Picket your battles

It is a time-honoured tradition, going back hundreds of years. Today, Chancellor of the ExchequerThe chancellor of the Exchequer, often just called the chancellor, is the UK government's chief finance minister. They are in charge of taxation and government spending and borrowing. Jeremy Hunt will stand up in the House of CommonsThe democratically elected house of the UK Parliament. It consists of 650 Members of Parliament.  and lay out the government's spending plans for the next year.

But this year, he will make his statement to a country that has ground to a halt. Normally, at least one train would whizz through nearby Westminster Tube Station every minute; today, it will be deserted. The schools are closed. So are many hospital wards.

Junior doctors, teachers, university staff, rail workers, and even trainee dentists are all on strike today. They want better pay and working conditions.

Ministers insist they cannot afford to pay workers in the public sectorAlso known as the state sector. The part of the economy that is controlled by or organised by the state, rather than private companies. more. And they claim if people's pay goes up, then so will inflationAn increase in the price of goods in an economy. .

So they want to make it harder for people to go on strike. A new bill would require important services to maintain minimum service levels on strike days, which would mean some workers would be forced to come into work. It would also make it easier to sack striking workers.

Critics say the bill violates human rights legislation. Article 11 of the European Convention on Human RightsAn international convention to protect rights and freedoms in Europe. It was written in 1950 and entered into force in 1953. guarantees freedom of association for workers.

But supporters say it is right to curb strike action. They say it has the biggest impact on the worst off in society.

The people who rely on the affected services the most, they claim, are low-paid workers who often cannot go on strike because they are not unionised or are on short-term contracts.

Today, they will have to find someone to look after their children, who would usually be at school. They will struggle to get into work, because the trains are disrupted.

People cannot be forced to work, they say. But employers should not be forced to keep paying them if they will not work.

Supporters of the strikes say this is wrong. They argue that people have the moral right to a decent standard of living, and they are entitled to go on strike to get it.

Certainly, they say, strikes disrupt services that people rely on. But those services also suffer if their workers are overworked and stressed about money. And they may collapse if all their workers leave to find higher salaries elsewhere.

The only way to keep these vital services running, they argue, is to ensure their workers are properly paid. And that is all the strikes are trying to achieve.

Others say this is not about right or wrong. It is a simple matter of common sense.

Many key sectors where strikes are happening have a chronic shortage of staff. The NHSThe National Health Service, the publicly funded healthcare system in the UK. The NHS was founded in 1948. estimates that there is a shortfall of almost 40,000 nurses and more than 4,000 GPsGeneral Practitioners, a British term for doctors who work in the community to treat patients with minor illnesses and refer seriously ill people to hospital specialists. . This is expected to rise to 140,000 nurses and 9,000 GPs by 2030.¹

In 2019, the government promised to hire more health workers. But, critics say, it will struggle to find them if it does not pay an adequate wage.

So, they argue, the government is shooting itself in the foot. By resisting the strikers, it is only making its own job harder and services worse.

Yes: The right to form a union and withhold our labour is a human right. It would be utterly immoral to tell workers who are struggling to feed their families that they are not allowed to demand higher wages.

No: Striking does not just affect workers and their employers. It hurts everyone. It should not be a decision people can take lightly.

Or... This is not a moral issue. It is a negotiation between workers and the government. Neither side will get everything they want. The danger for ministers is that if workers' pay drops too low, there will be disruption even without strikes.