London - (AFP) - This week, Britain is witnessing a strike by railway, postal and shipping workers, the worst in decades, to demand higher wages in the face of high inflation and a decline in purchasing power in the country.

And the trade unions called on tens of thousands of employees of railway companies in Britain to stop working on Thursday and Saturday, which represents a new chapter in the largest strike in the sector in thirty years, which began at the end of last June.

And the state operator of the railway network, Network Rail, announced that one out of five trains would run during the school holidays and called on Britons to travel "only when absolutely necessary".

The entire transport network in London will be almost paralyzed on Friday and will remain very turbulent through the weekend.

"I will be very late, that's for sure," Osama Sarda, a 30-year-old dentist, told AFP from a London train station as he was heading to a wedding in the north of the country. However, he stressed that the strike is "right, because inflation is now at a record level."

RMT General Secretary Mike Lynch warned Thursday that the largest strike movement of rail workers since 1989 "may continue indefinitely." He continued, "British workers (are paid) mainly low wages," considering that the strike movement "will not be broken," but on the contrary, may expand to include "all sectors of the economy."

Starting from Sunday, the loading and unloading of ships at the port of Felixstowe (east of England), which is the largest shipping port in the country, begins an eight-day strike, threatening to stop a large part of the movement of goods in the country.

And the demand of workers is the same across the country, which is to increase salaries in line with inflation, which in July reached 10.1 percent on an annual basis and is expected to exceed 13 percent in October.

Purchasing power was affected by the record high prices, which "proves the urgent need ... to defend the value of workers' wages," according to the statement of Sharon Graham, Secretary-General of one of the most important unions, Unite.

More than 115,000 British postal workers are taking a four-day strike between the end of August and early September, at the call of the CWU sectoral union. About 40,000 workers in the telecom operator BT are also continuing their first strike in 35 years.

It is expected that strikes will be organized in the warehouses of the "Amazon" group, the giant e-commerce, in the ranks of criminal lawyers and garbage collection workers.

The CBI employers union confirmed in a statement that "employers are doing everything they can to help their employees get through this period." But, she added, "a large majority cannot afford to raise wages enough to keep up with inflation."

Recently strikes were averted at the last minute, after workers received offers of wages deemed satisfactory.

This is what happened with the workers of the refueling company at Heathrow Airport, who threatened to block navigation but quickly abandoned the strike.

British Airways workers, who were demanding a refund of 10% deducted from their salaries during the pandemic, also agreed to a 13% increase in wages and called off the strike.

The continued strike of the railway workers Thursday is an indication that negotiations with all operators in the private sector are at an impasse. They also rejected an offer from the "Network Rail" company, which they considered conditional on the dismissal of a large number of workers.

The organizations criticize the Minister of Transport, Grant Shapps, who refused to participate directly in the talks, and accuse him of not giving enough time to the companies to negotiate.

The government's decision to change the law to allow temporary workers to replace strikers angered the unions.
The famous "Harrods" chain of stores was "the first company to threaten its employees" by using this law.

The strikes may continue beyond the summer and could expand to include teachers and health workers who rejected an offer of a 4% wage increase.