BT staff has voted in favor of its first national strike in 35 years, which is expected to affect customers across the country with broadband services installed or breakdowns fixed.
The strike of BT engineers, call centers and store staff represents the vast majority of its 58,000 front-line workers, and the union organizing the vote has said BT customers can expect interruptions in services, such as repairs, installing new telephone and Internet lines. or get support staff.
The UK’s largest telecommunications company has been in contention with the Communications Workers Union (CWU), which accounts for about 40,000 of the company’s 100,000 workers, to pay as the cost of living increases.
In April, BT gave 58,000 workers a £ 1,500 pay rise which it said was its biggest award in two decades. The CWU, which is pushing for a 10% increase in BT as inflation hit a 40-year high of 9.1% last month, called the offer “insulting” and “wage-cutting” relative “.
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BT CEO Philip Jansen, who received a 32% pay rise last year to £ 3.5 million due to bonuses and share awards, has said the company cannot afford the luxury of sweetening your staff arrangement. BT made nearly £ 2bn in profits during the year through the end of March, and shareholders received £ 700m in dividends.
The strike comes as the UK faces a summer of industrial discontent amid workers’ growing anger over wages and conditions. The CWU is also voting 115,000 Royal Mail post workers on the strike proposal, with the result on 19 July.
Last week, the UK overcame the largest railway strike in 30 years as tens of thousands of workers took action in a dispute over wages and jobs.