UK strikes: travellers face disruption as rail
and Border Force staff take action
Post-Christmas passengers affected, while driving
examiners at 71 test centres begin five-day strike
Kalyeena
Makortoff
@kalyeena
Wed 28 Dec
2022 09.26 GMT
Passengers
are steeling themselves for further travel disruption across the UK as rail and
Border Force staff launch a fresh wave of strikes affecting thousands heading
home after Christmas.
Border
Force staff at Britain’s largest airports, including those in passport control,
resumed action over pay, jobs and working conditions on Wednesday. The 1,000
members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) are striking for four
days until New Year’s Eve.
Civil
servants were being called in to help military personal covering striking
workers at airports including Heathrow and Gatwick in London, as well as
Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow and Manchester, and the port of Newhaven.
While
previous border force strikes, which ran from 23-26 December, caused minimal
disruption as they fell during a time of low passenger traffic, union leaders
have warned the action could carry on for six months if the government refuses
to negotiate.
Meanwhile
members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association on Great Western Railway
and West Midlands Trains joined a series of rolling strikes by the union at
different operators that began on 23 December, walking out from noon on
Wednesday to 11.59am on Thursday.
West
Midlands Trains said that none of its services would be running from Wednesday
morning as a result of the TSSA strike.
The action
adds to the chaos on the rail network, which was still struggling to recover
from overrunning engineering work after the RMT strike between Christmas Eve
and Tuesday morning.
Driving
examiners and rural payment officers have also been holding rolling strikes
since 13 December, and are expected to continue their industrial action until
16 January.
Examiners
at 71 driving test centres will strike for five days from Wednesday, as the PCS
union calls for a 10% pay rise for striking staff, as well as improved job
security and pensions. The union also wants protection of existing redundancy
terms.
However,
the government has so far refused to meet pay demands that it describes as
“unaffordable”, with Rishi Sunak previously arguing that pay rises risked
fuelling inflation.
“Part of
that is being responsible when it comes to setting public sector pay,” the
prime minister said. “In the long term, it’s the right thing for the whole
country that we beat inflation.”
Network
Rail is set to resume its strikes next week, just as people get back to work in
the new year.
RMT union
members will walk out over pay and working conditions on 3-4 January, and again
from 6-7 January.
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário