Strikes could bring unhappy new year for Britons

Britain has avoided damaging Christmas strikes among airline staff and postal workers but those and other disputes linger and could make the 2010 election year even more turbulent. A court ruling on Thursday blocked plans by British Airways cabin crew to strike for 12 days over Christmas, bringing relief to hundreds of thousands of passengers who feared having their holidays ruined.
However, the Unite union, ruling Labour's largest financial backer, plans a fresh ballot among airline staff angry over job losses and changes to working practices. Similarly, a dispute between state-owned Royal Mail and its 121,000 workers could flare again in the new year after the Communication Workers Union called off a series of strikes in November to allow further talks.
Workers feel that their terms and conditions are being eroded as businesses seek to cut costs in Britain's longest recession on record. Public sector employees fear the impact of government efforts to rein in a record budget deficit. The RMT union said more than 100 electricians working for a contractor on London's underground rail network would strike next week in a pay dispute.
British drivers on Eurostar trains to continental Europe went on strike on Friday, but Belgian and French workers ensured a normal timetable. Postal strikes pushed the number of working days lost to 175,000 in October, the highest monthly figure this year.
The Labour government, in power since 1997 but trailing in opinion polls ahead of an election due by June, will want to avoid damaging headlines in the run-up to voting day.
Labour has bitter memories of 1978/79 when a series of public sector strikes left rubbish piling up on streets, the so-called "winter of discontent" helping to propel Conservative leader Margaret Thatcher to office. Labour grew out of the union movement and the unions remain its primary source of its funding. Commentators said that the centre-right Conservatives were likely to try to make political capital out of any threatened strike action.
"I'd be very surprised if the Conservatives don't pick it up and try to run with it, but I'm not sure how credible it is," said Steven Fielding, professor of political history, at Nottingham University. Other commentators agreed that reforms introduced by Thatcher in the 1980s to weaken union power would help Labour to limit the damage to it from any strikes.