Category Archives: Trade unions

Ambulance strike: NHS leaders urge public to avoid risky activity

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Bodies representing NHS care in England also call for Rishi Sunak intervention but PM refuses to budge on pay

NHS leaders have urged the public to avoid risky activity on Wednesday for fear they may be left helpless and unable to reach A&E during the ambulance strike.

The industrial action by staff across England and Wales comes as the ongoing pay dispute between ministers and NHS workers looks poised to descend into an increasingly bitter and disruptive war of attrition that could go on for months.

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Ambulance strike in England and Wales will bring ‘huge risk of harm’

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Patients with serious conditions and injuries will have to get themselves to A&E, NHS chiefs say

Thousands of patients who have had strokes, heart attacks or broken bones will have to get themselves to A&E on Wednesday when ambulance staff strike over pay, NHS bosses have warned.

The disruption is expected to last for up to three days, with crews not reaching some patients who called 999 on Wednesday until Thursday or Friday.

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Ambulance staff need firm promise on pay to call off strike, says union

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Mere commitment to discuss pay, so far refused by health secretary, would now be insufficient

Ambulance staff would require a definite commitment from ministers on pay rather than just a promise of talks to call off their planned strike on Wednesday, according to a union leader who said trust had largely broken down with the government.

Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, one of three unions involved in the strike by ambulance crews in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said even a commitment to discuss pay, thus far refused by the health secretary, Steve Barclay, would now be insufficient.

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Hot drinks and public sympathy for nurses on the picket lines

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For many striking in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, staff shortages are a bigger issue than pay

In many professions, working a 14-hour day with no break would be unthinkable, but for many nurses on freezing picket lines across the country on Thursday it is increasingly becoming the norm.

“It’s tough at the moment,” said Ella Savage, a children’s specialist nurse at Leeds General Infirmary, where about 200 nurses were gathered at one of 125 Royal College of Nursing (RCN) pickets across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

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Nurses will strike this week in UK after talks with health secretary stall

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Royal College of Nursing leader criticises ‘belligerence’ in meeting with Steve Barclay at which ministers refused to discuss pay

Nurses’ strikes will go ahead this week after a meeting between the union and the health secretary ended in deadlock, with the Royal College of Nursing condemning ministers’ “belligerence” for refusing to discuss pay.

Six hundred military personnel from all three armed forces will start training to drive ambulances to cover for striking NHS workers across the UK later this month. A further 150 are being readied to act as logistical support, defence sources said, with training for both groups to start “shortly”.

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UK to develop next-generation fighter jets with Italy and Japan

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Rishi Sunak says defence deal for Tempest means ‘outpacing those who seek to do us harm’

Britain will work to develop next-generation fighter jets with Italy and Japan, Rishi Sunak has announced.

The prime minister said the defence partnership will ensure the UK and allies are “outpacing and outmanoeuvring those who seek to do us harm”.

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Is the UK really facing a second winter of discontent?

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Comparisons with 1979 are misleading – strikes over pay now are smaller in scale and focus, and stoked by inflation

Britain is facing a winter of strikes, as industrial action on the railways spreads to the health service and other key sectors of the economy. Such is the wave of discontent that more than 1m working days could be lost to disputes in December, the most since 1989, during Margaret Thatcher’s final years in power.

With inflation at the highest rate in 41 years amid the cost of living crisis, it’s not difficult to see why workers are pushing for better pay. Coming after the worst decade for average wage growth since the Napoleonic wars, including deep real-terms pay cuts for many in the public sector, it’s even less surprising still.

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Ministers accused of spoiling for a fight with nurses over pay

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While health secretary Steve Barclay says he will not negotiate, unions suggest the compromise reached in Scotland could help avert strikes

Ministers were under intense pressure last night to open new pay talks that could avert a devastating series of NHS strikes as health unions suggested a deal could be struck if both sides were willing to negotiate and compromise.

Amid claims from Labour and from NHS sources that ministers appeared to be playing politics and deliberately “spoiling for a fight”, union leaders strongly suggested that an improved, but still sub-inflation, offer similar to that made to Scottish health unions at the end of last month by the Holyrood government – which has led to strike threats being lifted north of the border – could help break the deadlock elsewhere in the UK.

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Who are the female union leaders overseeing UK strike action?

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Four women at some of the biggest unions are on the frontline of the fight for better pay and conditions

Christina McAnea is the general secretary of Unison, the UK’s biggest union. Brought up on Glasgow’s Drumchapel estate, McAnea left school at 16 to join the civil service, before going to university at the age of 22 and earning a degree in English and history.

A longtime union official, the no-nonsense McAnea has couched Unison’s demands for better pay and conditions for NHS workers, who include paramedics and ambulance staff, as a battle for the future of the health service.

