Strikes Poised to Cripple UK
Gordon Brown might not survive the year as his country succumbs to stagflation and labor unrest reminiscent of the 1970s.
Recently I did a piece here on the so-called brain drain that is affecting the UK at the moment. I made comparisons to the last big wave of emigration from malaise-addled Britain in the 1970s. Space constraints prevented me from pointing out a few more similarities.
The most obvious one is the market malaise in the UK. The country is suffering from stagflation, where prices are soaring but wages aren’t for most — unless, of course, you are a member of Parliament or a civil servant.
The unions have begun to realize that their members are suffering and trying to get on the same deal as other civil servants who are getting pay deals over the “official” rate of inflation, which is 3%. These union heads know that the actual inflation, if you include all costs, is more like 8%. Despite pleas from the chancellor of the Exchequer and the prime minister, wage demands are attempting to reflect true inflation.
Recently tanker drivers struck because they were not given a 13% rise on their sub-£40k salary. Yes, tanker drivers in the UK are being paid almost $100k a year. They held large parts of the UK to ransom while they got this deal out of their employees. This sets a very bad precedent for the rest of these sort of negotiations.
Other unions, including that for refuse collection, have voted to strike this summer. And other unions are threatening a summer/autumn of “action.” Those of us old enough to remember the UK at its nadir in the 70s remember piles of rubbish in Leicester Square, London, because of the strike by council refuse workers. They are threatening a repeat performance unless they get a proper pay deal. In fact over 800,000 council workers are set to strike.
As a limited government type, it is always welcome to see council workers not doing their job of meddling in people’s lives and basically holding things up. However, scenes of piles of rubbish around will not exactly inspire confidence in the UK. It is not like they have to work hard. Many councils are even threatening to collect rubbish from householders once a month to force them to recycle.
Other government employees are getting bolshy, including the aptly named teacher’s union, the NUT. They are trying to get more money out of the government and threatening strikes in the autumn. Pleas from the Labour government, which is considered friendly to unions, are falling on deaf ears.
It is the case that unions see weakness in a Labour government and try to use it to their benefit. They like a Labour prime minister with his back to the wall, as Gordon Brown is right now, as a chance to get the maximum out of “their government.” It is being said they are holding Brown to ransom over laws they don’t like or want. His party is in a dire financial situation and need the unions’ deep pockets to bail them out before the next election. The unions are determined to make him pay for their bailing them out. Actually they want everyone to pay for their help — whether it be because of inflation, higher central or local taxation, or the bother of dealing with normal daily life while they are out striking.
What does this mean for the rest of the country? Lots of strikes, inconvenience, and bother. When the unions get what they want it will drive up inflation as well as making things even more expensive. The unions are doing their best to drive the UK into recession, if it is not in one yet. Gordon Brown and his chancellor look set for a rough summer and autumn. Stagflation is what everyone is worried about and it seems to be a reality in 2008. The credit crunch and cooling property market, which Brown wants cooled, are not helping either.
Of course, there is chatter that he won’t make it past the end of this year in his position. This chatter is getting louder as Gordon Brown is seeing his poll ratings lower than President Bush in the U.S. and even the American Congress. The recently further enriched, via a large pay raise, Labour MPs are getting restless and worrying about their perks. In fact many pushed for the pay increase before the fall in case of a post-party conference season snap election and they lose their seats (their pay determines their pension when the public fires them).
Despite the efforts of Margaret Thatcher — who is still being blamed for Labour’s problems, I might add — the Labour government is doing its best to return the UK to the state it was in during the 70s. The only question is whether or not David Cameron, the Conservative leader, is the man to turn the country around when he gets into power.
Andrew Ian Dodge blogs at Dodgeblogium.
 |
 |
 |
Podcasts |  PJM Home |
Pajamas Media appreciates your comments that abide by the following guidelines:
1. Avoid profanities or foul language unless it is contained in a necessary quote or is relevant to the comment.
2. Stay on topic.
3. Disagree, but avoid ad hominem attacks.
4. Threats are treated seriously and reported to law enforcement.
5. Spam and advertising are not permitted in the comments area.
The clause regarding "hate speech" has been deleted because readers criticized it as being too loosely defined. We agreed.
These guidelines are very general and cannot cover every possible situation. Please don't assume that Pajamas Media management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment. We reserve the right to filter or delete comments or to deny posting privileges entirely at our discretion. If you feel your comment was filtered inappropriately, please email us at story@pajamasmedia.com.
