Here Are All The Strikes That Are Happening Across The UK In March

Posted on 28/02/2023 by Boris Clair

Another month, another set of public sector strikes.

This week, tens of thousands of teachers across England and Wales will walk out over three days in the long-running dispute with the government over pay and working conditions.

The strike action kicks off today as teachers across the north of England walk out, meaning the majority of schools will either close or offer restricted access to pupils.

It will be followed by further industrial action by teachers in the Midlands and eastern regions in Wednesday and in Wales and the south of England on Thursday.

On March 15, teachers across England and Wales will strike again.

Education Secretary Gillian Keegan has branded the strike action “unforgivable”, arguing that children deserved to be in class following the shock of the coronavirus pandemic.

But Kevin Courtney, the joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), which is representing striking teachers, said staff taking industrial action for a “high moral purpose” and to “get the government to invest in this generation of children”.

But over the month ahead, it is not just teachers who are walking out over pay.

HuffPost UK takes you through all the strikes that will hit the public in March.

Health and ambulance workers (most of England)

The GMB union said 10,000 of its members, including paramedics, emergency care assistants, call handlers and other staff, will walk out on March 6.

Unite members employed by different ambulance trusts will be striking on the same day in the West Midlands, the North East, the East Midlands, the North West and Wales.

Meanwhile, around 32,000 ambulance and other health staff represented by Unison will walk out across England on March 8 after the union accused the government of failing to hold “proper talks” to resolve the row.

Nurses, blood collection workers, healthcare assistants, cleaners, porters and ambulance staff will be involved in the strike.

Health workers at NHS Blood and Transplant, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool Women’s Hospital and the Bridgewater Community Trust will be among those walking out for the first time.

They will be joined by ambulance staff at four services in England – South Central, East of England, West Midlands and East Midlands, also now able to take action following a strike vote last week.

GMB and Unite ambulance workers will strike again on March 20.

Junior doctors (England)

Junior doctors recently announced that they will strike for 72 hours from March 13 to March 15 over pay.

The British Medical Association (BMA) said that junior doctors had seen a real terms pay decline of more than 26% over the past 15 years.

Dentists who work in hospitals employed under the junior contract will also join the 72-hour walkout.

Civil Servants (England)

Approximately 100,000 civil servants across 123 government departments and agencies are expected to strike on March 15 — the day of Jeremy Hunt’s Budget.

More than 1,600 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) employed by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency are also set to take rolling days of industrial action from March 6 to 28.

Rail workers (England, Wales and Scotland)

RMT members will strike across the railways on March 16, 18, 30.

London Underground drivers

Commuters will endure chaos on Budget day, March 15, when London Underground drivers at Aslef go on strike.

University lecturers (UK)

Strikes by lecturers will hit 150 UK universities throughout March after the University and College Unions demanded “substantially improved offers” in the disputes over pay, working conditions and pension cuts.

In total, 70,000 UCU members will walk out on March 16, 17, 20, 21 and 22.

Waves Of Strike Action Not ‘Going Away’, Warns Unite General Secretary

Posted on 14/02/2023 by Boris Clair

The wave of strikes across the UK “isn’t going away” the leader of the Unite union has warned, as figures showed December saw the highest number of working days lost to strike action for more than a decade.

About 843,000 working days were lost to labour disputes in the month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said on Tuesday.

It said this represents the heaviest impact from strike action during a month since November 2011, when 997,000 working days were hit.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, told the government that unions were not about to back own.

“The latest record strike figures announced today are a warning to the government and employers,” she said.

“The wave of industrial action across the UK isn’t going away. In the face of the cost of living crisis workers now have no option but to fight for better wages.

Graham accused Rishi Sunak of acting like the “captain of the Titanic” by “rearranging the deck chairs in his latest cabinet reshuffle” rather than trying to resolve the strikes.

The surge in lost days came after rolling industrial action involving Post Office, rail and NHS workers among others.

ONS director of economic statistics Darren Morgan said: “The number of working days lost to strikes rose again sharply in December.

“Transport and communications remained the most heavily affected area, but this month there was also a large contribution from the health sector.”

Last week the ONS released separate data which showed that the vast majority (97%) of working adults have not missed work as a result of the strikes, with just 3% saying they had.

It came as the ONS also said that regular pay growth reached 6.7% over the three months to December.

However, once consumer prices index (CPI) inflation is taken into account, regular pay fell by 3.6% in the three-month period, compared with the previous year.

Michael Gove Slaps Down Tory MP Who Said Nurses Using Food Banks Should Budget Better

Posted on 19/01/2023 by Boris Clair

Michael Gove has slapped down a Tory MP who suggested that nurses were using foodbanks because of poor budgeting.

Former Cabinet minister Simon Clarke has been criticised for telling nurses on a £35,000 annual salary that something was “wrong” with their budgeting if they were reliant on foodbanks.

Today marks the second day of strike action by nurses this week as their dispute with the government over pay and working conditions shows no sign of resolution.

Unions have warned that nurses are increasingly turning to foodbanks as the cost of living crisis bites into their wages, which they argue have decreased in real terms over the past decade.

