Property News · June 3, 2017

The strange death of strikes in Britain


Figures show walkouts are at near-record lows despite employment being at a record highA strike at BT is threatened after it emerged this week that the company may be drastically slashing its final salary pension scheme. If BT takes that step, it will be a fundamental breach of the contract that existing workers signed up for, and industrial action will be inevitable.But will BT workers (and Royal Mail employees in a similar position) really go on strike? Some fascinating figures this week from the Office for National Statistics chart the near total death of the British strike. In 2016, working days lost to strikes was just 322,000, a tiny fraction of the 29m in 1979 and the all-time high of 162m in 1926, the year of the General Strike. Even during the second world war, when emergency legislation in effect banned strikes, the number of days lost to industrial disputes stood at about 2m a year. Continue reading…

Source : theguardian.com
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