22 Comments
1. Dodgeblogium » That Striking Feeling?:[...] have a piece over at PJM on that other revival from the 70s strikes. Yet another group of people who seem to be bound and determined to send the UK economy into [...]
Jul 6, 2008 - 3:45 am 2. Anthony (Los Angeles):It’s amazing, but Gordon Brown’s clownish performance so far makes John Major look like Churchill by comparison.
Jul 6, 2008 - 8:31 am 3. Gordon Brown breaks record for new laws * | Jack’s Newswatch:[...] [Continue reading] Update: Strikes Poised to Cripple UK [...]
Jul 6, 2008 - 10:16 am 4. Elroy Jetson:I agree, Anthony.
Jul 6, 2008 - 10:37 am 5. Greg:I also might add that Tony Blair’s best career move was to agree to step down, although he had a big part to play in the state of British affairs today.
Petrol costs the equivalent of $8.70 per US gallon in the UK. However, at least some of our cars are more fuel efficient. Food prices have shot up, and it is dangerous to go into a supermarket without a carefully planned shopping list.
These economic pressures mean that the house price bubble is slowly deflating, which would be good news for first time buyers … if they could find someone to lend them some money!
I agree with the premise of this article. I expect unions to become militant in the UK, and demand absurd wage rises. You can’t blame people for looking after their own interests (that’s how capitalism works) but the collective bargaining power will merely start the wages “arms race”.
I can see some tough times round the corner.
Jul 6, 2008 - 10:51 am 6. george:This is not a well-written piece of opinion or factual reporting. Some of the facts are correct, some of the opinions are reasonable, but it is, overall, sloppy. Just one example:
“What does this mean for the rest of the country? Lots of strikes, inconvenience, and bother. When the unions get what they want it will drive up inflation as well as making things even more expensive.”
“Drive up inflation” and make “things even more expensive” – and all at the same time!
I understand that Pyjamas Media publishes content from all over the world, but I don’t usually notice, quite so quicly, that the articles covering U.S. topics are this sloppy. Could do better.
Jul 6, 2008 - 11:07 am 7. george:Mind you “cduntry” is pretty sloppy, too.
Jul 6, 2008 - 11:08 am 8. pat hendershott:Sub $40k pounds is not almost $100k. More like $75k.
Jul 6, 2008 - 11:23 am 9. Peter Carroll:“quicly” is sloppy too.
Jul 6, 2008 - 3:45 pm 10. Britblog roundup #177 « Amused Cynicism:[...] Andrew Dodge of Dodgeblogium isn’t happy with what he sees as the upsurge in strikes by british workers: Recently tanker drivers struck because they were not given a 13% rise on their sub-£40k salary. [...]
Jul 6, 2008 - 3:58 pm 11. Craig:Tanker drivers in the UK do not make $100K. £40K may equal $100K at foreign exchange rates, but £40K in Britain spends roughly like $40K does in the US. A common mistake, to be sure, but one which seriously undercuts the theme.
Jul 6, 2008 - 4:39 pm 12. Andrew Ian Dodge:Wow the pedants are out in force today. Call it sloppy without actually saying why…how classy. Do some research about what the UK was like in the 70s before criticising. Funny enough since I wrote this piece there have been several articles in proper papers saying the same thing.
Do you honestly think that a 13% increase in pay as requested by the truckers (3 times official inflation) is reasonable? 40k in the UK spends differently depending where you are just like in the US. Do you honestly believe that all those truckers live in Central London?
Gordon Brown is very weak, there were even more rumours of a challenge in this week’s weekend papers, and the unions are going in for the kill.
Then there are the council workers (over 400k of them) who are planning to go on strike. Now council workers are the most efficient people in the first place (am currently waiting for a single piece of paper that I need for something…its been over a month) but when they go on strike all kinds of chaos happens and things grind to a halt.
Jul 7, 2008 - 1:54 am 13. ReCon USMC:The UK has many other problems as well .What is not mentioned was those nasty carbon credits The UK is rebelling against .The “”MOSLEM and clerics ” acting insanely wanting and getting Sharia laws in acted . Growing Welfare is killing formerly “Merry old England” .
Jul 7, 2008 - 12:13 pm 14. deguello:England health Care is in shambles to name a few things .
Actually all of Europe is in same Dumpster .
