Workers Begin Fresh Strike in UK

Date: 30 November 2022 - 21:47

News ID: ۱۰۹۶۳۱

LONDON (Dispatches) -- Postal workers at Royal Mail have begun a fresh 48-hour strike in a row over pay and conditions, BBC reported on Wednesday.
It is the latest in a series of walkouts involving 115,000 workers and will hit deliveries across the UK.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents the workers, says it wants a pay rise that matches the soaring cost of living.
Royal Mail says it has made a revised pay offer but “no talks are happening”.
Postal workers walked out on Thursday and Friday last week, and another wave of strikes is planned in the run-up to Christmas - on 9, 11, 14, 15, 23 and 24 December.
The dispute began this summer after Royal Mail rejected union demands for a pay rise that matched inflation - the rate at which prices rises - which is currently 11.1%.
The union also objects to proposed changes to working conditions, such as ending a number of allowances and the introduction of compulsory Sunday working.
Royal Mail has since offered a pay deal that it says is worth up to 9% over 18 months, calling it its “best and final offer”.
But the CWU said that offer represented a “devastating blow” to postal workers’ livelihoods and urged the public to “stand with their postie”.
Mark Dolan, London divisional representative for the CWU, said: “This is our 11th day of strike action and the action we are taking today is about saving this great British institution.
“We’re not prepared to stand by and watch this great public service tuned into another gig economy service where they want to get rid of the current workforce and replace them with workers on 20% less money and less terms and conditions than we currently have.”
Royal Mail faces fierce competition from courier companies and is losing around a million pounds a day. It said the strikes have added £100m to its losses, and

has announced plans to cut up to 10,000 jobs.
Numerous other public and private-sector staff, from lawyers to airport ground personnel, have held strikes this year as Britain contends with its worst cost-of-living crisis in generations.

Ambulance Workers Join Nurses in Strike

Britain’s government on Wednesday rejected union pay demands after ambulance workers joined nurses in voting to go on strike.
“Our economic circumstances mean unions’ demands are not affordable,” Health Secretary Steve Barclay said, after the Unison union confirmed the ambulance service faced its biggest strike in 30 years.
Paramedics, ambulance technicians and emergency call handlers will walk out for 24 hours before Christmas, Unison announced late Tuesday after its members held a strike ballot.
The strike will affect London and four other regions of England as the ambulance service joins nurses across most of Britain in striking over government pay offers, which fall well short of double-digit inflation.
The Royal College of Nursing is holding the first strike in its 106-year history on December 15 and 20.
Unison general secretary Christina McAnea said it was a “tough call” for the ambulance workers to also strike.
“But thousands of ambulance staff and their NHS (National Health Service) colleagues know delays won’t lessen, nor waiting times reduce, until the government acts on wages,” she said.
The nurses’ strike will be sandwiched between the first of a series of two-day walkouts by national railway workers, while postal service employees will stage fresh stoppages in the run-up to Christmas.