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Strikes sweep Britain as soaring inflation savages living standards
恶性通胀导致生活质量骤降 英国掀起罢工潮
Workers in the United Kingdom have had enough of falling living standards.
英国的工人们已经受够了不断下降的生活标准。
Rail workers, journalists, lawyers, and postal workers have gone on strike in recent weeks to demand higher pay as inflation soars to its highest level in decades.
随着通胀飙升至几十年来最高水平，过去几周，铁路工人、记者、律师、邮政人员都已经罢工要求涨薪。
At least 155,000 workers are currently on strike, including staff at the country’s postal service, and engineers and call center workers for telecom provider BT (BTGOF). Two rail unions on Wednesday announced further strike action by 14,000 of their members later this month.
目前至少有15.5万名工人参加了罢工，包括英国邮政人员、工程师和英国电信客服。8月31日两家铁路工会宣布1.4万名会员将于本月晚些时候罢工。
More strikes could be on the way this fall, threatening unprecedented disruption across a range of industries. Teachers, doctors and nurses are set to vote on strike action in the coming weeks. Unite and Unison — the country’s biggest unions with 2.7 million members in total — are calling for others to join them in synchronized action.
今年秋天还将有更多罢工发生，可能导致一系列行业出现前所未有的混乱。教师、医生和护士将在未来几周就罢工行动进行投票。会员总人数达到270万的英国两大工会组织Unite和Unison正在呼吁更多会员加入进来，采取一致行动。
It is one of the most significant waves of industrial unrest the United Kingdom has seen since the “winter of discontent” in the late 1970s when rampant inflation pushed workers to stage mass walkouts. About 7.9 million working days were lost between November 1978 and February 1979, according to the Office for National Statistics.
这是英国自上世纪70年代末的“不满之冬”以来最严重的罢工潮之一，当时同样是恶性通胀迫使工人实行大规模罢工。英国国家统计局的数据显示，1978年11月至1979年2月期间，英国损失了约790万个工作日。
Soaring prices and years of stagnant wages are the backdrop to this year’s disputes. Consumer price inflation hit a 40-year high of 10.1% in July. Forecasters at Citigroup said last week that inflation could shoot past 18% at the start of next year, and Goldman Sachs thinks it could even hit 22% if gas prices don’t fall soon.
今年罢工潮的背后是飞涨的物价和多年不涨的工资。英国7月份的通胀水平达到了10.1%，创下了40年新高。据花旗集团的专家上周预测，明年年初通胀率可能会突破18%。高盛集团认为，如果油价不在短期内回落，通胀率甚至可能高达22%。
Workers are already feeling the strain. Average real wages, which account for inflation, fell by 3% between April and June, compared with the same period last year. That was the biggest hit to spending power in more than 20 years. Real wages barely increased in the decade to 2020.
工人们已经感受到了生活的重压。反映通胀水平的平均实际工资在4月至6月间同比下降了3%。这是二十多年来对购买力的最大打击。在2020年之前的十年里，实际工资几乎就没涨过。
And average household energy bills — which have already risen 54% this year — are set to increase by another 80% to ?3,549 ($4,124) in October. According to estimates by Auxilione, a research firm, average bills could hit ?7,700 ($8,949) next April — equivalent to a ?642 ($746) monthly bill.
今年英国家庭平均能源支出已经上涨了54%，而且10月份还将再上涨80%，达到3549英镑（约合人民币28220元）。据调研公司Auxilione估计，到明年4月，英国家庭平均能源支出将达到7700英镑，相当于每个月支出642英镑。
The United Kingdom has “never seen [this] level of disruption across all sectors,” Chiara Benassi, an associate professor in comparative employment relations at King’s College London, told CNN Business.
伦敦国王学院比较雇佣关系学副教授奇亚拉·贝纳西告诉美国有线电视新闻网商业频道，英国“从未出现过这种程度的各行各业混乱局面”。
In recent months, the cost-of-living crisis has acted as a “trigger” for widespread grievances that have been building up over a long period of time, she said.
她指出，近几个月来，生活成本危机成了长时间积累起来的广大民怨的一根“导火索”。
"These strikes affect not only [what] we would say [are] manual occupations or low-skilled jobs that more evidently would struggle with the cost-of-living crisis, but also highly-skilled jobs like junior doctors, British Telecom engineers, barristers, academics, teachers,” Benassi said.
贝纳西说：“这些罢工不仅影响到了我们所谓的体力劳动或低技能职业（从事这些职业的人显然更易陷入生活成本危机），也影响到了实习医生、英国电信的工程师、律师、学者和教师等高技能职业。”
UK unemployment was 3.8% between April and June this year, ONS data shows. That’s its lowest level in more than 50 years. There was also one unemployed person for every job vacancy — a record low.
英国国家统计局的数据显示，今年4月至6月英国失业率为3.8%，是50多年来的最低水平。岗位空缺和失业者的比例为1：1，这也是历史低值。
"It means that many workers are in work and they are in a good position to ask for [a pay] increase. They cannot be easily replaced [at a macro level],” said Manuela Galetto, associate professor of employment relations at the University of Warwick’s Business School.
华威大学商学院雇佣关系学副教授曼纽拉·加莱托说：“这意味着许多工人都有工作，他们处于要求加薪的有利位置，（从宏观层面上看）不会轻易被替代。”
英文来源：美国有线电视新闻网
翻译&编辑：丹妮
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