There has been much reference to the 1970s amid the turmoil caused by British industrial action this week. Similarities are easy to spot: sky-high inflation prompting workers in key areas of infrastructure to demand higher pay, oil shocks and the looming spectre of recession.
The rail strike which began on Tuesday and will continue into the weekend has seen the cancellation of thousands of trains. In times like these I am feeling more grateful than ever to be a remote worker. I have stationed myself on the coast in Suffolk this week and have greatly enjoyed long evenings of sunshine unencumbered by a miserable journey on a sweaty train. I don’t even feel the need to battle with airport queues and cancellations now that I have the flexibility to travel and work in the best part of Britain in the summertime.
I am not alone. Train strikes carry less threat when so many of us are capable and accustomed to working from home. On Tuesday when the strikes kicked off, office occupancy was at just 22%, compared to 40% for the same day last week. Meanwhile, local co-working offices have reported an increase in demand in the last week. If the workers responsible for keeping Britain’s home broadband network from running smoothly were to walk out, the story would be very different - key infrastructure is different in 2022 than it was in the 1970s.
But still, airport and airline staff seem to have taken heart from the industrial action on the rail networks and have now confirmed that they too will walk out over poor working conditions, with strikes planned to coincide with the start of the school holidays. With post-Covid staff shortages at key European airports already forcing many airlines to cancel flights, summer travel looks set to be anything but smooth.
False optimism
And so this week’s assurance from Willie Walsh - the former boss at British Airways, now director general at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) - that “industry-wide profit should be on the horizon in 2023”, looks foolishly optimistic. Speaking to a gathering of airline chiefs at the organisation’s annual conference in Doha he reassured that, “by next year, most markets should see traffic reach or exceed pre-pandemic levels.”
There are similarly optimistic musings in the rail sector. After rebuffing a take-over approach from US private equity group I Squared…