Asked by Kay Burley on Sky News whether he agreed that nurses were “excellent at saving lives but hopeless with their finances”, Gove replied: “No, I would never put it that way.

“I think we appreciate that nurses, everyone who’s working on the front line in the national health service, is doing an amazing job, and my thanks and gratitude to nurses today is something I want to express very deeply and personally.”

“I also think that when we’re looking at the pay claims that are being made by people within the national health service, and also people in other parts of the public sector, we have to balance making sure we do everything we can to reward them for their hard work with recognising that we also have to be careful stewards of public money overall.”

Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, has also faced a backlash after suggesting that people could be turning to foodbanks because “something will have broken down – either a relationship or boiler or anything”.

Pressed on whether his colleagues had been wrong to criticise nurses for the way they manage their money, the levelling up secretary replied: “I would never criticise nurses for something like that.

“I think the most important thing to do is to recognise that people who are working in the NHS are people who’ve dedicated their lives to a caring profession, they’re doing everything they can to support us.”

Clarke, himself a former levelling up secretary, said on Twitter this morning that he “100%” stood behind his comments.

The MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland told BBC Radio Tees on Wednesday that the debate over nurses’ pay is now “way out of hand”.

“I’m afraid if you are using a food bank and you are earning the average nurse’s salary of £35,000 a year then something is wrong with your budgeting, because £35,000 a year is not a salary on which you ought to be relying on a food bank.”

Citing the Nursing Times as his source, he told the station £35,000 is the median nurse’s salary and added: “My message is everyone needs to take responsibility in their lives.

“I don’t believe people on an average salary of £35,000 a year need to be using food banks.”

As well as the strikes this week, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has also announced that its members will walk out on February 6 and 7 unless progress is made on pay talks with the government.

Ambulance workers and emergency call handlers will also take to the picket lines on February 6 in a bid to persuade ministers to “get serious on pay”.

Asked whether it was responsible for nurses and ambulance staff to strike on the same day, Gove said: “Naturally we would prefer for there not to any strikes at all and we prefer there not to be co-ordinated strike action of this kind.

“I just say two things, the first is that I am conscious ambulance workers, nurses and others, when they do go on strike action, and I don’t approve of it, I have to say, but they do take steps in order to ensure they can look after the most urgency emergency cases.

“The second thing I would say is we are introducing legislation to make sure that there is a minimum service level, that should provide people with peace of mind that there will always be an NHS there for them, and indeed other blue light services that they need.”

Exclusive: Teachers’ Strike Ballot Result Will ‘Go Down To The Wire’

Posted on 04/01/2023 by Boris Clair

A strike ballot organised by the UK’s largest education union will go “down to the wire”, HuffPost UK understands.

The National Education Union (NEU), which represents around 450,000 teaching staff across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, is currently holding a formal ballot calling for a “fully-funded, above inflation pay rise” following a decade of eroded wages.

A preliminary indicative ballot by the NEU in October showed strong support among teachers and support staff for taking industrial action to achieve a pay rise — but there are fears that turnout for the formal postal ballot has been hampered by Royal Mail strikes and bad weather.

Under the Trade Union Act, NEU members are bound by higher turnout thresholds to push through strike action.

The union must achieve a turnout of 50% in both the teacher and support staff ballots. Some 40% of those eligible to vote must back strike action for it to go ahead.

A source close to the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which represents unions across England and Wales, told HuffPost UK: “The result is going to be very close in terms of turnout.

“The NEU could meet the threshold or it could not — it’ll be down to the wire.

“The fact that the NEU is on the verge of this historic result, despite the massive barriers of the Trade Union Act, shows how angry teachers are about the way they’ve been treated and the formidable NEU data-led operation.”

They added: “It’s true the situation at Royal Mail could delay some ballots and this could make it very close, so individual votes will matter.”

If teachers back strike action, it will create another headache for the government which is so far refusing to back down on union pay demands — increasing the likelihood that disruptive strikes could go on for months.

Already this week the government is battling a series of damaging walkouts by the RMT and Aslef rail unions which began on January 3 and will finish on Saturday.

Nurses will also go on strike on January 18 and 19 unless negotiations are opened, having already withdrawn their labour for two days in December.

And in Scotland, primary school teachers will walkout on January 10 and secondary school teachers on January 11, with more strikes planned for later in the month and into February.

The average primary classroom teacher in England currently earns £38,200, rising to £41,600 for a secondary classroom teacher.

Heads of primary schools typically take home £67,400, which rises to £94,900 for the average secondary school.

The government has offered most teachers a pay rise of 5% for this year, up from an original offer of 3%. Those who are newly qualified will receive a pay rise of 8.9% to meet the Department for Education’s (DfE) commitment to increase starting salaries to £30,000 by 2023.

However, the teaching unions argue that the pay offers amount to a real-terms pay cut given that the rate of inflation stands at 10.7%. Research by the NEU estimates that its members have lost a minimum of £64,350 in earnings since 2010.

Last year, the NEU’s indicative ballot found that 86% of teachers would be prepared to take strike action to demand a pay rise, on a 62% turnout.

