Summer of discontent as UK hit by huge energy bills, axed flights and strike delays

Brits are bracing themselves for a summer of discontent amid strikes, rising bills and flight cancellations.

Workers are staging walkouts across the country as they demand proper pay rises to help them cope with spiralling inflation rates.

Inflation is currently at a 40-year high of 10.1 per cent, with US financial services group Citi predicting that it will reach an eye-watering 18 per cent early next year.

The ongoing war in Ukraine has contributed towards the spike in fuel and food prices in the UK.

The Bank of England now predicts the UK will enter another recession towards the end of the year.

As if this wasn’t enough, Brits hoping to go on holiday also face further flight cancellations in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, port workers, posties, bin loaders, bus drivers and barristers will all walkout in the coming weeks.

An eight-day strike is currently being held at country’s biggest container port in Felixstowe after workers rejected a seven per cent pay offer – a real terms pay cut.

Meanwhile, refuse workers are taking industrial action across Scotland, including in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and Glasgow.

Rats are feasting on rotting rubbish piling up in the streets of the nation’s capital, with seagulls pecking away at overflowing bins.

Rising energy bills

The energy price cap was increased to £1,971 in April and is expected to rise again to £3,582 in October.

The 81 per cent increase in the price cap will make things even harder for Brits struggling with the soaring cost of living.

Cornwall Insight has predicted that energy prices could even rise to £4,200 by January.

The rising price of fossil fuels is behind spike, according to the UK’s energy regulator Ofgem.

Prices have in part gone up as a result of UK sanctions on oil and gas imports from Russia, following Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

EDF Energy senior executive Philippe Commaret said the firm had seen a 30 per cent rise in calls from customers struggling to pay their bills.

Fuel poverty will blight around 45million people this winter as families struggle to pay energy bills, research claims.

Fuel poverty is defined as when energy costs exceed 10 per cent of a household’s net income.

Inflation

Inflation reached a 40-year high of 10.1 per cent in July, up from 9.4 per cent.

The Consumer Prices Index (CPI) is now five times higher than the Bank of England target of two per cent.

The Bank of England has raised interest rates to 1.75 per cent in an attempt to cool soaring inflation.

Economists were expecting inflation to reach 9.8 per cent in July – meaning the latest rise is worse than predicted.

The biggest contributor to the latest inflation rate rise was the cost food, according to the ONS.

Bread and cereals increased in price the most, followed by milk, cheese and eggs.

Vegetables, meat, sugar, jam, honey, syrup, chocolate and confectionary all rose in price as well.

Recession

The UK is set to enter a recession later this year after the economy shrunk in Jun, the Bank of England warned.

Gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 0.6 per cent, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS) – down from growth of 0.4 per cent in May.

Over the second quarter of this year – so from April to June – the economy contracted by 0.1 per cent.

The Bank of England now predicts the UK will enter recession in the last three months of this year and throughout 2023.

If GDP declines for two consecutive quarters – so six months in total – the economy is considered to be in recession.

The UK last went into recession in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Flight cancellations

Flight chaos is expected to continue later this year after British Airways announced a massive reduction in its scheduling.

On Monday BA said it would be cutting around a dozen round-trips per day – totalling 629 flights – until the end of October.

It also axed roughly 10,000 short-haul flights to and from Heathrow Airport between late October and March.

Gatwick Airport yesterday axed 26 flights – 13 departures and 13 arrivals – just hours after announcing it had returned to “business as usual” and would finish its flight cap at the end of the month.

The flights had to be cancelled after not enough staff went in to work.

Heathrow and Gatwick ordered airlines to slash their flight schedules earlier this year following chaotic scenes as staff shortages left them struggling to cope with the sudden ramping up of demand for overseas holidays.

Scotland bin strike (August 18 to September 10)

Bin workers across Scotland are on strike over pay.

Refuse staff in Edinburgh walked out on August 18, with bin workers in a further 13 local authorities in Scotland joining the strike today.

The walkout is already starting to cause chaos in Scotland’s capital, with rats scurrying around mountains of rubbish in the streets.

Pictures taken close to Waverley Station, in Edinburgh, showed public bins overflowing with black bin liners dumped beside them.

Takeaway boxes and food cartons spilled onto the pavement as commuters stepped around the detritus to get to the station.

Edinburgh’s bin strike is due to last until August 30, although industrial action elsewhere is expected to continue until September 10.

Cosla, an association which represents local councils in Scotland, initially offered bin workers a 3.5 per cent pay rise, although this has now been increased 5 per cent.

Unite said it is waiting to receive details about the five per cent offer before taking it to its members.

Felixstowe port (August 21 to 29)

Workers at the UK’s biggest container port in Felixstowe have gone on an eight-day strike in a dispute with bosses over pay.

Some 1,900 members of Unite trade union at Felixstowe Port in Suffolk began a strike over pay on August 21.

The port workers taking industrial action include crane drivers, machine operators and stevedores, as union members voted by more than 9-1 in favour of the first strike action at Felixstowe since 1989.

Prior to the strike, workers were offered a seven per cent pay rise but this was rejected by Unite.

The industrial action, which will last until August 29, is not expected to lead to empty supermarket shelves as Felixstowe generally handles bulkier items.

The port typically handles larger items such as furniture, clothing and data processing machines, while Dover port specialises in food and perishable goods.

Andrew Opie, director of food and sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said: “Fresh food will be unaffected as most of it goes through the roll-on roll off-port at Dover.”

Royal Mail (August 26 & 31 and September 8 & 9)

Postal deliveries are also set to be disrupted due to strikes by Royal Mail workers.

Around 115,000 members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are set to walkout over pay on August 26, August 31, September 8 and September 9.

