Royal Mail PLC (LSE:RMG) warned today it will make a hefty loss if a four-day walkout by 115,000 staff goes adead.
The strike call is the latest in a growing list of companies and sectors that are facing industrial action by their workers over pay and conditions.
Why this is happening is easy enough to spot - real wages are facing the biggest fall on record due to rising inflation, but will there be any impact on the companies themselves?
That will take longer to determine, but in the meantime here is a list of those companies and sectors affected.
Royal Mail
Twenty-four-hour strikes have been called for 26 and 31 August for shifts beginning at or after 04:00 hours and 8 and 9 September for the same shifts (read more).
Royal Mail said if the industrial action were to go ahead its UK business will be materially loss-making in the financial year to end March 2023.
The company said the union rejected an offer worth up to 5.5%, with talks ongoing for more than three months.
The CWU wants any pay deal to reflect the current cost of living where inflation currently is running at 9.4% and was predicted to hit 13% by the Bank of England.
The mail collector and deliverer’s share price fell 2.5% to 259.7p on Wednesday afternoon but has plummeted around 40% since 25 January when the first murmurs of mass managerial sackings surfaced.
Telecoms
BT Group PLC (LSE:BT.A) was affected by strikes on 29 July and 1 August after members of the CWU, which represents more than 40,000 staff at the former state telecoms company, also voted in favour of a walk-out.
Some 91.5% of CWU members in BT, 9,000 of whom are call centre workers, voted to strike against a real-terms pay cut.
The action was the first national call centre workers’ strike in British history.
Around 30,000 Openreach engineers voted by 95.8% to strike, while a vote by EE workers fell short of passing anti-union law thresholds by only eight votes.
The ballot had been held despite BT putting up salaries by £1,500 per year in April, which represents a 3-8% increase, depending on the employee’s salary, but workers claimed this was “incredibly low” in the face of rising inflation.
Rail strikes
In June, over 40,000 rail workers walked out for three days in what was the biggest rail strike in three decades in a row over pay. Most tube workers participated on the first day in a separate action.
Approximately half of all rail lines were closed entirely, with just over a fifth of journeys running compared to usual.
A month later, members of the RMT trade union at more than a dozen operators including Network Rail, Chiltern Railways and Avanti West Coast also took industrial action and walked out.
More recently, Avanti West Coast halted ticket sales and slashed its timetable, blaming unofficial strike action.
Airlines
As if soaring fuel prices weren’t enough to squeeze household budgets and patience, various airlines have seen strikes during the peak summer holidays.
Over 700 mostly check-in staff at Heathrow Airport voted to strike in the summer holidays, which severely disrupted more families’ getaways.
Workers’ wages were slashed by 10% during the pandemic and their pay has remained at this level since. BA offered a one-off payment – equal to 10% of their salary – but the staff want the cut fully reversed.
The GMB and Unite unions have been consulting engineers and call centre staff at Gatwick, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle on taking action.
Ryanair Holdings meanwhile has seen strikes across several European countries.
Meanwhile, EasyJet PLC staff in Spain voted overwhelmingly in favour of action on many peak travel days this summer.
Both companies’ shares have sunk over 40% in the last six months as strike dates were discussed, confirmed and carried out.
Public Services
Teaching unions have long been considering balloting members over strike action if an improved pay increase is not offered. Teachers were awarded a 5% rise but this is well below inflation of 9.4%.
Meanwhile, the leader of the UK’s biggest civil service union told ministers to expect “high levels of industrial action” if workers delivering public services are asked to accept more real terms pay cuts at a time of nearly double-digit inflation.
Barristers
In June, eight in 10 cases at The Old Bailey were disrupted by barristers walking out over a smaller-than-desired pay rise offer.
They rejected a proposed 15% pay rise in their fees for undertaking legal aid work, demanding at least 25%.
Barristers in England and Wales walked out for five days in July.
Wild cats on the rise
On Wednesday, around 100 workers at Grangemouth oil refinery walked out in a ‘wildcat strike’ over a pay dispute.
Several sites owned by Ineos staged unofficial industrial action this morning.
Meanwhile, Amazon.com, Inc warehouse workers across the country also staged protests on growing unrest in the face of a deepening cost-of-living crisis.