Pak Sahafat – The British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak wants to break with a new law the biggest wave of strikes in recent decades, which has created a lot of chaos in the country.
According to the International group of Pak Sahafat news agency, Zoddeutsche Zeitung newspaper wrote in an article: British Prime Minister Rishi Sonak has declared war on the unions. He wants to break the biggest wave of strikes in recent decades with the new law. But do many Brits think this is a good thing?
Just a few days ago, Rishi Sunak said that his doors are always open to unions. In his New Year’s speech on Wednesday, the British prime minister said he was ready to talk to unions about wage demands. But the open door policy did not last long. Just one day later, Sunak announced a new law with which the government plans to significantly restrict the right to strike.
This winter, Britain is experiencing the biggest wave of strikes since the 1980s. Nurses, postal and railway workers, border guards and paramedics have gone into action. They want higher wages to control the rising cost of living. The inflation rate in the UK is about ten percent.
There is no end in sight for these labor disputes and strikes. There is not a day in January this year that some kind of strike is not announced. Sonak gets more and more pressured. Many Britons blame the government for the chaos, especially in the NHS. According to a recent survey by the UGO Institute, the majority of respondents not only understand the concerns of nurses, but also clearly blame the government for the strikes.
Sunak has now instructed Business Secretary Grant Shapps to introduce a bill to limit the right to strike as soon as possible. Shops said: The government must protect the right to strike as well as life and livelihood. According to him, although there is hope for friendly solutions, the so-called minimum safety levels will be introduced. He emphasized: These minimum standards are intended to ensure the existence of some kind of basic service in important areas such as health services, firefighting or rail transport.
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Exactly how this law will be implemented is not yet clear. According to the Financial Times, employers must determine the number of staff required to ensure a minimum level of service during the strike. If the employees in question strike anyway, their protection against dismissal can even be reduced.
In the continuation of this report, it is stated: It is not surprising that the unions are worried. Paul Novak, general secretary of the Trade Union Congress, described the government’s plan as wrong and unworkable. He emphasized: If people have voted to strike, it is almost certainly illegal to force people to work. Novak stated that he will fight any move by the government in this direction.
Matt Rock, the general secretary of the British Firefighters Union, said: The Conservatives are clearly determined to criminalize and harass the right to strike and unions with this impending attack. The General Labor Union (GMB), which also represents public health service workers, sees the bill as a desperate move by a government trying to distract from the chaos caused by its own policies.
There have been criticisms from the opposition Labor Party. Labor leader Keir Starmer has spoken out against the government’s planned legislation. He emphasized: If the law actually comes into force, it will repeal the law if Labor wins the election. A new parliament will be elected in the UK next year. According to opinion polls, Labor is currently ahead of the Conservatives.
British people’s understanding of strikes is different depending on the sector. According to surveys, the majority of Britons support the concerns of carers and nurses. On the other hand, the fact that border guards and police officers stop work is met with much less approval.
Politically, Sunak has one problem above all else: the underfunded NHS exposes the sometimes disastrous state of the health system, especially in winter. The head of the UK’s association of emergency medicine specialists, the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), has previously warned that up to 500 people a week could die due to poor supply capacity in emergency medicine.
The report added: The situation is very tense now. This winter there are a higher than average number of flu cases that need to be treated in hospitals. The number of corona patients in clinics is increasing again. Ambulances are lined up in front of many emergency rooms because it is not possible to admit patients immediately.
According to RCEM, wait times are longer than ever this winter. In November alone, almost 38,000 people had to wait more than twelve hours in the emergency room to be transferred to a hospital ward, three and a half times more than the previous year.