Britain grinds to a halt as a half-million workers go on strike

LONDON — A long-running dispute over pay and working conditions came to a head Wednesday, with hundreds of thousands of British workers taking part in what organizers said was the biggest day of industrial action in more than a decade.

About 500,000 workers joined in the day of mass action, as teachers, train and bus drivers, university lecturers, civil servants and airport staff staged walkouts. The huge show of discontent comes amid rampant inflation and years of stagnant wage growth, and it puts further pressure on the long-ruling Conservative Party as it grapples with a cost-of-living crisis.