Royal Mail and British Telecom: High inflation fuels industrial action

Inflation in the UK has recently risen above 10 per cent. Even higher values ​​are feared in the future. Now there are strikes for higher wages, which offset inflation.

Tens of thousands of Royal Mail and British Telecom workers have walked out to protest pay rises. The BBC reports that 115,000 Royal Mail workers and 40,000 British Telecom workers are taking part in strike action today. This causes delay in delivery of letters and parcels. More strikes are expected in September.

Provide below inflation compensation

“We cannot live in a country where our employers make billions in profits while their employees are forced to use whiteboards,” said Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communications Workers’ Union.

The union rejected an earlier offer by employers to raise wages by up to 5.5 percent in response to skyrocketing consumer prices. Royal Mail, on the other hand, warns that the strike could cost the company a million pounds – the equivalent of around 1.16 million euros – a day, putting jobs at risk and making it harder to finance pay rises. A further strike has been announced.

Strike in other areas too

Collective bargaining disputes are raging in many sectors in the UK, which is why the British media is reporting on “worktime strikes”. For example, employees of many railway companies and ports stopped work several times a day to fight for better working conditions.

Inflation in the UK was 10.1 per cent in July This is the highest in 40 years. According to estimates by the US investment bank Goldman Sachs, the “Financial Times” reports that if gas prices are high, consumer prices could rise by more than 22 percent in the coming year. In a less severe scenario, the investment bank expects UK inflation to peak at 15 percent next year.