Like several sporting events scheduled for this Friday and this weekend, the British unions have decided to take a break in their demonstrations. As a sign of respect following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, which plunged the whole of the United Kingdom into a period of mourning, the strikes planned across the Channel were postponed.
Three British unions which were to carry out wage strikes in the transport and postal sector have announced these suspensions, report our colleagues from The gallery. The CWU (Communication Workers Union) has called off its strike scheduled for Friday over pay rises at the Royal Mail.
monster inflation
For their part, the unions RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) and TSSA (Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association) have canceled their movements planned for September. London faces many social movements because of inflation. It jumped in July to 10.1% over one year, passing the symbolic bar of a double-digit price increase which promises to aggravate a little more the cost of living crisis.
Inflation, which had already reached 9.4% over one year in June, remains at its highest level in forty years. It is accelerating faster than economists’ forecasts and could exceed 13% in October, the Bank of England predicts, when drastic increases in energy prices, which are also soaring, are due to come into effect for individuals.
Help from the new government
Liz Truss announced on Thursday, two days after arriving in Downing Street, a massive relief plan for households and businesses in the face of soaring energy costs, along with an ambitious all-out drilling policy with a revival of hydraulic fracturing and a re-examination of the trajectory towards carbon neutrality.
Bills for an average household will be capped at 2,500 pounds per year, “a saving of 1,000 pounds” per year compared to what they would have had to pay without government intervention. Companies and public institutions such as schools will receive “equivalent aid for six months”. Measures which, the government hopes, will be able to calm popular discontent.