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‘Enough is enough’: wave of strikes led by ‘fantastic’ women, says Frances O’Grady

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As she steps down, outgoing TUC general secretary says female workers’ jobs are undervalued

This winter’s wave of strike action will be powered by “a generation of women who are saying enough is enough” because the critical jobs they do are undervalued, the outgoing TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady, has said.

As she steps down after a decade as the TUC’s first female figurehead, O’Grady said on Friday that thousands of women who worked on the frontline during the pandemic were now saying to ministers, “don’t take us for granted”.

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UK rail passengers face new disruption in latest strike

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People urged to travel only if necessary as train drivers with Aslef at 11 rail operators take industrial action over pay

Passengers across Britain face another day of cancelled or disrupted rail services on Saturday as drivers for 11 train companies go on strike.

Train operators urged people to travel only if necessary and to check before setting out, with no trains or only a handful of services running on affected routes.

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Gillian Keegan says teachers don’t need to threaten strikes

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Education secretary says she looks forward to ‘de-escalation’ as unions in England ballot over industrial action

The education secretary has made a veiled plea for teachers in England to “de-escalate” and avoid industrial action, arguing that progress can be made on pay and other concerns without the threat of “harmful” strikes.

All four major teaching unions in England are balloting their members on possible strike action over pay, with the National Education Union and NASUWT saying that the pay rise given in September – about 5% on average – is inadequate given rampant inflation and the cost of living crisis.

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Amazon warehouse workers stage Black Friday strikes and protests around world

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On one of firm’s biggest shopping days of year, employees demand better wages and conditions

Amazon warehouse workers in the UK and 40 other countries are to strike and stage protests timed to coincide with the Black Friday sales, one of the company’s biggest shopping days of the year.

Employees in dozens of countries, from Japan and Australia to India, the US and across Europe, are demanding better wages and conditions in a campaign called “Make Amazon Pay”.

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Nurses to strike for two days as December disruption deepens

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Royal College of Nursing announces unprecedented action, likely to to be first in a series of strikes by NHS staff over winter

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced its members will stage national strikes – the first in its 106-year history – on 15 and 20 December, with action expected to last for 12 hours on both days.

The unprecedented industrial action will seriously disrupt care and is likely to be the first in a series of strikes over the winter and into the spring by NHS staff, including junior doctors and ambulance workers.

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UK net migration rose sharply to record 504,000 in past year, ONS says – UK politics live

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Number of long-term immigrants arriving in year period was 1.1 million

In the Commons Neil O’Brien, the Cabinet Office minister, is responding to an urgent question tabled by Labour about the procurement of PPE during the pandemic.

The question was tabled by Angela Rayner, the Labour deputy leader, tabled the question. It was inspired by the Guardian story saying documents indicate that the Conservative peer Michelle Mone and her children secretly received £29m originating from the profits of a PPE business that was awarded large government contracts after she recommended it to ministers.

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Royal Mail workers to go ahead with strikes before Christmas after rejecting pay offer

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CWU members to strike on dates around Black Friday and Christmas after spurning ‘final’ pay offer up to 9%

Strikes by postal workers around Black Friday and in the run-up to Christmas are to go ahead after their union rejected a pay offer that Royal Mail said was final.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) will strike for 48 hours on Thursday and Friday and on 30 November and 1 December, and will also carry out single days of action on 9, 11, 14, 15 and 23 December and on Christmas Eve.

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UK train drivers to stage fresh 24-hour strike on 26 November

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Aslef union says drivers at 12 companies will take action over pay

Train drivers are to stage another 24-hour strike later this month, disrupting rail services across Britain and dampening hopes of an imminent end to the dispute.

Aslef said drivers at 12 companies would take action on Saturday 26 November, as the union presses for a pay offer.

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Minister and trade union lawyer clash over post-Brexit ‘sunset clause’

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Nusrat Ghani accuses Unison representative of fearmongering after MPs hear laws could ‘disappear overnight’

The government has clashed with trade unions over claims that 20 days of statutory holiday and eight bank holidays, along with a “tapestry” of workers’ rights, are at risk under post-Brexit plans to remove EU laws from the UK’s statute books.

Shantha David, head of legal services at Unison, told a parliamentary committee examining the retained EU law (revocation and reform) bill that these rights “would no longer survive” if automatically removed via the “sunset clause” that will sweep away EU laws unless they are actively saved by a minister on 31 December 2023.

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Royal Mail workers union calls off planned strikes after legal challenge

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CWU is involved in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions with the company

Planned strikes by Royal Mail workers in the next two weeks have been called off after a challenge by the company.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are involved in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions. A series of strikes has taken place in recent weeks and more had been planned on 2, 3, 4, 8, 9 and 10 November.

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