They have gotten up early to notify any absent-minded parent or student who had not found out about the strike.
“Public education in the UK has serious funding problems, and people know it.
That is why they support us, especially the parents of students who require special assistance”, explains David.
As was the case with public health nursing staff, who have also staged protest strikes since the beginning of the year, the teachers have so far been able to generate a current of popular support.
59% of those consulted, according to YouGov, defend the right of teachers to use the strike resource, compared to 31% who would like greater restrictions.
The Conservative government has promised to approve salary increases for teachers of between 5% and 9%, with greater support for workers who join.
The average annual salary for a teacher starting their working career in the UK is around €31,000 gross, but the differences can be stark if you live in or around London, where the cost of living crisis is particularly dire.
UK inflation is 9.2%, according to the latest data for December, but the shopping basket, according to calculations by the National Statistical Organization, has risen by about 17%.
“It is unrealistic to contemplate wage increases linked to inflation, because the only thing we will do is cause more inflation.
We have to look out for the interests of the whole world in this economic situation.”
Daily Mail.
The prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has decided, until now, to hold the pulse of the unions, in the hope that a fed up citizenry will end up playing in their favor.
He is aware that the leader of the Labor opposition, Keir Starmer, must tread carefully in his support for the strikers so as not to scare away a British middle class that always looks askance at the unions.
"We have approved the biggest salary increase in 30 years," Sunak assured during the control session that every Wednesday he faces Starmer in the House of Commons.
“The education of our children is very valuable.
Today they deserve to be in school, and the opposition should condemn the strike and support the students, ”said the prime minister before the silence of his Labor rival,
An economy that suffers
Together with teachers, both from schools and universities, railway drivers joined the strikes this Wednesday.
His sector is the one that has prolonged intermittent strikes for the longest months (June of last year) that have clouded the negotiation.
Many Britons are beginning to accept with resignation a rail service that is no longer even the shadow of what it was in its day, in terms of punctuality and abundant supply.
Border control workers, in ports and airports, have respected minimum services, in addition to seeing how their positions were reinforced by military personnel.
The Government had given the order to mobilize up to 600 soldiers for these tasks.
On a day that is not particularly busy with air traffic, the management of Heathrow airport has reported slow but smooth passport control, without major incidents.
The total volume of strikers has been greatly increased by the strike also called by the PCS union of administration officials.
Some 100,000 people have supported the strike and paralyzed a large part of government activity on Wednesday.
Anna Kettle and her colleagues arrived shortly before noon at the meeting point of the protesters, in front of the BBC headquarters.
Little by little, teachers, as well as parents and students, came from all over the country.
Thousands of them, carrying banners proclaiming things like “teachers made it possible for you to have a job” or “we would rather be teaching”, were joining the wave, which was advancing towards the prime minister's headquarters in Downing Street and Parliament.
The festive atmosphere was deceptive, because the true message of the protest was to anticipate the increasingly urgent need of the Sunak government to put a stop to social discontent that could end up derailing its effort to redress the country's economy.
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