U.K. unions gear up for ‘summer of discontent’

General secretary of Unison, Dave Prentis, speaks to delegates at their conference in Manchester last week.

The Associated Press:

London — Thousands of British schools will close and travellers will face long lines at airport immigration this week when three-quarters of a million workers go on strike — the first blast in what unions hope will be a summer of discontent against the cost-cutting government's austerity plans.

The first test comes Thursday, when 750,000 public-sector workers — from teachers to driving examiners to customs officials — walk out for the day, part of a growing wave of opposition to the Conservative-led government's deficit-cutting regime of tax hikes, benefit curbs and spending cuts.

The unions say the strike is just the start of a campaign of labour action on a scale unseen in Britain for three decades.

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