Who cares? England like the rest of euroland,is a played out, bitter, moribund entity. I agree, that it makes a wonderful disneyland for the intellectually pretentious with its pre pc buildings, and (dying) traditions,but the spirit that created its art and culture has been killed by globalist capitalism, and its multicultural pc handmaiden. The Brits have allowed themselves to be disarmed, muzzled and culturally castraed;they are done.Le Islam take it.
Jul 7, 2008 - 12:53 pm 15. Hal:deguello:
“Let Islam take it.” I hope not. The UK has nuclear weapons and delivery vehicles to hit the USA.
Jul 7, 2008 - 4:24 pm 16. ChrisGreen:Speaking from the USA, I sure hope the Britts can pull out of this. I have a lot of respect for the country and its history. I believe that if things get bad enough, they will have the guts necessary to make painful changes. As for the rest of Western and southern Europe, I’m not nearly so sympathetic or hopeful.
Jul 7, 2008 - 5:03 pm 17. Andrew Ian Dodge:There are voices that are standing up to the various Islamisation aspects n the UK. People like Melanie Philips are keeping a keen eye on things; as are bloggers. Fortunately people are not being prosecuted (yet) for being critical of the various PC pressures.
Even St Bob Geldof is getting rather fed up with it all.
Jul 8, 2008 - 2:32 am 18. Cousin Dave:My personal theory on stagflation is that its fundemental cause is a drop in productivity. Since the natural state in a capitalist society is for productivity and efficiency to improve over time, producitivity drops are very noticable. And when productivity drops occur across a number of sectors, it’s nearly always because of the actions of government — almost nothing else is broad-based enough to cause it.
In the case of the stagflation that the USA experienced in the ’70s, the cause was a combination of tax increases and the increasing cost of regulatory compliance as thousands of pages of new environmental regulations were dumped on industry. Does anybody remember the cars of the ’70s, with their cumbersome pollution controls that made the cars run poorly and were frequently bypassed by disgusted owners? That was the ’70s economic and regulatory environment in a microcosm. We got lucky in that technology improved, as it always does, and the microprocessor came along in time to save the day, in the form of digital engine management systems. The same thing happened in other industries, plus when Reagan came along, there was a bit more rationality applied to the regulatory environment, and of course taxes were decreased significantly at that time. This is what got us out of the stagflation of the ’70s and set us up for a 2-1/2 decade long economic expansion.
We’re seeing a similar situation happening now. Government regulation has essentially prohibited development of new energy sources, which is the root cause of our current energy price increases. (It isn’t just drilling for oil either; the regulatory regime goes far beyond just that.) W’s Administration has unfortunately (with the help of the Supreme Court) allowed the cost of regulatory compliance to rise precipitously. And now a tax increase next year appears inevitable, since both candidates have expressed support for increases. We’re seeing the results of all this in the Dow Jones, at the gas pump, and at the grocery story. And, quite frankly, I do not see any end in sight.
Jul 8, 2008 - 7:23 am 19. scotgo:“Pleas from the Labour government, which is considered friendly to unions…”
Ahem! You really are stuck in a 1970s timewarp, aren’t you? The present Labour government is friendly to the unions in the same way that President Bush is ‘a true friend of the Iranian people’.
Also, the prospect of a snap election in the autumn is pure fantasy. However bad things get, an election can only occur before 2010 in one circumstance – if the incumbent Labour Prime Minister (whether Brown or someone else) chooses to call one. And turkeys do not vote for Christmas.
Jul 8, 2008 - 9:53 pm 20. Andrew Ian Dodge:They are certainly “more” friendly to the Labour than the Conservatives. Oh yes and there is the fact that the Labour Party is beholden to them for a lot of their funding. BTW it looks as if the firemen are going to strike.
Jul 9, 2008 - 7:41 am 21. deguello:Hal:The Iranians will soon have nukes; so that point is moot.Besides, the ultimate weapon is the birth bomb.In Eurabia the muslims are vastly outbreeding the ethnic europeans,as more muslims continue to flood the US,thanks to our wonderful bi-partisan open borders policy.They will outbirth us too.The west is dying;turn it over it’s done!
Jul 9, 2008 - 9:37 am 22. Behind Blue Lines » Part of the Union:[...] saw in the 1970s. Andrew Ian Dodge has written a couple of good posts on Pajamas Media in which he describes the rumbling. As matters get worse, expect more of the [...]
Nov 12, 2008 - 2:43 pm