Strikes

Strikes can be good, and bad in many different ways, but personally, I think they are necessary. Many workers in the UK suffer with low pay and bad working conditions, they have the human right to strike in an attempt to make this better. Many people can be impacted by strikes in different ways, from travel purposes for passengers, to workers not being paid for their strike days. This topic is important to me as I think people should know more information about striking. When teachers are on strike, students are happy to get a day or two off of school but in some cases, ( mostly younger children ) don’t actually know the reason behind it. Nearly 1 in 5 people’s travel plans are being disrupted by strikes. A news story showed a Spain holiday warning for Brits as fresh airline strikes could hit summer holidays. Another report showed how much money rail workers could’ve lost, being up to £4000 and they could only earn back a small fraction of that back. While there can be many opinions on this topic, I personally agree with workers taking strike action, but the government clearly doesn’t. “Many workers will lose the right to strike if sack the nurses bill is passed through TODAY.” There are many problems if these news stories become reality. Firstly, if workers lose the right to strike, they will be stuck on low pay and in poor working conditions. Secondly, peoples flights could be cancelled and they may not be able to get the train they need to get. Overall, we can see how much strikes can effect our day-to-day life. I think strikes are a good and bad thing. Positive effects- The strike could work and the government could recognise it. If someones travel plans are disrupted, they may choose to work from home, which might not have been possible before, or maybe change the timings of their travel plans where possible. People may become more careful about their money spending habits. When there are postal strikes, people may try to buy the things that they would have ordered, in person. Negative effects- In total, 2.472 million working days were lost between June and December 2022 and over three quarters, (79%) came from workers in transport, storage, information and communication.