Several times this summer people have observed that we are living through a summer – as opposed to a winter – of discontent.

While the country baked under heatwave after heatwave, relations between unions and employers have also heated up.

The phrase, the winter of discontent, was originally plucked from the opening speech in Shakespeare’s play Richard III to apply to the widespread strikes of 1978 and ‘79 by the Sun.

The strikes, triggered by underwhelming pay rises, came at a time of unusually severe weather. Sound familiar?

But this was not the first time the country had been hit by wide-ranging strikes.

In May 1926, 1.7million workers walked out to try to prevent wage reductions and worsening conditions for coal miners in the country’s first, and so far only, general strike.

Despite this, life staggered on as best as it could.

Newspapers even went out – albeit in a greatly altered format.

The lead story on the front of the East Anglian Daily Times Strike Issue number one, which came out on Tuesday, May 11 1926 concerned the publication of newspapers.

It read: “Readers of the East Anglian Daily Times and its allied publications have shared with the proprietors of those newspapers, an extraordinary and irritating experience during the past week.

“By decree of the General Council of the Trades Union Congress, the publication of the ordinary issues of those newspapers, and of all other newspapers in Great Britain, has stopped.

“This has been done with the sole object of rendering the great British public blind and deaf to all that was going on around them, save that which was happening in their own immediate neighbourhood.”

Nonetheless, the papers went out as a single sheet of paper, printed on both sides.

It contained fewer stories than normal and more typos – presumably, as all the sub-editors were out picketing.

The strike was eventually ended when TUC officials backed down and called off the strike with no government guarantees.

Last week, Mick general secretary of the RMT – which is in the middle of a long-running series of railway strikes – said that he would campaign for the TUC to call the second-ever general strike, should Liz Truss become prime minister.

Everyone is feeling the impacts of rising prices.

And there is a huge amount of public support for people taking strike action at a time when some businesses are recording record profits.

According to a poll from YouGov, this support is strongest for nurses, who would be supported by a whopping 60% of the public followed by hospital doctors on 54%, and then firefighters and supermarket workers.

And this means unions are feeling buoyant.

As one union boss pointed out to me, in its Shakespearean context, the winter of discontent is coming to an end with the accession of Edward of the House of York to the throne.

We may not be at the end of our own “winter of our discontent” – the Bank of England is warning the UK is set to fall into its longest recession since the financial crisis and inflation will peak at more than 13% – but strikes could make things worse.

With this economic outlook, strikes benefit no one.

Workers need more money in their pockets to keep up with the cost-of-living crisis – nobody can argue with that.

But strikes must be the last resort. The economy is already slowing down severely, mass walkouts could bring it to a grinding halt.

That is not to say staff should accept the status quo. Instead, a compromise should be reached. Firms must put people over profits, but union bosses must accept that all of their demands cannot be met.

An equilibrium needs to be reached. And it will be reached, but we may be in for a bumpy ride to get there.