Strike! Across Britain, normal life is set to grind to a halt. Trains will sit still in their depots. Classrooms will be empty. Libraries will be closed.

It is the start of a new week, and a new wave of industrial actionAny kind of action taken by a trade union to put pressure on employers. In extreme cases workers might go on strike, but they can also collectively agree not to do any overtime or do a 'go-slow', where they deliberately slow down production.. This week, workers across the transport network, NHSThe National Health Service, the publicly funded healthcare system in the UK. The NHS was founded in 1948. and civil serviceThe civil service helps the government to develop and carry out policies. Civil servants are non-political, remaining in place when political parties enter and leave office. are set to walkout in rows over pay and working conditions.

There is no doubt: it will cause huge disruption. So, are the workers right to go on strike?

Strikes are nothing new. The first ever recorded strike took place in ancient Egypt in 1152BC. Workers building the Royal NecropolisFrom the Greek for 'city of the dead', a necropolis is a large, elaborate cemetery. Some of the most spectacular are those of the ancient pharaohs in Egypt.  of Ramesses IIIThe last great monarch of the New Kingdom, ancient Egypt's golden age, in which it controlled an empire reaching as far north as modern-day Turkey and as far south as Ethiopia. downed their tools because they had not been paid.

However, they became much more common in the industrial era. Before this, the predominantMain or most common. form of work was artisanalA form of manufacturing based on workshops. Each workshop would have a master and a number of apprentices working under him and learning their trade. labour, in which each worker would make a whole product without needing to collaborate with others.

Industrial work changed this. Suddenly, each worker was simply another pair of hands on a production line. Their work was less respected and their pay was lower.

But they were also cooperating with each other for the first time. This meant they were talking to each other about wages and conditions. Increasingly, they began to work together in other ways, banding together to negotiate their labour contracts.

Employers were not happy. And the government saw these burgeoning trade unions as a political threat.

So the early unions were violently suppressed. Bosses often hired thugs to beat up strikers. In one famous case in 1834, the government deported six workers from the village of TolpuddleA village in Dorset. The so-called Tolpuddle Martyrs, six labourers deported to Australia for forming a union, are still heroes in the modern labour movement. to Australia for forming a union.

As the unions became more established, governments decided it was better to work with them than against them. By the 1960s and 1970s, it was common for trade union leaders to be invited to Downing Street to discuss economic policy.

However, in the late 1970s public opinion turned against the unions. Strikes were becoming more common and affecting people's lives. In many places, rubbish stacked up in the streets as refuse collectors went on strike. A strike by gravediggers in Liverpool left the dead unburied.

In response, Margaret ThatcherBritain's first female prime minister and the longest-serving prime minister of the modern era. introduced legislationLegislation consists of a law or laws passed by a government. in the 1980s making it harder to go on strike. Today, the UK has some of the most restrictive trade union laws in the western world.

Opponents of strike action think it causes too much inconvenience for other people. They say it is not the rich who are most affected by strikes, but other workers.

But opponents suggest strikers often do not have much of a choice. We can all cope with a little bit of inconvenience if it means they and their families do not suffer.

And they argue that the strikes are ultimately beneficial for everyone. If the strikes succeed, they say, that will prove that people do not need to take cuts in their wages lying down. It will embolden other unions to go on strike and win pay increases for their own members.

Yes: When the workers in one industry win, all workers win. It makes it more likely that workers in other sectors will be able to negotiate pay rises with their employers.

No: Ordinary working people, many earning less than those in striking unions, will struggle to work as schools close and public transport shuts down. Many do not even have unions. They are being forced to pay for the benefit of others.

Or... Everyone is feeling the squeeze of high inflation. We should have made a national plan to keep everyone afloat, instead of letting individual sectors fight for their own wages.