Schools, hospitals and the rail network are set to be impacted by strike action once again this month as tens of thousands of workers stage further walk-outs.
This week will see teachers take to the picket lines in two days of industrial action by the National Education Union, as members call on the Government for a fully-funded pay rise. Meanwhile, next week will see junior doctors walk out for five days in what the British Medical Association has called the longest single period of industrial action in the history of the NHS.
Around 20,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union will also be walking out for three days later this month amid their long-running dispute with Network Rail, which is once again expected to cause significant disruption for train passengers. Here are all the upcoming strike days set to take place throughout July.
Teachers
Members of the National Education Union (NEU) are staging further strike action on Wednesday, July 5 and Friday, July 7. As teachers continue their campaign for an above-inflation pay rise this week, a number of schools will be affected by the walk-outs - you can find the full list of expected closures across the North East here.
Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney, joint general secretaries of the NEU, said it was within the grasp of Education Secretary Gillian Keegan for the action to be halted. "Time and again the National Education Union, alongside its sister unions, have called for the Education Secretary to get around the negotiation table to settle this dispute for a fully-funded teacher pay increase," they said.
"Time and again our calls have fallen on stony ground. The Education Secretary refused to re-enter negotiation on the grounds that she and her department were waiting for the publication of the School Teachers' Review Body's (STRB) recommendation on pay."
A Department for Education spokesperson said: "Further strike action will cause real damage to pupil learning and even more disruption for parents right across the country. Thousands of schools are receiving significant additional funding as part of the extra £2 billion of investment we are providing for both 2023/24 and 2024/25 which will take school funding its highest level in history next year, as measured by the IFS.
"As part of the normal process, the independent School Teachers’ Review Body has submitted its recommendations to Government on teacher pay for 2023/24. We will be considering the recommendations and will publish our response in the usual way."
Rail workers
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) Union is set to carry out further industrial action this month in a long-running dispute over pay and working conditions. The latest round of strikes will see 20,000 rail workers walk out on Thursday, July 20, Saturday, July 22 and Saturday, July 29.
These strikes will have an impact across 14 train operating companies across the UK, with National Rail warning that several operators are not expected to be able to run their full timetables on these dates. Alongside action by the RMT, members of train drivers' union Aslef also announced that they will refuse to work overtime from Monday, July 17 to Saturday, July 22, which is expected to impact train timetables further.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said last month: "This latest phase of action will show the country just how important railway staff are to the running of the rail industry. My team of negotiators and I are available 24/7 for talks with the train operating companies and Government ministers.
"Yet quite incredibly neither party has made any attempt whatsoever to arrange any meetings or put forward a decent offer that can help us reach a negotiated solution. The Government continues to shackle the companies and will not allow them to put forward a package that can settle this dispute."
A Department for Transport spokesman responded: "The RMT leadership's decision to call strikes targeting two iconic international sporting events, as children and families begin their summer holidays, will disrupt people's plans across the country. After a year of industrial action, passengers and rail workers alike are growing tired of union bosses playing politics with their lives.
"It's high time the union leaders realised that strikes no longer have the impact they once did and are simply driving people away from the railway. Union leaders should do the right thing and give their members a chance to vote on these pay offers."
Junior doctors
Junior doctors will also walk out this month as part of industrial action by the the British Medical Association (BMA). Members are holding five days of strike action from Thursday, July 13 until Tuesday, July 18, in its fourth round of walk-outs - with junior doctors voting to extend industrial action until at least January 2024.
The BMA said that the upcoming strike is thought to be the longest single period of industrial action in the history of the health service. Co-chairs of the BMA junior doctors committee Dr Robert Laurenson and Dr Vivek Trivedi said: "The NHS is one of this country's proudest achievements and it is shameful that we have a Government seemingly content to let it decline to the point of collapse with decades of real-terms pay cuts to doctors driving them away.
“With the 75th birthday of the NHS just days away, neglect of its workforce has left us with 7.4 million people on waiting lists for surgery and procedures, 8,500 unfilled doctors’ posts in hospitals, and doctors who can barely walk down the road without a foreign government tempting them to leave an NHS where they are paid £14 per hour for a country which will pay them properly."
The Prime Minister's official spokesman said of the planned walk-outs: "It puts patient safety and our efforts to cut waiting lists at risk. It is obviously extremely disappointing. In the meeting the Government had with junior doctors, we made a fair and reasonable opening offer.
"We were discussing both pay and non-pay issues. But they chose to end the talks by announcing new strike dates. Obviously if they cancel the damaging and disruptive strikes and show willingness to move away from their starting positions and find a way forward, then we will be able to proceed with those discussions."
