Trains have been disrupted in Britain as railway workers demand higher wages and better working conditions, while the momentum of social movements has not waned in the face of rising prices.
Railway companies announced major unrest on Friday due to the strike of workers demanding better wages, which forced some of them to cancel all trips.
The strike is the second for railway workers in Britain within three days, after they participated on Wednesday, along with teachers and government officials, in the largest strike in the country in a decade.
The "Participatory Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firefighters" (ASLIF) and the "National Union of Railway, Maritime and Transport Workers" (RMT) called for the strike.
The two unions are calling for higher wages for railway workers and better working conditions, while the country has been suffering from inflation of more than 10% for months.
Representatives of the railway companies denounced the unions' rejection of a proposal to increase drivers' wages by 8% over a two-year period.
"We have been asked to stop collective bargaining," Simon Wheeler of the Aslife union told the British news agency "Press Association". "It was clear that this agreement would be rejected and was designed to fail," he said.
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents the companies, responded, "We had hoped that Aslev representatives would engage in a constructive way to advance negotiations rather than organize new useless strikes."
Social mobilization is increasing across all sectors in the UK in the face of the cost of living crisis. Next Monday, the nurses will go on strike again, after they stopped working in an unprecedented manner in December.
These moves, unprecedented since the eighties of the last century under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, enjoy relative popular support, especially in the health sectors, but the Conservative government still adheres to a firm stance and wants to issue legislation to limit the right to strike.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said in an interview on Talk TV on Thursday night that he would "wish to give nurses a big raise" if he could. "But it is a matter of choice," he said, noting that the government has spent "large sums" in public health services despite the crisis.