Union strikes became more and more important during the Industrial Revolution because of a large quantity of mass labor in factories in many countries. Now, throughout the world, workers go on strike in order to put pressure on governments and organizations.

On this day, June 24th, in 1968, a rail strike began in the United Kingdom, which started the country’s turn into economic turmoil throughout the 1970s and 1980s.

The National Union of Railwaymen asked for a 9% pay raise at the time, but British Rail was only willing to offer a 3% raise. Throughout the following two decades, high inflation caused even larger pay rise demands that caused even higher inflation. As a result, both public and private strikes occurred frequently.