GET A GRIP Profile picture
Jan 26 10 tweets 4 min read
#THREAD

While inflation & changes in the power of unions have played a part, a steady increase in personal debt is strongly associated with a steep decline in strikes, strike participation, & days lost to strikes in the vast majority of OECD economies.

theconversation.com/strikes-how-ri…
The current wave of strikes is the largest in more than a decade, but it's nowhere near the heights reached in the UK during the 1970s. September 1979 saw more than 11 million working days lost due to strike action. The latest figures for November 2022 show 467,000 days lost.
A rapid increase in personal debt has been a major factor suppressing industrial action over the last four decades. The decline of social housing & deregulation of the financial system in most OECD countries has encouraged workers to borrow heavily. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.11…
Despite the global financial crisis of 2008, caused by neoliberal deregulation which encouraged reckless risk-taking among bankers, the UK is pushing for FURTHER deregulation: could this be to ensure workers live in fear of losing their job - even a shitty low-paid insecure one?
Since at least the early 1980s, household debt-to-income ratios have been increasing dramatically.

Household debt is consistently over 100% of disposable income in most advanced economies – in some OECD countries it’s at least 300%.

academic.oup.com/economicpolicy…
While household debt accumulation stabilised or slightly declined after the 2008 global financial crash, the current #CostOfLivingCrisis & impact of the pandemic on people’s finances caused outstanding debts to start to rise again for most households – particularly the poorest.
Since the main consumer price increases right now relate to fuel consumption, energy-related debts during the coldest months of the year could push lower income households to abandon strike action out of necessity. The Govt won't save the most vulnerable households from poverty.
Since the disruption power of workers varies substantially across sectors, coordination & collective demands for country-wide pay increases & workplace reforms could strengthen the impact of strikes.

Unions should also provide generous strike compensation to striking workers.
Unions could also collaborate with debtor unions to demand reforms or even the cancellation of certain debts.

These measures may mean workers can strike without fear of financial ruin: a short but sharp burst of industrial action - eg a #GeneralStrike - could be the way forward.
This thread uses quotes from the article in @TheConversation by @GGouzoulis, a Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in HRM & Future of Work at the University of Bristol, School of Management since 2021.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with GET A GRIP

GET A GRIP Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @docrussjackson

Jan 26
#THREAD

The #PREVENT Review was announced in 2019. Like the controversial Race Report, the Social Mobility Commission, & so much else, it's an ideological stitch up, headed by ex-director of the hard-right anti-Muslim Henry Jackson Society, William Shawcross.

And now this:
A draft of the "independent" #PREVENT review, led by William Shawcross, made the dangerously irresponsible claim that 'The Govt’s counter-terrorism programme has been too focused on right-wing extremism & should now crack down on Islamist extremism'.

Image
In 1992, Old Etonian William Shawcross wrote an "admiring" biography of Rupert Murdoch, & in 2011 was appointed a member of the board of directors of the grotesque trans-Atlantic UK-based neoliberal/free-market 'think tank', the Henry Jackson Society.

Read 17 tweets
Jan 26
The UK is facing a “terrifying” “crisis point” in abortion provision, experts say, with rising demand & restricted access to care in many areas putting unprecedented pressure on struggling #NHS services.

Many anti-abortion Tories will be delighted.

theguardian.com/society/2023/j…
Read 5 tweets
Jan 26
Every word has a variety of senses & connotations, which shift over time. The word '#woke' is a good current example.

The Right are attempting to make the word 'woke' a pejorative, while others embrace the term, in the sense of its original meaning: 'awake to social injustice'.
Language is a communicative activity, highly dependent on context, whether that of the ongoing discourse or of social & ideological changes. Work on semantic change has focused, not on results of change, but on enabling factors for change.

oxfordre.com/linguistics/di…
Attention has been paid to the contributions of cognitive processes, such as analogical thinking, production of cues as to how a message is to be interpreted, and perception or interpretation of meaning, especially in grammaticalization.
Read 5 tweets
Jan 25
I find this fascinating - the decline in the share of total net personal wealth held by the UK's top 10% & 1% since the turn of last century, was halted & then reversed under Margaret Thatcher.

In 2023, the UK's richest 1% are now wealthier than 70% of the population combined.
Source: 'The UK’s wealth distribution and characteristics of high-wealth households' (2021) (page 34).warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/econom…
Read 4 tweets
Jan 25
After 13 long years of catastrophic Tory misrule...
#PMQs
#JoinAUnion
#EnoughIsEnough
#SupportTheStrikes
#GeneralElectionN0W
The answer to Britain's multiple crises is obvious: #TaxtheRich
Read 5 tweets
Jan 23
Oh dear. While the WEF has issues, the more unhinged Great Reset conspiracy theorists (who Brand encourages) say the global elite plans to instate a COMMUNIST world order by ABOLISHING private property & using #COVID19 to solve overpopulation & ENSLAVE HUMANITY with vaccines! 🧐
Despite repeated & relentless #misinformation being shared online about the "Great Reset”, the *sustainability plan* proposed by the World Economic Forum is not a secret plot to end private property, nor to create a totalitarian state.

reuters.com/article/uk-fac…
Some practical advice, supported by solid peer-reviewed evidence of the kind that conspiracy theorists instantly reject, on how to talk to conspiracy theorists:

Read 4 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

:(