The UK’s inflation rate hit 9.1 per cent in May – its highest in 40 years. UK economic growth is close to zero, and trade with Europe following Brexit has plummeted. Labour shortages have not pushed up wages for the public sector, just created more work for employees.

All this comes on top of years of austerity, including job cuts, outsourcing and public pay freezes.

Last month, Britain’s rail network was brought to a near standstill by its biggest strike in three decades. The RMT transport union demanded a 7 per cent pay rise, but was offered 3 per cent. Further disruption on the railways was expected.

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This week, senior criminal lawyers in England and Wales walked out of courtrooms for the first of 14 planned strikes, after calling for a 15 per cent hike in the payments they receive for state-funded legal aid. Some junior level criminal lawyers in their first three years earn less than the legal minimum wage.

Doctors, teachers, British Airways baggage handlers, BT Group (formerly British Telecom) engineers, nurses, firefighters – the list of professions in dispute over pay that could lead to strike action grows by the day.

Postal workers on Tuesday voted to stage a one-day strike in July.

The economic situation recalls the 1970s when Britain was labelled the “sick man of Europe” and when spontaneous industrial actions such as walkouts were common.

“Comparisons with the 1970s are not especially helpful – the law is fundamentally different, the structure of the economy is fundamentally different,” said Peter Turnbull, a professor of management and industrial relations at Bristol University.

“Legislation in the UK is now very restrictive and clearly designed to weaken the bargaining power of trade unions.”

Unions now have to ballot all their members before taking strike action. Back in the 1970s, it was customary for the prime minister to invite trade union leaders for informal talks at Downing Street, Turnbull said.

“When we had unrest in the 1970s, sometimes the unions went too far – now its swung too far to management and business and to politicians who don’t give a damn about employee rights,” said Cary Cooper, a professor of organisational psychology and health at Manchester Business School, University of Manchester.

UAE-owned P&O Ferries recently fired 800 on-board staff with no notice. The sackings, by a UK manager on a Zoom call, triggered outrage even among some Conservative Party politicians.

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“We’ve got full employment now which we haven’t had for a long time, but wages and the value of wages are falling, and that’s a really unusual scenario,” Mick Lynch, secretary general of the RMT told Irish radio RTE. “I think it’s because of the precariousness of work.”

Lynch, a little-known figure until two weeks ago has become something of a media star since the RMT rail strikes because of his straight-talking unflappable manner. The 60-year old Londoner, the son of Irish immigrants, has captured the zeitgeist of a tired nation after being featured extensively in UK papers in recent days.

“It (the current wave of union wage demands) has been a long time coming,” said Geoff Tily, senior economist with the Trade Union Congress.

“This is the 14th or 15th year of falling real pay across the economy as a whole when normally we see an expansion of 20 per cent in the same period,” he said.

Worker morale was also bruised by the pandemic, especially among nurses and doctors who were applauded as key workers but have not seen that appreciation reflected in their pay packets.

The British Medical Association (BMA) says doctor pay has fallen 30 per cent in real terms since 2008, which is why they want salaries to rise by that amount now, and will push the government for it even if that means strike action.

“Doctors are utterly exhausted … their well-being rock bottom with 40 per cent suffering from depression, anxiety or burnout.” Dr Chaand Nagpaul told delegates at a recent BMA conference.

“You cannot run an NHS by exploiting a well of goodwill which has totally run dry. Doctors will, and are, walking away.”

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who was attending a series of international meetings this week, said pay increases would lock the country into an inflationary spiral.

“At a time when you’ve got inflationary pressures in an economy, there’s no point in having pay rises that just cause further price rises because that just cancels out the benefit,” Johnson said on Monday.

For now, the government seems to prefer handouts to wage increases. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has approved an additional £15 billion (US$18.1 billion) of one-off financial support for households, a third of which will come from a windfall tax on companies. Critics say it is too little too late, and not going anywhere far enough to help the poorest.

The government may cut in value-added tax, or VAT, The Times reported on Thursday. Johnson’s chief of staff Steve Barclay suggested reducing the 20 per cent headline rate of the tax, the report said, adding a temporary cut would reduce the tax bill for millions.

The government has also appointed a “cost of living” tsar, David Buttress, the multimillionaire founder of food delivery company Just Eat. He has been tasked with bringing business on board to find ways to solve the crisis.

Additional reporting by Reuters