Rail workers, Border Force staff and driving examiners resume strike action
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Rail workers, Border Force staff and driving examiners are resuming strike action today, with commuters warned of serious delays as they return to work.
It comes after a day of travel chaos despite a rail strike by the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers Union (RMT) coming to an end, with crowds of people left waiting at major train stations across London and many journeys delayed due to the late handover of engineering works.
Here is a list of those striking today:
• Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) at Great Western Railway will walk out from noon to 11.59am on Thursday
• West Midlands Trains will strike for 24 hours from noon until the same time on Thursday
• Driving examiners from the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union at 71 test centres will launch a five-day strike
• Border Force officers at the same union will begin a four-day strike at six airports across the UK
West Midlands Trains said that none of its services would be running from Wednesday morning as a result of the TSSA strike.
TSSA organising director Nadine Rae said the government can help end strike action if it allows employers to “freely negotiate” with others.
Asked about reports that rail union and industry bosses are “nearly there” in agreeing a pay deal, Ms Rae told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that “things have not changed since before Christmas in terms of a deal”.
Pressed if “nearly there” was too optimistic a description, Ms Rae replied: “It’s not optimistic if the government allows the employers to freely negotiate with others.
“It’s the government that needs to shift this situation and we really want them to, we know the disruption is frustrating for people.”
Network Rail has told passengers to prepare for “significantly disrupted” travel into the new year amid the wave of industrial unrest.
‘Strikes could be called off tomorrow’
Driving instructors, who are part of the PCS union, are walking out of test centres across Eastern England and the Midlands and are set to return to work on 1 January.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “These strikes could be called off tomorrow if Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt put some money on the table.”
Mr Serwotka says his union’s members “have been offered a pay rise of just 2% at a time when the cost-of-living crisis is above 10%”.
Border Force officers at Gatwick, Heathrow, Birmingham, Cardiff, Manchester and Glasgow airports and the port of Newhaven will resume strikes in the same dispute, and will return to work on New Year’s Eve.
A Home Office spokesperson said passengers should expect disruption during the action, but added that staff are “working hard to ensure travellers have a safe and secure journey”.
Meanwhile, Downing Street has reiterated that it wants to see unions hold further talks with employers to “reach a fair agreement” and end strike action.
A Number 10 spokesman told reporters on Wednesday: “We want the strikes to come to an end, we want people to agree a fair pay settlement but, as we’ve said before, what we can’t do is allow for double digital pay rises that will embed inflation going forward, which will impact the amount of money people have going forward.”
Unions trying to find ways to stage more strikes
Unions are looking at ways to stage further strikes by splitting ballots by job titles rather than holding a single vote, according to reports.
The i newspaper reported that the TSSA is poised to let different sections of its membership vote at different times in order to carry out multiple walkouts per week.
The Department for Transport has described the reports as “incredibly disappointing” and urged unions to “step back, reconsider and get back around the table”.
Elsewhere, a new poll has suggested that 40% of junior doctors plan to leave the health service as soon as they can find another role.
While a third (33%) of the 4,500 junior doctors in England surveyed said they were planning to work in another country in the next year.
Pay and poor working conditions were the main reasons cited for wanting to leave, according to the British Medical Association (BMA) poll.
The BMA warned that the NHS “would not be able to cope” without two fifths of its junior doctor workforce.
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It comes ahead of an industrial action ballot of some 45,000 junior doctors in England, which will open on Monday 9 January.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said: “Our multi-year pay deal with the British Medical Association is increasing junior doctor’s pay by a cumulative 8.2% by 2023.”
