UK Tories Gamble Their Political Future on Enacting Tough Strike Rules
Proposed legislation would give the government substantial power to limit work stoppages, but polling shows public sympathy for demonstrating workers.
Pat Cullen of the Royal College of Nursing, with other demonstrators.
Photographer: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/Zuma Press
When UK nurses went on strike this month, they hoisted signs, sang along to tunes such as I Will Survive and chanted about the Tories they felt had left them little choice. “What do we want? Fair pay!” picketers belted on the steps of London’s University College Hospital. “How do we get it? Strike!”
It was May 1, International Workers’ Day, which is recognized by most nations other than the US, whose government since the Cold War has deemed it “Loyalty Day” instead. Taxis, trucks and double-decker buses honked their horns in support of the nurses, and passers-by gave thumbs-up and pumped their fists. Royal College of Nursing union head Pat Cullen congratulated the crowd ahead of a group photo. “You’re just blinking amazing,” said Cullen, whose union had never gone on strike until late last year, when it joined the country’s biggest wave of work stoppages in decades. “Let’s continue to have our voice.”