LONDON — Hundreds of British workers walked off the job Monday, part of a rising tide of industrial unrest sweeping Europe as the continent's economic downturn worsens.
Employees at two nuclear power plants in northern England staged wildcat strikes in support of workers at an oil refinery who have been out in protest since the end of last week. The job action has tapped into a deep well of economic unease in this country as the British continue to grapple with failing banks, a moribund property market, a currency in free fall and a continuing series of layoffs and bankruptcies.
It also points to stirrings of a nationalist backlash against labor laws that allow workers to move freely between countries in the European Union.
The British strikers are protesting the refinery's decision to ship in as many as 400 workers from Italy and Portugal to expand the facility at a time when British unemployment is growing by the day.
The work stoppages have embarrassed the ruling Labor Party, whose roots lie in the trade union movement. Prime Minister Gordon Brown warned that the walkouts were "not defensible" and urged workers to air their grievances at the bargaining table.
"An unofficial strike is a counterproductive way of solving problems that can actually be solved by discussion and by negotiation," Brown said at a news conference with visiting Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao.
Brown's government is hardly alone in facing unrest triggered by the global recession.
Authorities in Greece used tear gas Monday to push back farmers planning to drive their tractors into Athens to demand higher subsidies from the state. The farmers have been protesting for days.
More than 1 million people in France boycotted work Thursday to push for greater government protection of jobs and wages. The strikers included tens of thousands of Parisians who marched on the city center, touching off scattered skirmishes with baton-wielding police.
In Ireland, laid-off employees have occupied part of a factory belonging to Waterford, the crystal maker, which recently filed for bankruptcy protection. German railway workers mounted scattered work stoppages that disrupted train service last week and threaten more disruptions today. And in Iceland, anger over the country's economic crash because of the global banking crisis led to the fall of the government.
