In April, Germany’s Berlin Brandenburg Airport canceled all departing flights because of a work stoppage among security workers. At the end of May, rail workers in the United Kingdom launched the first of three strikes to protest wages, forcing cuts in train service. France’s union for air traffic controllers went on strike in June, joining months of nationwide action against the country’s proposed retirement age increase.
This is only a sliver of the strike action across Europe and the United Kingdom in recent months, and of the walkouts expected across the continent. Many of these stoppages are happening in the transport and travel sectors — pilots and baggage handlers and train and public transit workers. That’s also why they’re getting a lot of attention: because these actions are disrupting some of those great post-pandemic Eurotrips this summer.
But these strikes are bigger than whether your flight to Malaga takes off as scheduled. Stubborn inflation in Europe and the United Kingdom is squeezing workforces, and those workers are demanding better wages and improved working conditions. This movement is not limited to transport-related unions. Frustrations are being felt across sectors, as evidenced by the strikes led by doctors and nurses and teachers in the United Kingdom.
“Workers still feel that they are losing out, because if inflation is higher than your wage increase, then you have a wage cut,” said Ronald Erne, professor of European integration and employment relations at the University College Dublin School of Business. “And so the strikes that we have across Europe, most of them are about renewal of wage agreements, of collective bargaining agreements.”
Last summer also saw strikes and stoppages, and some European countries tend to see these kinds of walkouts more frequently. Plus, workers around the world, and across industries, are making demands for better wages and employment terms amid inflation and shifting economies;…
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