Another Winter of Discontent? Strikes in Britain
| Author | Susan Milner |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/20419058221127473 |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
40POLITICAL INSIGHT•SEPTEMBER 2022
The summer of 2022 has seen the
resurgence of what was once a
major feature of British political
life: strikes. Despite expectations
that home working could lessen their
impact, rail strikes have caused major
disruption for a transport sector already
hit by flight cancellations and extreme
weather. The reappearance of significant
strike activity also suggests that worker
discontent is not just widespread but deep
enough to overturn cultural and material
© Graham Hunt / Alamy Stock Photo
Another Winter of
Discontent? Strikes
in Britain
As inflation has spiralled, sparking a cost of living crisis, Britain has
been hit by a series of strikes. The current wave of industrial action
is a product of deep imbalances in the British economy, writes
Susan Milner.
reticence to participate in collective action.
The current wave of industrial action
has frequently been compared to previous
periods of strikes, particularly in the 1970s.
In July, Unite General Secretary, Sharon
Graham, told the
BBC
that workers had, for
years, faced a ‘spring, summer, autumn and
winter of discontent’, consciously echoing
a decades-old media trope. The ‘winter of
discontent’ – a phrase that journalists tend
to reach for whenever there is an outbreak
of strike action, particularly one affecting
Political Insight September 2022 BU.indd 40Political Insight September 2022 BU.indd 4009/08/2022 12:5909/08/2022 12:59
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