LONDON, ENGLAND – JANUARY 16: Protestors from a range of different trade unions attend a rally against UK government plans to restrict the ability of public sector workers to strike are seen outside Downing Street on January 16, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Guy Smallman/Getty Images)
Guy Smallman | Getty Images News | Getty Images
LONDON — More than half a million British workers are due to take strike action through Wednesday, with unions across a range of sectors in industrial disputes over pay and working conditions.
They include 300,000 teachers in England, who the National Education Union says have experienced at least a 23% real-terms pay cut since 2010; teachers across two unions in Scotland; around 100,000 civil servants across more than 100 departments, including driving instructors, coastguards and Department of Work and Pensions staff; 70,000 university workers, including lecturers and security staff; and roughly 100,000 train drivers.
Such widespread strike action has not taken place since a dispute over public sector pay in 2011, when more than a million workers are estimated to have taken industrial action.
Tens of thousands of schools will be closed or partially closed, travel and other services will be disrupted, while workers will set up hundreds of picket lines and hold rallies.
Demands vary by union but include inflation-beating pay rises, including to redress historic real-terms pay falls; pensions reform; and no cuts in redundancy terms. The NEU says teaching is in “crisis” as staff are driven from the profession and is calling for an above-inflation pay rise.
Protests will also be over a bill that was passed in the lower house of Parliament on Tuesday which seeks to enforce minimum service levels in some sectors, with some workers able to be fired if they refuse to work when required on strike days.
Most unions are holding several days of strikes, some, like rail, spread across months. Wednesday has been co-ordinated by the unions as a day of mass…
Read the full article here
