U.K. Strikes Expand to Passport Control, Disrupting Holiday Travel

The airport turmoil is just the latest strike action to affect Britain, which is in the midst of the biggest series of industrial disputes for over a decade. Nurses, postal workers, ambulance paramedics and driving instructors are among those who have or will walk out on the job this week, arguing that pay rises haven’t come near to matching the 10.7% inflation rate.

Britons were warned this week by senior National Health Service officials and government ministers to avoid getting drunk or playing contact sports lest they need an ambulance. Train drivers are due to add to the transport chaos over the Christmas period by also striking.

The U.K. government says that paying its employees any more would risk prolonging the period of high inflation and make all workers poorer over the coming years.

“The best way to help them and everyone else in the country is for us to get a grip and reduce inflation as quickly as possible,” Prime Minister

Rishi Sunak

told lawmakers Tuesday.  

However, workers in the private sector have seen their pay rise much faster than their government counterparts. According to the Office for National Statistics, private sector pay was 6.9% higher in the three months through October than a year earlier, while government pay was up just 2.7%.

There is growing pressure from lawmakers in Mr. Sunak’s Conservative Party who worry that his position is unsustainable. Public opinion is in favor of giving NHS workers better pay deals, polls show. Nurses in particular have had a real wage pay cut of 5% over the last decade and many have quit the profession, according to government data.

The strikes mean that Britons and U.K. businesses have become accustomed to disruptions to their daily lives. In preparation for the strike, the government has asked London Heathrow Airport to suppress demand from passengers flying into the hub, Britain’s busiest entry point, according to people familiar with the planning.

Heathrow reached an agreement last week with airlines, including

British Airways

and Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., to halt ticket sales on most inbound flights on the strike days to try to ease pressure at border control, the people said. The airport is advising passengers, particularly those who aren’t able to use electronic immigration gates, to expect long lines to pass through the border and to check the status of their flights into the U.K.

But despite those disruptions, many Britons continue to back the strikers, although in some cases that support is softening. According to polling by

YouGov

between Dec. 16 and 19, two-thirds of Britons support NHS nurses in their battle with the government, while 63% back ambulance staff, 58% back firefighters and 50% back teachers.

An additional problem for the government is that the disruptions caused by widespread strikes further weaken an economy that is already lagging behind those of most other rich countries, and that in turn reduces its tax revenues and its ability to pay for public services.

Figures released Thursday by the ONS showed the economy contracted more than previously estimated in the three months through September, and was 0.8% smaller than before the Covid-19 pandemic. Those figures also showed that real, disposable household incomes were down 0.5% from the previous quarter, and had been falling for a year, while consumer spending was down by 1.1%.  

The Bank of England last week said it believes the U.K. economy is in a recession that will be “prolonged,” but signaled it is likely to raise interest rates in early 2023, adding increased bills for repaying mortgages to the other higher costs faced by government workers.

—Max Colchester contributed to this article.

Write to Paul Hannon at paul.hannon@wsj.com