Hundreds of thousands of workers will go on strike on Wednesday in separate disputes over pay, jobs and conditions in what will be the biggest day of industrial action in more than a decade. Teachers, university lecturers, train drivers, civil servants, bus drivers and security guards in seven trade unions will stop work on the same day.
These are the sectors affected by the strikes:
Education
Teachers in England and Wales, who are members of the National Education Union (NEU), will strike, with more than 23,000 schools expected to be affected. The Department for Education has offered a 5% pay rise to most teachers for the current school year, but the NEU is demanding a fully funded above-inflation pay rise for teachers.
Support staff in Wales, who are members of the NEU, will also take part in the action.
Teacher members of the NEU in sixth form colleges in England, who have already been balloted and taken strike action in recent months, will join the walkouts in a separate but linked dispute.
School leaders in the NAHT Cymru union will also hold industrial action short of a strike – which includes abstaining from arranging cover for those taking part in any industrial action – from February 1.
On Wednesday, teacher members of the EIS union – Scotland’s biggest teaching union – will take action in Clackmannanshire and Aberdeen as part of an ongoing dispute over pay.
Transport
Train drivers in Aslef and the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) are embroiled in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. A recent offer of a 4% pay rise for last year and another 4% this year was rejected, with the unions arguing that conditions attached to the proposed deal, such as compulsory Sunday working, were never going to be accepted.
Aslef argues that more train drivers should be employed, but claims rail operators find it cheaper to pay staff overtime to work on Sundays.
Services will be severely affected on Wednesday, and again on Friday during a second strike, with some areas having no trains at all and those that do run will start later and finish earlier than usual. No talks are planned with the drivers’ unions despite hopes of progress in other disputes involving rail unions.
Around 1,900 members of Unite employed as bus drivers by Abellio in London will walk out on February 1, 2 and 3. Unite said the decision to go ahead with the strikes follows the rejection of two pay offers.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Abellio is an incredibly wealthy company, whose success is based on the hard graft of its workers. It can fully afford to make a fair pay offer which meets our members’ expectations, but it has failed to do so.”
Bus services in the south and west of London will be affected by the industrial action.
Universities
Unprecedented strike action will hit 150 UK universities throughout February and March because of strikes by up to 70,000 members of the University and College Union (UCU). The long-running dispute is over pay, working conditions and pensions.
The Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA), representing 144 employers, said it has made a “full and final pay offer” of between 8% and 5%, which the union described as a marginal improvement. The employers said the offer prioritises the disproportionate effect of high inflation falling on the lower paid, with a minimum of 5% for all other members of staff.
This offer was described as the highest uplift in nearly 20 years. The intention is for between 3.2% and 2% to be paid from February 1, with the remaining amount from August, as is the usual timetable.
Civil Service
Up to 100,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) will strike in another long-running dispute, over pay, jobs and conditions. Those taking part work for government departments, the Border Force, museums and other government agencies.
The PCS is seeking a pay rise of 10% after the government paid 2%, which the union complained was well below the soaring rate of inflation. The union also fears huge job losses and cuts to redundancy terms for those affected.
Security Guards
Outsourced security guards at UCL, represented by the IWGB, will also be on strike, demanding a pay rate of £15 an hour, union recognition and an end to outsourcing of services.
Wednesday will see the the biggest day of action since 2011 when well over one million public sector workers staged a one-day strike in a dispute over pensions. As well as more strikes on Friday by train drivers, London Underground Bakerloo Line workers will walk out on Saturday, while ambulance workers and nurses will launch a fresh wave of industrial action across England and Wales from February 6.
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