Members of the CWU backed strikes by 98.7 per cent on a turnout of more than 72 per cent and it will be the first national walkout of postal staff, including delivery workers and those in sorting offices, since 2013.

Royal Mail said the union rejected a pay rise which it claimed was worth up to 5.5 per cent, although the CWU said the figure was “a blatant lie”.

Letters will not be delivered on the strike days unless they are sent via special delivery, Royal Mail said.

The company will attempt to deliver as many special delivery and tracked 24 parcels as it can.

Royal Mail will prioritise delivering Covid test kits and medical prescriptions.

Newham bin workers (August 27 to September 3)

Around 130 bin workers in Newham, London, will strike from August 27 to September 3.

Drivers, loaders and sweepers voted 99 per cent in favour of industrial action in a strike ballot.

Unite said staff are striking over being paid almost £2,000 less than workers in neighbouring councils.

The union said: “Members of Unite are taking strike action to demand a significant pay increase as spiralling price rises mean the essential workers face an impending financial emergency.

“99 per cent of the workers who took part in the ballot backed strike action on an 81 per cent turn out.

“The workers are paid far less than refuse workers in neighbouring Hackney and Greenwich. For example an operative in Newham earns £22,850 compared to £24,763 for a worker in Greenwich doing the same work.”

According to the council, it has offered a 9.7 per cent pay rise to operatives, bringing their wage to £25,212, and a 7.6 per cent increase to drivers, meaning they’ll be on £31,731.

London United bus drivers (August 28 and 29)

Some London bus drivers are set to strike on August 28 and 29.

Members of Unite rejected an offer of a 3.6 per cent pay rise from bus firm London United.

London United is part of the French firm RATP, which recorded profits of around £175 million in 2021.

Unite said the firm’s offer to workers meant a real terms pay cut as the true inflation rate currently stands at 10 per cent.

The dispute is expected to hit 63 routes, mostly through west and south west London including some that serve the Notting Hill Carnival.

The strike will also impact parts of Surrey, Transport for London (TfL) has said, with the network advising customers in the affected areas to check before they travel and leave more time for their journeys.

Arriva bus drivers (September 5 to 7)

Arriva bus drivers will strike across the south-east of England.

More than 800 drivers in Kent and Essex will hold a series of strikes from September 5.

The drivers were balloted by Unite after being offered a 7.8 per cent pay rise.

Meanwhile, around 900 Arriva workers in Bedfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Hertfordshire will also strike from September 5 to 7.

Arriva offered the drivers, admin staff, engineers, cleaners and shunters pay rises of between four per cent and six per cent.

Unite said the proposed rises would constitute a real terms pay cut for staff.

The union’s general secretary Sharon Graham said: “It is abundantly clear they (Arriva and its owner Deutsche Bahn) can afford to pay a decent increase.

“Instead, and during the worst cost of living crisis for decades, they are asking them to take a real terms wage cut.”

Criminal barristers (indefinite strike from September 5)

Criminal barristers in England and Wales have voted in favour of an indefinite and uninterrupted strike.

The industrial action over jobs and pay is due to start on September 5.

Members of the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) are embroiled in a row over Government-set fees for legal aid advocacy work – publicly funded representation for defendants who cannot afford to pay.

The CBA is calling for a 25 per cent rise in pay for legal aid work.

Members rejected a 15 per cent pay rise offer from the Government.

Despite the average criminal barrister earning just shy of £80,000, the CBA has pointed out most junior barristers make less than the minimum wage.

The action has the potential to see the criminal justice system in crown courts grind to a halt.

With legal representatives absent from proceedings, few will be able to go ahead.

Here are some of the other smaller strikes set to take place in the coming weeks:

Metal Improvement Company (August 24 to 31)

Around 40 workers at a metal coating firm have walked out over pay.

Metal Improvement Company, based in Broughton, Chester, supplies a range of components to companies such as Airbus and Magellan Aerospace.

Customers will experience supply chain interruption, potentially impacting production time, Unite said.

Staff will hold a series of one day strikes on August 17, 24 and 31.

A spokesman for Unite said: “The company, which produces coatings to protect a range of components for the aerospace industry, made pre-tax profits of £36.2million in 2021, a 26 per cent increase on the previous year.

“But the company is offering workers a pay deal which significantly falls behind inflation.”

CabAuto (August 23 to September 16)

Workers at a car interior manufacturing firm downed tools on August 23 in a strike that will last until September 16.

Factory staff at CabAuto, in the West Midlands town of Tipton, have rejected a three per cent rise – as it actually constitutes a real terms cut, the BBC reports.

The workers make interior features – such as seats and trims – for luxury brands such as McLaren, Aston Martin and Bentley.

However, some of them are in such dire financial straits they have been forced to use food banks, Unite said.

General secretary Sharon Graham added: “CabAuto should be thoroughly ashamed of itself. This workforce is making cars for the super-rich but their employer, sitting on millions, keeps them on rock-bottom pay and refuses a reasonable wage rise.

“CabAuto can absolutely afford a decent pay rise and should pay up now.”

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Müller (August 25 to 27 and September 1 to 3)

Workers at yoghurt firm Müller’s Gloucester factory are striking from August 25 to 27.

They will also strike from September 1 to 3 over imposed rota changes, GloucestershireLive reports.

The workers believe the change to a five days on two days off rota system will negatively impact their quality of life.

Around 70 members of staff responsible for delivering milk, flavoured milk and potted cream to the supermarkets will strike.

It will disrupt the supply chain of milk products to Marks & Spencer (M&S) and Waitrose.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “The company have deliberately broken an agreement ratified with Unite earlier this year that expressly stated rotas would not change.”

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