A separate ballot of school support staff also strongly supported taking strike action over pay, with 92% of staff rejecting the government’s offer and 78% backing industrial action.

The NEU’s formal postal ballot will close on January 13 next year, with strikes potentially taking place towards the end of the month.

Fellow teaching unions the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) are also holding strike ballots for members in England and Wales that will close on January 9 and 11, respectively.

Sources within the education sector expressed concern that strikes by the Communication Workers’ Union (CWU), whose members work for Royal Mail, have resulted in some members not receiving their ballots on time, potentially hampering turnout.

The CWU has not yet announced strike dates for 2023 but held walkouts over the Christmas period, including on Christmas Eve, in a bitter dispute with Royal Mail over pay.

If the turnout threshold is reached and strike action is approved, around 24,000 schools in England and Wales could be forced to close as children are sent home.

“The knock-on impact on parents and wider society will be huge,” the source said.

“The government can continue to pretend there’s not a problem or sort it out. Teachers are simply tired of what’s happened to education since 2010 and the strength of feeling is high.”

A spokesperson for the NEU said the union was confident that the thresholds for strike action would be met and that members would be able to re-order any mislaid postal ballots.

“The NEU supports the CWU and the postal workers’ strike,” they said.

“Despite the unfair threshold set by government for strike action to go ahead we are confident our members will vote in the margins required for action to take place. The NEU ballot for strike action for a fully-funded pay increase closes on the January 13 and the results will be known shortly afterwards, most likely on January 16.

“Until this date we will not have the final numbers. It is an indication of the anger felt by teachers and support staff that the union’s electronic indicative ballot had an overwhelming yes vote for action resulting in the union moving ahead with a formal ballot.”

They added: “Through successive below inflation pay rises teachers and support staff have suffered losses of over 20% in salary since 2010. Many are leaving the profession. Government recruitment targets are missed year on year and nearly a third of teachers leave within the first five years of entering the profession. Something has to change.

“Government needs to start negotiating in good faith with the education unions to ensure children get the education they deserve, and teachers and support staff are fairly paid for the vital role they play.

“We don’t want to have to take this action — and we are calling on government to negotiate. It is in the government’s gift to avert these strikes with a new offer on a fully funded pay rise.”

In response, sources at the DfE said plans were being put in place to minimise any disruption if strikes do take place.

They said the best way of making money go further in schools was for the government to tackle inflation and for schools to be made away of the “resource management” available to them.

They also pointed to the £5 billion in funding to help children recover from lost learning in the aftermath of the pandemic, including more than £1 billion for the national tutoring programme.

A DfE spokesperson said: “There are no great schools without great teachers which is why we are making the highest pay awards in a generation – 5% for experienced teachers and more for those early in their careers, including an 8.9% increase to starting salary.

“We are also investing an additional £2 billion in schools next year and £2 billion the year after, taking school funding to its highest-ever level.

“After two years of disrupted education for young people, strike action is simply not a responsible solution.”

The CWU has been contacted for comment.

Scottish Union Leader Quits In Protest At Sacking Of Sam Tarry

Posted on 28/07/2022 by Boris Clair

A Scottish union leader has quit the Labour party in protest at the sacking of shadow minister Sam Tarry.

Kevin Lindsay, an organiser for the Aslef train drivers’ union in Scotland, said Tarry’s sacking was “a step too far” and a sign the party is “moving to the right and is becoming unrecognisable”.

Tarry, a shadow minister in the transport team, was sacked on Wednesday evening for a joining striking rail workers on the picket line.

The Labour Party said it had no choice but to sack Tarry because he had also done a round of broadcast interviews without permission of party HQ and had also “made up policy on the hoof”.

In response, Tarry told LBC Radio his sacking was a “catastrophic mistake” and warned that other colleagues could quit in protest.

“I think it’s wrong to state that any Labour politician — whether it be a councillor, whether it be an MP, whether it be a shadow minister — shouldn’t be showing solidarity,” he said.

“If it isn’t tackled properly, there’s going to be a real danger that it won’t just be me that’s sacked, I think you’ll see dozens and dozens of shadow ministers sacked across the whole country.” Speaking to Times Radio, he called Starmer’s decision to ban his team from joining the picket line a “catastrophic mistake.”

Lindsay is one of a number of union bosses to express anger at Tarry’s sacking.

Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite, described the sacking as “another insult to the trade union movement” while Mick Lynch, the head of the RMT union, accused Starmer of “playing up to the agenda of Liz Truss and the right wing press”.

In a letter to the party confirming his resignation, Lindsay wrote: “The Labour Party was and is meant to be the political wing of the trade union movement but now it’s more interested in trying woo Tory voters in the shires of England than representing working people.

“As a democrat, I respect that Keir Starmer has been elected the leader but I truly believe his performance and policies are making it impossible for the Labour Party to return to power and that he should be removed from his position immediately.

“There needs to be a change in leadership and political direction but I sadly can’t see this happening and we will end up with PM Truss for several years.

“Therefore I have made the decision not only to resign from the Labour Party but now also support the proposal for Aslef to disaffiliate from the party.”

WellnessMaster

Get The Latest News on Holistic Wellness

Tag Archives: strikes union strikes