New strike chaos as teachers and NHS staff warn
of action over pay
Rail unions set to walk out on Tuesday, as clashes
loom over public sector pay offers falling short of inflation
Toby Helm,
Michael Savage and Jon Ungoed-Thomas
Sat 18 Jun
2022 19.19 BST
A wave of
1970s-style economic unrest is threatening to spread from the railways across
the public services, as unions representing teachers and NHS workers warn of
potential industrial action over pay.
With the
country preparing for rail strikes on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday which will
see half the network shut down, the biggest teaching union, the National
Education Union (NEU), told the Observer that unless it receives a pay offer
much closer to inflation by Wednesday, it will be informing education secretary
Nadhim Zahawi of its plan to ballot its 450,000 members. The move could lead to
strikes in schools in England in the autumn, the union said.
Another
flashpoint could come this week when millions of NHS workers up to senior nurse
level receive their annual pay offer, which is expected to fall substantially
short of inflation, currently running at 9.2%.
The
country’s biggest union, Unison, representing NHS staff, said the government
now faced a choice between offering a deal close to inflation or triggering a
mass exodus of staff coupled with possible industrial action in hospitals, at a
time when they are already hugely overburdened.
The
prospect of strikes across the public services has grown as inflation climbs
towards double figures but the Treasury is desperate to keep public spending,
and the public sector pay bill, in check.
The sense
of crisis deepened last week when the Bank of England said inflation would
climb to 11% this autumn, even after interest rate increases – which will
themselves see rising mortgage payments adding to the cost of living crisis.
Final offers to teachers, NHS workers and millions of others in the public
sector are expected to be between 3% and 4%.
Kevin
Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU, said last night that unless the
government offers “significantly” above the 3% Zahawi floated earlier this
year, the union would ballot its members to gauge reactions, then could
organise a second ballot specifically on industrial action.
“If there
is no significant improvement on 3% – which will leave an 8% gap with inflation
this year alone – we cannot avoid a ballot. The mood among teachers has
changed. Last year the issue was mainly workload. This year it is workload and
pay.
“Teachers
are doing calculations to see what their hourly pay works out at. Pay is
already down 20% on 2010. The strains are showing. One in eight of new graduate
teachers are leaving in their first year.”
Last night,
another teachers’ union, the NASUWT, joined those threatening strikes, saying
that unless its pay demands were met it would also ballot members on industrial
action from November in England, Scotland and Wales.
Unison
general secretary Christina McAnea said the quality of NHS services in England
was at stake because staff would leave if they did not receive a fair pay
increase. “The government has a simple choice. Either it makes a sensible pay
award, investing in staff and services and reducing delays for patients,” she
said. “Or it risks a potential dispute, growing workforce shortages and
increased suffering for the sick.”
Every day I have kids in my class who are going back
to homes where they don’t have enough to eat
Frankie Brown, teacher
Yesterday,
thousands of people gathered at an event organised by the TUC in central London
to demand action from the government on the cost of living crisis. Ben
Robinson, 25, who works for a housing charity, and Frankie Brown, 24, a
teacher, were at the protest. Brown said: “Every day, kids in my class are
going back to homes where they don’t have enough to eat.”
Robinson
said: “We’ve got residents coming into our offices who are choosing between
feeding their kids – not themselves – and paying rent and heating. That is not
a choice anyone should have to face in one of the biggest economies in the
world.”
Network
Rail said yesterday it was planning to resume talks on Sunday with the Rail,
Maritime and Transport union (RMT) over what is described as the biggest
shutdown on the rail network for more than three decades.
Tim
Shoveller, chief negotiator for Network Rail, said rail bosses were keen to
avert a “needless and damaging” strike over pay, jobs and conditions. Senior
sources say some progress has been made in the talks, but the RMT said
yesterday the strikes would go ahead as planned.
RMT general
secretary Mick Lynch said: “Despite the best efforts of our negotiators, no
viable settlements to the disputes have been created.”
Transport
secretary Grant Shapps said the railways were on the brink of major disruption
which would cause misery across the country: “Children sitting exams will face
the extra distraction of changing their travel plans. And vulnerable people
with long-awaited hospital appointments may have no choice but to cancel.”
Ahead of
the rail strikes, Eurostar has become the latest operator to cancel trains: a
total of 41 between next Tuesday and Saturday have been axed – putting breaks
to France, Belgium and the Netherlands at risk. The firm said it was seeing
‘unprecedented contact levels across phone, email and social channels’ after
its announcement.
Gatwick
Express trains will not run on strike days, but limited Southern and Thameslink
services between London Victoria or London Bridge and Brighton will call at the
airport in West Sussex.
Most
operators are planning some form of skeleton service over the three strike days
– Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 7.30am until 6.30pm. But Merseyrail said
today that none of its trains would run over those days, nor any buses. The
only other operator to cancel all services so far is the Caledonian Sleeper.
Shapps said
that workers were carrying out an “act of self-harm” by walking out, that union
bosses were driving them to do so “under false pretences”, and that the strikes
were ‘the last thing’ they should do.
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