The UK’s University and College Union has announced plans to hold another round of strike ballots but, while it may feel to many like Groundhog Day, the polls are being held in markedly different circumstances to the last time members were asked to have their say, just a few months ago.
The near constant presence of the secretary general of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, Mick Lynch, during the summer’s rail strikes is emblematic of how unionism and workers’ rights is enjoying far greater attention than it has done in decades.
Many have been won around to the unions’ cause in large part because of the worsening cost-of-living crisis that is placing a strain on pay packets in every sector and makes arguments about the need for wage increases much more acute.
