Public sector workers' strike started in England, where approximately 500 thousand people are expected to attend. Among those participating in the strike are teachers, academics, doctors, civil servants, and subway workers. The strikes began in different sectors last year after the failure to reach an agreement on salary, job security, layoffs, and pensions.
According to the Trade Union Confederation (TUC), there hasn't been a strike of this scale in more than a decade.
Metro services in the capital London have stopped. The majority of teachers in schools across the country are on strike. A total of about 150,000 employees, working in more than a hundred government offices, are participating in the strike. About 1,000 journalists, including members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and BBC employees, are also going on strike. The main reason for the strike by the BBC staff was explained as the cuts to be made in local radio.
Meanwhile, the Education Minister said that if the strikes were stopped, they could start serious talks about teachers' salaries and other issues. In the letter he wrote to the parents of the students, the Minister expressed his great disappointment that education, which had already been severely interrupted during the epidemic, is now interrupted due to the strike.
According to a study by the Financial Research Institute, teachers' salaries decreased by 11 percent between 2010 and 2022, and by 23 percent according to research by unions.
Although most teachers receive a 5 percent raise in 2022, unions are demanding a rise above the inflation rate.
The government has announced that it is ready to make an additional payment of £2 billion for schools in the country.
In Wales, the education union NEU stopped the strike after talks with the Welsh government. In Scotland, too, the strikes were called off after a new salary deal was agreed upon.
Source:
https://www.bbc.com/turkce/articles/c108g56785ro
