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As Brits continue to grapple with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis workers across the UK are ramping up calls for better pay and conditions in the workplace.
A number of sectors will be affected in August as workers stage walk-outs with post, deliveries and travel just some of the areas that will be affected in the weeks ahead.
Here is a full list of dates Brits need to be aware of when services will be affected by strike action.
Royal Mail strike 2022 – postal workers strikes
115,000 postal workers to strike in call for ‘dignified, proper pay rise’. (PA)
Royal Mail has warned that planned strikes by more than 100,000 workers will make the company “materially loss-making” in the current financial year.
Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) are set to walk out on August 26 and 31 and on September 8 and 9 in a dispute over pay.
Royal Mail said that, following the conclusion of negotiations with the CWU, it has given an unconditional 2% pay increase, backdated to April 1 2022.
A further 3.5% increase is available, subject to agreeing on a series of changes, the company said.
The CWU has informed us that their members will undertake strike action on 26 and 31 August and 8 and 9 September. We’re ready to talk further with the CWU to try to avert industrial action. Contingency plans are in place. You can still send your items: https://t.co/3NUFqEFN8l
— Royal Mail (@RoyalMail) August 9, 2022
A statement from Royal Mail said: “If the announced strike action takes place, it is expected that Royal Mail in the UK would be materially loss-making in FY2022-23.”
The CWU said the 2% rise had been imposed without agreement and the extra money on offer is based on changes to terms and conditions or meeting targets.
The union added that the pay increase was well below the soaring rate of inflation.
UK Railway strikes
The picket line outside Liverpool Lime Street station (Eleanor Barlow/PA)
Railway strikes have cause significant disruption this summer with a number of unions locked in long-running disputes.
A 24-hour walkout by members of the Aslef union, affecting Arriva Rail London, Avanti West Coast, Crosscountry, Greater Anglia (including Stansted Express), Great Western, Hull Trains, LNER, London Overground, Southeastern and West Midlands Trains will take place on Saturday August 13.
RMT are planning further walkouts for Thursday, 18 August and Saturday 20, August.
The walkouts are expected to include 40,000 workers, with around half of those from Network Rail.
Here is a full list of train companies involved:
- Chiltern Railways
- CrossCountry
- Greater Anglia
- LNER
- East Midlands Railway
- c2c
- Great Western Railway
- Northern Trains
- South Eastern
- South Western Railway
- TransPennine Express
- Avanti West Coast
- West Midlands Trains
- GTR (including Gatwick Express)
- London Overground
- Great Western Railway
- Hull Trains
- London Northwestern Railway
Ryanair strikes Spain airports
The Foreign Office has warned Brits travelling abroad of flight disruption and urged passengers to consult with their airlines.
The airline has moved to ease concern amongst passengers with flights in August and September ahead of strikes.
A spokesperson said: “Ryanair expects that these latest threatened strikes, which involve only a handful of our Spanish cabin crew, will have zero impact on our Spanish flights or schedules in August or September.”
Earlier this week Ryanair said that the small number of cancelled flights in Spain last month was mostly down to air traffic controller strikes and flight delays.
DHL workers strike to affect Sainsbury’s
DHL workers in Scotland represented by Unite are set to strike from Saturday, 13 August with the walkout expected to last for a week.
The Unite union represents over 300 DHL warehouse workers who are based at the distribution centre in Langlands Park, East Kilbride.
The distribution centre supplies Sainsbury’s stores throughout Scotland and Northern Ireland.
London bus drivers and London Underground strikes
London bus drivers set to strike on same days as Underground and rail workers. (PA)
More than 1,600 London bus drivers are set to take strike action later this month in a dispute over pay.
Members of Unite employed by London United will walk out on August 19 and 20, the same days as strikes on London Underground and the railways.
The union said strike action was a result of the company offering a pay increase of 3.6% in 2022 and 4.2% next year, which it described as a real terms pay cut because of the soaring rate of inflation.
Barristers strike
Criminal courts face further disruption in August as the sixth walkout is planned for August 15.
The Criminal Bar Association action is part of a dispute over conditions and Government-set fees for legal aid advocacy work.
Criminal barristers are due to receive a 15% fee rise from the end of September, meaning they will earn £7,000 more per year.
But there has been anger that the proposed pay rise will not be made effective immediately and will only apply to new cases, not those already sitting in the backlog waiting to be dealt with by courts.
— The CBA (@TheCriminalBar) July 11, 2022
Felixstowe workers to strike for eight days
Workers at the port of Felixstowe – the UK’s biggest port- are to strike for eight days later this month in a dispute over pay.
Members of Unite will walk out on August 21 after talks at the conciliation service Acas failed to resolve the row.
Unite said more than 1,900 workers at Felixstowe, the country’s biggest container port, will be taking industrial action.
The strike was called after Unite said the Felixstowe Dock and Railway Company failed to improve on its offer of a 7% pay increase, describing it as “significantly below” inflation.
Workers balloting over potential strikes
Nurses to start voting next month on whether to strike over pay. (PA)
Nurses will start voting next month on whether to strike over pay in what is being described as a “defining moment” for the profession.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said it will be recommending hundreds of thousands of its members support industrial action in a ballot that opens in mid-September.
The postal ballot will ask RCN members working for the NHS in England and Wales on Agenda for Change contracts if they will take strike action which involves a complete withdrawal of labour.
It will open on Thursday September 15 for four weeks.
The Communication Workers’ Union is also preparing a ballot for members at Capita O2 and Tesco Mobile.
It comes after thousands of BT and Openreach workers went on strike earlier this month in a dispute over pay.
The strike is against a £1,500 pay increase for all employees, which the CWU says means a real terms wage cut because of the soaring rate of inflation.
