The phrase ‘winter of discontent’ is oft overused in our politics. Previous years have seen it rolled out for flight cancellations to winter getaways and the roads not being gritted. This winter, the phrase couldn’t be more apt.

The strikes on the railways have been well covered. Readers may not be aware that on 14 December PCS members at both the DVLA and the Rural Payments Agency will be out for a week.
The latter will be of particular concern to farmers across Dorset, with the spectre of delays to the Basic Payment Scheme – the state support to farmers.

Some strikes have been averted. GMB members at ‘G4S Cash’, who physically move money to and from banks and supermarkets, were planning to walk out this month.
Their threat of industrial action secured an increase from the original G4S offer of 4 per cent to land an 8.5 per cent settlement for 2023, with certainty of an inflationary increase for 2024. The rate of inflation this year still stands at near to 10 per cent, so this remains a below inflationary increase and only starts to claw back the reductions in wages during Covid-19.

Why is this relevant? Reporting of the strikes going on this winter would lead you to believe ‘union barons’ are out of control, hell bent on some ideological battle to ruin Christmas.
This isn’t a balanced view. Public sector employers like Network Rail have offered 8 per cent over two years to their employees.
This is far below what fully private sector employers like G4S are offering. Trade unions are just trying to secure for their members a wage settlement that goes merely some of the way to addressing the cost of living crisis.

These transport strikes could have been avoided if train operators and Network Rail were allowed by the Tories to settle industrial disputes earlier in the year. Instead we have a decaying government that is eager for ‘wedge issues’ or dividing lines to retain the right wing media’s support and put pressure on the Labour Party. It’s desperate tactics from a party that has run out of ideas and steam. And it’s blue collar workers that are paying the price.

Now we face the impending tragedy of strikes in the NHS, including the first ever by nurses. The NHS is already at the point of breaking, and the Government chooses to risk pushing it over the edge by not settling wage disputes. This after all the nurses went through during Covid-19.
We shouldn’t accept Sunak’s argument that the country can’t afford to give its nurses a fair pay rise. Rather, the country can’t afford further years of Tory government.