✕CloseFire Brigades Union warns government needs to 'wake up' ahead of strike action
Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world
Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email
Teachers and train drivers will be among half a million workers walking out tomorrow on the biggest strike day seen in Britain for more than a decade.
Civil servants, university lecturers, bus drivers and security guards will join picket lines, while protests are set to be held across the country against the government’s controversial plans to legally enforce minimum service levels during strikes. Downing Street said 600 military personnel as well as civil servants and volunteers across government have been trained to fill the gaps in public services.
Paul Nowak, general secretary of the TUC, said a petition of more than 250,000 signatures opposing new so-called “anti-strike” laws will be delivered to Downing Street.
Britain’s public service workers are snared in long-running disputes over pay and conditions after a decade of cuts and pay freezes was followed by punishingly high inflation.
Around 200,000 teachers with the National Education Union are joining walkouts tomorrow for the first of their seven strike days. Some 23,000 schools and potentially millions of pupils will be affected.
Recommended
- Food banks and second-hand dancing shoes – the struggles that led to the strikes
- Brexit is three – and all we’ve got to show for it is a worse economy than Russia
- What can we expect to happen in schools during teacher strikes?
Show latest update
London Underground workers striking for safety
You would be forgiven for assuming all strikes taking place in Britain’s 21st century Winter of Discontent were all over pay concerns.
But staff on one London Underground line have an altogether different gripe with their employers: passenger safety.
Aslef workers on the Bakerloo line will walk out on Saturdays 4 and 11 over a TfL plan that they say will risk unaware passengers being rolled into train depots.
Currently, trains on the line are physically checked to make sure they are empty before the driver heads on to the sidings or a depot, but the union said management want to remove this safety check as part of a cost-cutting plan.
Finn Brennan, Aslef’s organiser on the Underground, said: “Previous experience had shown that removing physical checks means that thousands of passengers are unwittingly taken into sidings or depots.
“We understand the pressure that London Underground is under to cut costs, but this cannot be at the expense of the safety of passengers and staff.”
Many Bakerloo line trains have been running 50 years
(Getty)
Liam James1 February 2023 01:001675209600
BBC journalist to take strike ballot
BBC journalists are to vote on industrial action in a dispute over planned changes to local radio programming.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said its members working for BBC England are being balloted over proposals to share local radio programming across the network.
The union said that, under original proposals, BBC local radio stations would share programmes with neighbouring stations after 2pm on weekdays and at weekends, which the NUJ said would lead to a loss of posts and journalists having to re-apply for their own jobs.
A compromise put forward by the BBC which the union said would have seen less sharing was rejected by 70 per cent of NUJ members.
The union said it now has no option but to move to a formal ballot.
Liam James1 February 2023 00:001675206037
All the UK strike dates confirmed for February 2023
Joe Sommerladmaps out a month that will see firefighters, teachers, train drivers and ambulance workers alike walk out in rows over pay and conditions:
All the UK strike dates confirmed for February 2023
More disruption likely as pay disputes go unresolved and industrial action continues
Liam James31 January 2023 23:001675202437
Two unions join for Environment Agency workers strike
Two unions representing Environment Agency workers have voted to strike in a dispute over pay.
Members of Unison and Prospect working in areas including river inspection, flood forecasting, coastal risk management and pollution control will walk out for 12 hours on 8 February.
The unions said that for 12 hours either side of the walkout, Environment Agency employees will also escalate their ongoing work-to-rule by withdrawing from incident response rotas.
Where there is a genuine threat to life or property from something like a major flood, officers will step in as emergency “life and limb cover” has been agreed with agency managers.
Environment Agency staff belonging to Unison took strike action earlier in January. Now their colleagues who are in Prospect will join them for the first joint strike.
Liam James31 January 2023 22:001675198837
School closures subject to heads’ discretion
Teachers in England and Wales who are members of the National Education Union (NEU) will take part in walkouts on Wednesday which threaten disruption to more than 23,000 schools.
The walkouts, which could see more than 100,000 teachers go on strike, is the first of seven days of action planned by the NEU in February and March. Some schools are due to close their doors to all pupils on Wednesday as a result of the strikes, with children told to stay at home.
Other schools will be partially closed so they can prioritise children who would benefit most from in-person teaching, such as those sitting exams as well as vulnerable pupils and key workers’ children. In some schools, there may be little or no impact from strike action and they will remain open.
Headteachers will carry out risk assessments to work out whether their schools can open safely with reduced staffing numbers. The decision on whether to close fully or partially is down to individual headteachers.
Liam James31 January 2023 21:001675195237
All the trains cancelled for strikes
Train drivers from the Aslef and RMT unions will strike tomorrow, taking the bulk of Britain’s rail network offline.
No trains will run on Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Heathrow Express, London Northwestern Railway, Northern, Southeastern, Southern, Thameslink, TransPennine Express, West Midlands Railway.
Other affected lines are:
- Great Western Railway – An extremely limited service will operate, and only between 7.30am and 7.30pm. The only routes served by trains will be: Between London Paddington and Bristol Temple Meads; between Bristol Temple Meads and Cardiff; between Reading and Basingstoke, Oxford and Redhill; between Swindon and Westbury; between Exeter St Davids and Exmouth and Paignton; between Plymouth and Gunnislake; and between Penzance and St Ives.
- Greater Anglia – A very limited service will operate with one train per hour in each direction between London Liverpool Street and each of Norwich, Colchester, Cambridge and Southend Victoria. Services will start from 8am and finish earlier than usual. No other routes will be served by trains.
- London North Eastern Railway – An extremely limited timetable will operate. It will run just five trains in each direction between London King’s Cross and Edinburgh, with a handful of other services.
- South Western Railway – The operator intends to run a full service on the mainland but there will be no trains on the Isle of Wight.
- Stansted Express – One train per hour will run in each direction between London Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport.
Wednesday’s strike is over pay and working conditions. It will be followed by another walkout on Friday.
Liam James31 January 2023 20:001675191637
Tens of thousands of teachers 'joined union for strike’
Tens of thousands more teachers have joined the UK’s largest education union to take part in strikes on Wednesday, a union boss has said.
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said ministers should be concerned about the 40,000 new sign-ups to the union since the teacher strikes were announced a fortnight ago.
He said the new members, of which the vast majority are teachers, are joining the union “because they want to be part of the action”.
Mr Courtney told the PA news agency: “That’s a very big conscious decision to make, to join us at this moment. If I was the government, I’d be worried about that.”
Mary Bousted, general secretary of the NEU, said the union is expecting “lots of schools” to close in areas where the NEU has a large representation – like London. Downing Street has conceded that Wednesday’s mass strike action will be “very difficult” for the public.
Bousted talks to the press on Monday
(PA)
Liam James31 January 2023 19:001675188011
Britain set for biggest day of strikes in more than a decade
More than half a million workers are set to walk out tomorrow on Britain’s biggest day of strikes in more than a decade.
Teachers, train drivers, civil servants, university lecturers, bus drivers and security guards from seven trade unions will join picket lines as disputes over pay and conditions rage.
Meanwhile, protests will be held across the country against the government’s controversial plans for a new law on minimum service levels during strikes.
TUC general secretary Paul Nowak said Wednesday will be a “really important day” for workers and members of the public to show support for those taking action to defend pay, jobs and services, as well as for the right to strike.
Liam James31 January 2023 18:00✕
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
SubscribeAlready subscribed? Log in
Popular videos
{{/link}}