On Wednesday, hundreds of thousands of workers including teachers, Tube drivers, and doctors will hit picket lines in what could be the biggest walkout in the current wave of industrial action in Britain.
Members of several trade unions are taking action, mounting hundreds of picket lines across the country, in protest over issues such as pay, jobs, pensions, and conditions.
The strikes, involving teachers, university lecturers, civil servants, junior doctors, London Underground drivers, and BBC journalists, are taking place despite talks being held between unions and the Westminster Government.
Some of the strikes will only be held in England as progress has been made in Wales and Scotland.
Sectors affected by the Budget Day walkouts include civil service, education, universities, London Underground, health, and the BBC.
The Public and Commercial Services union and thousands of civil servants in Prospect are involved in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs, and conditions.
Members of the National Education Union in England will strike as part of a long-running dispute over pay. More than 70,000 staff members of the University and College Union will begin the first of three successive days of strike action across 150 universities in the UK.
Drivers in Aslef and the Rail, Maritime, and Transport union will strike in a dispute over pensions and conditions, which will cripple tube services all day.
Junior doctors in the British Medical Association will strike for the third successive day in a row over pay. Members of the National Union of Journalists at BBC Local in England will strike in protest at program cuts.
The Office for National Statistics says Britain has lost more than 1.5 million working days to a string of industrial disputes, with 220,000 days lost to strikes in January, added to 822,000 in December and 462,000 in November.
Public sector pay growth was 4.8% in those months, the strongest since the New Labour era in 2006 if the pandemic period is disregarded, but private sector workers did better with pay up by 7%.
Multiple rows over pay and conditions have been rumbling on for months across many different parts of the economy.
As the strikes continue, multiple schools in England are set to close today as teachers join university staff in two days of mass pay strikes dubbed “Walkout Wednesday”.
Members of the National Education Union will join 70,000 members of the University and College Union also staging industrial action at 150 sites, with GCSE and A-level pupils among those facing disruption while thousands of parents face taking days off work to look after their children.
The strikes news comes a day before the Budget, and ministers are under pressure to settle public sector disputes by putting up pay, as well as separate demands to ease the tax burden on struggling businesses and to give the armed forces a much-needed boost in defence spending.
»Walkout Wednesday: Hundreds of thousands of workers strike in Britain«
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