Strikes should not be allowed - By: Sinnit Zereyohannes, Carolina Potje and Genevieve Francis
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
Strikes should not be allowed
As of June 2022, Industrial action from workers unions has impacted the smooth running of day to day life for Britons across the country.Strikes are a series of protests that occur due to unsatisfactory conditions or pay of work. This refusal to work for long periods of time affects the whole work environment and the rest of society. While some may argue strikes are necessary to make a change; we believe that they are uncalled for, especially after the turmoil caused by the pandemic. Therefore, we believe that strikes are an unreasonable step of action which affects everyone negatively. We need to resolve this now.
Disruptions such as teacher strikes affect the learning of multiple students . If the strike lasts for an extended period of time, children can fall behind in their studies and have trouble catching up. This can have a detrimental effect on students' performances in exams. Students are told to always do their best in class, but are teachers doing the same by going on strike? Although students may enjoy a day off, it has a negative effect on their productivity in lessons. Research has shown that strikes have had a terrible effect on education as a whole. A staggering percentage of students have dropped in their overall test scores, this affects everyone as the younger students are our future doctors and scientists.
Transport workers were the first and is the most frequent working union to strike. By doing so they have effectively shut down the whole country. Teachers and students have been unable to get to school, doctors and nurses have been unable to tend to their patients and other workers have been unable to reach their work environment. They claim they need more pay but the average tube driver receives 55,000 pounds per year, —- more than the average wage. Constantly demanding more pay at the expense of the whole work system is selfish and should be stopped especially as many of the workers striking receive more than the average wage
To conclude, strikes have a negative effect on everyone, whether they have jobs or not, and are a major problem. Strikes are simply unnecessary and messages calling for better pay can be delivered in other ways. Therefore, we believe that strikes should no longer go on.