Around 133,000 civil servants — members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union — are set to strike on the day of the Budget speech on March 15, causing potential chaos in the UK.
London Underground is now set to close for 24 hours amid a strike of RMT union members. Tube drivers represented by the Aslef union had already announced a strike for the same day.
The PCS union’s planned action follows a failure to meet its demand for a 10 per cent pay rise, better pensions, job security and no cuts to redundancy terms. This affects all Government arms including the (Office for Standards in Education, Children’s Services and Skills) Ofsted, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and Border Force.
Members of the National Education Union (NEU) in the north of England walked out on Tuesday, which restricted access to schools. Junior doctors and paramedics are also set to strike in March.
So which industries are striking in March and when will they walk out?
When will teachers strike?
NEU members in the Midlands and eastern regions of England will strike on March 1, while union members in Wales and the south of England will walk out on March 2 in a pay dispute.
EU members’ strikes on March 15 and 16 could affect all schools in England and Wales. NEU teachers in sixth-form colleges in England are set to strike as well.
It follows a heavy day of action on February 1 when half of all UK schools were at least partially closed.
In Scotland, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) has planned a strike on March 1, joined by the National Association of Schoolmasters/Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT).
The EIS is also planning a further 20 days of rolling walkouts from March 13 until April 21 if a resolution has not been reached.
It is also set to hold regional strokes between March 7-9 in parts of Glasgow, Dunfermline, Perthshire, East Dunbartonshire area, Mid Galloway and Wigtown West.
When will London Underground drivers strike?
London Underground drivers are to strike on Budget Day on March 15 in a dispute about pensions and working arrangements.
The 24-hour strike was confirmed by the train drivers’ union Aslef on February 22. The RMT on March 1 announced its members would also strike.
Aslef said Tube train drivers voted by 99 per cent, on a turnout of 77 per cent, in favour of a strike. Alongside drivers, test train and engineering train drivers, including those in management, will walk out.
Finn Brennan, Aslef’s full-time organiser on the Underground, said: “The size of these ‘yes’ votes and the large turnouts show that our members are not prepared to put up any longer with the threats to their working conditions and pensions. We understand that [Transport for London] TfL faces financial challenges, post-pandemic, but our members are simply not prepared to pay the price for the Government’s failure to properly fund London’s public transport system.”
The RMT’s general secretary, Mick Lynch, said: “Our members will never accept job losses, attacks on their pensions or changes to working conditions in order to pay for a funding cut which is the Government’s political decision.
“Tube workers provide an essential service to the capital, making sure the city can keep moving and work long hours in demanding roles.
“In return, they deserve decent pensions, job security and good working conditions and the RMT will fight and tooth nail to make sure that’s what they get.”
Rail workers’ strikes have been taking place for months, leaving many people unable to get to work and significantly affecting businesses. Unions are in conflict with the Government and rail companies over wages job losses, and term and condition modifications.
They say any compensation offer should take the rising cost of living into account — with inflation now more than 10 per cent. But, due to the pandemic’s financial impact, the rail sector is under pressure to make savings.
Bosses say reforms need to be agreed to afford pay increases and modernise the railway.
Which civil servants will be striking and why?
Civil servants at 123 Government departments and agencies will also strike on March 15. This will be in an effort to exert “significant pressure” on the Government, the PCS union announced. About 100,000 officials in the PCS union will walk out.
They previously went on strike in December and on February 1, as part of their disputes about pay and conditions.
PCS members in the Border Force and the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVLA) are among those who have already been on strike.
More than 1,600 DVLA staff will stage a series of walkouts across England, Scotland and Wales between March 6 and 28. These will overlap with strikes at Ofsted between March 6 and 19.
The PCS is calling for a 10 per cent pay rise, which must include better pension conditions, no cuts to redundancy terms and better job security.
Mark Serwotka, the union’s general secretary, said officials were “suffering a completely unacceptable decline in their pay”.
When are junior doctors striking?
Junior doctors will strike for 72 hours from March 13 over pay and conditions, after 98 per cent of ballot votes were cast in favour of strike action. The British Medical Association said that strikes would include a “full stoppage” of work including night shifts, on-call shifts and non-resident work. Furthermore, staff in A&E and cancer wards will also walk out.
When are paramedics striking?
Paramedics and ambulance workers will strike on March 8 and on March 20.
Health workers at NHS Blood and Transplant, Great Ormond Street Hospital, the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust, Liverpool Women’s Hospital and the Bridgewater Community Trust will now be among those walking out for the first time, Unison said.
Unison’s general secretary, Christina McAnea, said: “Unfortunately for patients, staff and anyone that cares about the NHS, the strikes go on. There can be no pick-and-mix solution. NHS workers in five unions are involved in strike action over pay, staffing and patient care.
“Choosing to speak to one union and not others won’t stop the strikes and could make a bad situation much worse.”
When are rail strikes?
Four days of rail strikes have been called from March 16 to March 19.
Thursday, 16 and Saturday 18 are the most severe with limited service across all operators on those days.
On March 17 and 19 some services may still be impacted, Network Rail has said.
There is also likely strike action on March 30 and April 1.
Affected train lines are set to be: Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Great Western Railway, Greater Anglia and Stansted Express, Heathrow Express, LNER, London Northwestern Railway, Northern, South Western Railway, Southeastern, Southern, Thameslink, TransPennine Express, and West Midlands Railway.
The strikes will come after RMT rejected the terms offered by Network Rail and 14 train operators because they “did not meet the needs of members on pay, job security or working conditions”.
When are university staff striking?
University staff are set to strike across five dates in March: 16, 17, 20, 21 and 22.
Academics, librarians and other university staff from the University and College Union (UCU) are set to take industrial action.
Previous strikes planned for February and early March had been paused after a breakthrough with a pay deal.
Courtesy of Beril Naz Hassan, Nuray Bulbul, William Mata & Anthony France, Evening Standard – Wednesday 1st March 2023 – Story here – UK strikes 2023: Which sectors are affected by industrial action as teachers walk out? (msn.com)