Workers’ anger at cost of living as strong as time of poll tax riots, union boss says

theguardian.com:

British workers are at breaking point, with anger over the cost of living crisis reaching a level not seen since the poll tax riots of the 1990s, the head of one of the UK’s most powerful trade unions has said.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, said frustration at pay failing to keep pace with soaring inflation was spilling over into a wave of strike action that would extend from a summer of discontent into the winter.

Speaking from the picket line outside the port of Felixstowe, where thousands of dock workers are striking over pay this week, she compared the situation to widespread national anger over Margaret Thatcher’s controversial community charge, better known as the poll tax, more than three decades ago.

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in towns and cities around Britain in March 1990, in a rebellion that culminated in clashes with mounted police in Trafalgar Square, central London. Regarded as key in bringing about the end of Thatcher’s premiership, the poll tax was introduced first in Scotland, then England and Wales before being dropped by her successor, John Major.

“I actually think there is a moment where people could rise to doing exactly the same thing again,” Graham told the Guardian.

She said further strikes at Britain’s biggest container terminal could be expected beyond this week and could continue until Christmas – unless the port’s Hong Kong-based owners improved their pay offer to workers.

Raising the prospect of fresh supply chain disruption before the festive period, she said workers were rock-solid in their determination to win a bigger pay rise from the port and would not hesitate to use fresh industrial action if required. “We are going to be looking at escalating that action,”