Workers ‘in the fight of their lives for the very NHS itself’, union claims – live

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has announced members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will strike on 15 and 20 December. Up to 100,000 workers are expected to take part in the pre-Christmas walkouts.

Unison and GMB has announced that thousands of 999 call handlers, ambulance technicians, paramedics and their colleagues working for ambulance services in the North East, North West, London, Yorkshire and the South West are set to strike on 21 December.

Elsewhere, services across the country will be crippled on several dates across December as members of RMT take strike action.

The RMT has revealed that more than 40,000 workers across Network Rail and 14 train operating companies will stage a series of 48-hour walk-outs on 13, 14, 16 and 17 December and on 3, 4, 6 and 7 January 2023, impacting Christmas and the New Year.

Staff working at the Department for Work and Pensions are to take strike action for two weeks over Christmas.

More than 200 members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union working in three DWP offices in Liverpool and one in Doncaster will walk out from December 19 to 31.

The union said other targeted action at the DWP is likely to follow as part of the union’s national campaign for a 10% pay rise, job security and no cuts to redundancy terms.

Britain has had a difficult time of it in 2022, emerging from two years in the grip of the coronavirus only to be confronted by a dire cost of living crisis defined by runaway inflation and rocketing energy bills exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Now, as Christmas approaches, we find ourselves in a new “winter of discontent” with the country’s unions, representing workers from a wide range of public-facing professions, concluding that they have no choice but to undertake industrial action as their calls for improved pay and working conditions go unanswered while rising prices erode earnings.

One hundred thousand nursing staff are set to go on strike next month, the Royal College of Nursing has confirmed.

The RCN has released the list of trusts impacted by the historic action, with 44 out of 219 NHS trusts in England voting in favour of walkouts.

In Wales, staff in six out of seven health boards and all six trusts in Northern Ireland will also face strike action.

The RCN would not confirm exactly how many staff in each trust had voted for strike action, however workers have until the day of the strike to decide whether they not work and will join the industrial action.

Nursing staff working outside of hospitals, such as those in commissioning organisations called integrated care boards, have also voted to take action.

The union is set to hold its first strike day on Thursday, 15 December and its second on Tuesday 20 December.

As inflation has climbed steadily throughout the year, workers have seen rising prices eroding their earnings – just as employers have been trying to make savings or modernise working practices to cope with increasing costs.

The result? Clashes over pay, redundancies, pensions and terms and conditions.

A new “winter of discontent” had begun even before Jeremy Hunt’s Autumn Statement on 17 November, which left householders everywhere feeling even worse off.

These are the professions and industries for which strike dates have already been announced:

Firefighters and control staff are balloting for strike action. This is why.

Strike action is always a last resort, but we are left with no other option. Many firefighters and emergency fire control staff are struggling to pay their bills. Some are having to go to foodbanks to feed their families. It is an utterly disgraceful state of affairs. We can’t go on like this.

Members of the Fire Brigades Union worked through the pandemic, continuing to attend their workplaces. Doing that meant taking on additional personal risk to try and help others. Firefighters also took on extra duties to try and aide the Covid response. That included delivering food to the vulnerable and moving the deceased. They were clapped as key workers by the prime minister and others.

Royal Mail workers will stage strikes this month and next in an escalating row over pay, jobs and conditions.

The Communications Workers Union (CWU) formally notified Royal Mail of the November strikes last month and confirmed six new strike dates in December on November 17.

The postal service apologised to customers, saying that though it had “well-developed contingency plans” it is unable to “fully replace the daily efforts of our frontline workforce”.

“We’ll be doing what we can to keep services running, but we are sorry this planned strike action is likely to cause you some disruption,” the company said on the website.

Here’s everything you need to know about strikes by Royal Mail staff.

When we think of industrial action in the UK, what comes to mind is coal miners, transport workers and posties industries that are overwhelmingly dominated by men. Women aren’t expected to strike. It’s just not ladylike.

The industries where women dominate are still largely about caring for others. From social care and childcare, to education and even hospitality (the literal definition of which means “generous and friendly treatment of guests” including, presumably, the ones that grope you).

Members of the Scottish Secondary Teachers Association and the NASUWT are set to strike in 17 local authority areas on 7 December.

London bus workers at Abellio will also start a two-day walkout.

On 8 December, the teachers’ strike in Scotland will continue in the remaining 15 local authorities.

Rail passengers face severe travel disruption over Christmas and the New Year as workers stage a series of 48-hour strikes in December and January in the long-running dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.

The RMT union has revealed that more than 40,000 workers across Network Rail and 14 train operating companies will stage a series of 48-hour walk-outs.

Industrial action will take place on 13, 14, 16 and 17 December and on 3, 4, 6 and 7 January.

On Monday it announced further strike dates to take place over the key Christmas period, with members walking out from 6pm on 24 December until 7am on 27 December. Most trains do not run on 25 and 26 December anyway, but those aiming to travel by rail to see loved ones either side of Christmas Day will be affected.