Since the 1980s, there have been increasing conflicts in the workplace, and last year, strikes cost the nation more than a million working days.
However, during the past few months, support for the striking public sector employees has increased.
Exclusive polling conducted for Sky News reveals that more people believe trade unions contribute to society in a positive way.
More than 2,000 people were polled, and the results showed that 37% of them now support unions, up from 35% in November.
Fewer people believe that unions have a bad impact on society.
According to the findings, the government may not be able to count on dwindling support for strike action because it is refusing to provide pay increases that are keeping pace with inflation.
As the wave of strikes has expanded from the transport and communications industries to the NHS, support for unions has grown.
Since the last election, doctors, nurses, and ambulance drivers have all either voted in favour of strike action or declared their intention to do so.
According to data from polling company YouGov, the public is most supportive of NHS employees.
The survey’s participants ranged from 43% who strongly supported nursing strikes to 22% who indicated they somewhat supported it.
Only 31% of respondents said they strongly or somewhat opposed nurses taking industrial action.
Nurses, like many other employees in the public sector, have seen actual pay decreases for ten years.
Between 2011 and 2020, nurses’ income decreased by 7.76% after accounting for inflation. The current compensation agreement, which was published last summer, fell behind inflation as well.
The public sector as a whole is experiencing a similar situation, with the pay gap between the public and private sectors growing.
Average private sector wage growth, excluding bonuses, for the three months ending in October was 6.9%.
Just 2.7% of the total was spent on the public sector. In the meantime, inflation was hovering at around 11%.
Just over 30% of respondents felt that unions were allowed to take action too easily and that additional constraints should be placed upon them at a time when the government is seeking laws that will make it more difficult for unions to conduct strikes.
This was a little lower than the 34% in November.
Comparatively, 22% of respondents — up from 20% in November — said that unions should have more freedom.
