Hi everyone, and welcome back to Britain under the microscope. 欢迎回来【闲话英伦】. Hello, 安澜.

Hi 璐璐. Hi, everyone.

So 安澜, I know that you have recently obviously also been in the UK.

Yes, I have.

You know when I was in the UK this time, I didn't notice because just they say it over and over again in the news, strikes, many strikes. And not just in the UK, in Europe, in general these days.

Oh yeah. Certainly throughout Europe and also particularly in the UK, there are lots and lots of strikes.

所以今天咱们就要聊聊罢工这个事情. I know it's a bit sensitive.

Well, it is a bit sensitive, but we can be focusing on what it actually means to strike. So we'll be focusing more on the actions.

Not so much as in which side we support, but is more informative.

Exactly.

Okay. But first of all, why are there so many strikes in the UK in recent months? I know there always have been strikes, but it seems to be more frequent.

Simply it's down to inflation.

And the cost of living crisis.

And the cost of living crisis.

就是生活成本的飚高, 还有通胀。We talked about this before.

Yes. So there's been a massive increase in inflation, post COVID, and also post Brexit. In October 2022, our inflation went up to 11.1%.

Wow, post COVID, post Brexit, you have this double whammy. 英国是既受到COVID新冠的影响, 还受到Brexit脱欧的影响. Yeah. So people are having a pretty tough time right at the moment.

But it's important to note that even before COVID and even before Brexit, lots of people were having a tough time. I would say ever since 2008, 2009 with the financial crisis, there's been a lack of investment in public services.

When you say public services, do you mean like infrastructure like a health care?

Health care, schools, transports, that's because of austerity.

What does austerity here mean?

Well, austerity in this sense means that the government try to cut expenditure as much as possible.

Because the government no longer has money.

Partly. But also because the government was borrowing heavily and they weren't able to sustain that level of debt.

Yeah, this I've read. I think your government, forgive me for saying this, but it... hugely in debt. So austerity basically means very very frugal extreme money saving. Yeah. But you can't really save on things people really need like medical services and schools.

Well, and that's one of the problems because it led to wage stagnation.

Wage stagnation means your wage just stops growing, stops increasing.

Particularly in line with inflation. So every year people get a pay rise at work. But the question is, is it in line with inflation or not, generally it's not been in line with inflation.

In China, people, we complain about that as well, saying that everything apart from our wage is going up.

Yeah. Exactly. And that's exactly the same in the UK as well.

Yeah. This is actually very important. Now this I actually have to stress because when I was doing live streaming and when you were there as well in London, and some people were asking Yeah, okay, so the things cost much more but they also earn a lot. And I said if you come to the UK and see how people live their lives, they really don't earn enough to keep up with the rising cost of things.

Yeah, particularly things like rent, transport, exactly, are very expensive in the UK.

We're not talking about frivolous expenses, 不是说的那种奢侈和不必要的消费, for example like eating in a restaurant or buying luxury. We're talking about buying daily groceries. We're talking about taking a bus, taking the train, underground.

Yeah, exactly. This all came together in strikes. So in February 2023, half a million British people went on strike.

If I remember correctly, your entire population is only slightly under 70 million. Yeah. So you've got half a million people were on strike.

Yes. And you consider who those people were. These are doctors, teachers, nurses, nurses, people who run the trains and the buses and the underground.

And I watched it somewhere, ambulance drivers.

Yeah.

How can ambulance drivers go on strike? What about people need emergency care?

Well, we can talk a little bit about that when we discuss what happens during the strike, of course, but it is quite complicated and it doesn't just mean that they ignore anyone’s dying or sick.

It's... there are certain safeguards in place.

Okay, I would figure. I would have thought so.

So let's bring it back to maybe the basics. Who arranges those strikes? I'm assuming it's the unions, 是这个工会.

Yes. So in British English, we call them trade unions, trade unions. In American English, they called labor unions. So individual trade unions would usually call for a strike or a walkout.

So many things we need to clarify because when we talk about 工会, we mean something very different. Our idea and the functions of our unions are very different.

For example for us usually we have a 单位, and this 单位 would have a 工会. So it sort of represents the company or just its departments.

But it's not necessarily so in the UK, right? It's not like one company just has one union. You can have several different unions.

For example, transport unions and we'll talk a little bit more about them later because they're very powerful and very strong. London underground has a number of different unions. So your colleague can belong to one union, another colleague can belong to another union, so on and so forth.

And you also mentioned strikes, we know is 罢工, it’s literally like I refuse to go to work tomorrow. But what about walkouts?

Walkout is a part of a strike. It basically means you just stop working and leave the building.

我看了walk out也是被翻译成罢工. Am I to understand that walkout is a specific act but strike is the overall concept.

Yeah. So strikes are normally set for a particular period of time. There's lots of different activities as part of the strike. So that's including meetings. And well, We'll talk a little bit more about what happens during the strike.

Let's bring the discussion back to trade unions. 咱们先聊聊工会. I know that their organizations of workers, the aim is to improve their welfare?

Pretty much. It's summed up as to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment.

Okay, so employment conditions. I'm assuming mostly working conditions, wages.

It's not just about wages. A lot of them are about money of course, hours? hours. But for example, in the UK at the moment there were strikes being called about closing of ticket offices.

Ticket offices are just basically those little counters that selling tickets, train tickets also.

The government wanted to close them down because it's the same as in China, most people buy their tickets online for the train, and it costs a lot of money to maintain these offices. The government wanted to close them down. The unions and the workers disagreed with that because they thought it wasn't safe.

It’s not because they just wanted a few, a few more employment opportunities?

Partly, but also their conditions of employment can also include the overall running of the organization if they disagree with it.

Let me get this straight.

Unions, they will sort of come in when... how does it work? Supposedly you work in the UK, you belong to a trade union and you are like I don't like the condition at work. I think I’m massively underpaid, I wanna pay raise. I think I deserve it or I think I deserve better working condition. Who do you go to? Do you go to your union representative?

You go to your union representative. And if enough people have the same concern, then the unions would negotiate with the employers.

Oh, so this is before the strike, they will bring it to the boss, the owner of the company and then say give us a raise.

Yeah, and they'll make a case for it. And if the employers disagree and the unions also disagree, then strikes or walkouts can be arranged.

Another thing that I really find it interesting is usually you think of strikes, you think of people getting really angry. It's like at the certain point that the anger build up to a point and they just chuck everything and say screw this and let's all walk out. But in fact, all these strikes are carefully planned and broadcasted. So as a traveler, as a passenger, if I go on certain official website, I can clearly see when the strike will start, when the strike will end.

Essentially the strike is not to try to make everyone's life a misery. It is designed to bring the negotiation forward and strikes and walkouts are only arranged after a ballot, a vote.

Okay. Can you walk us through that? When do they vote?

The union representatives would go back to the workers that they represent and say, look, we tried the management, the employers they don't agree. What we want to propose is that we go on strike who agrees with our decision.

Is it a majority vote or is it unanimous vote?

It's a majority vote.

It’s a majority vote.

Okay.