Trade union group StrikeMap has released a list of upcoming strikes for the week beginning 6 February. Strikemap described the past week as containing “the largest education strike of a generation” with “hundreds of thousands of workers joined together on 1 February for the first mega strike of the year”. Now, NHS workers are staging huge walkouts.
Upcoming action
The upcoming week will include the following industrial action:
Of these, the NHS nurses walkout in England and Wales, organised by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), will be one of the most substantial. RCN has said that it’s “escalating nursing strikes on 6 and 7 February after governments refuse to seriously negotiate”. RCN general secretary and chief executive Pat Cullen added:
It is with a heavy heart that nursing staff are striking [in January] and again in [February]
We are doing this in a desperate bid to get ministers to rescue the NHS. The only credible solution is to address the tens of thousands of unfilled jobs – patient care is suffering like never before.
My olive branch to governments – asking them to meet me halfway and begin negotiations – is still there. They should grab it.
Tomorrow thousands of nursing staff will be on the picket lines again as a result of government refusal to talk about your pay.
We'll be out there for patients, the profession and the future of the NHS. We hope to see you
https://t.co/NjIde08y6Z
#FairPayForNursing pic.twitter.com/o7gvMXoo3p
— Mark RCN London (@MarkRCNLDN) February 5, 2023
"Reset your government… demonstrate it is on the side of the hardworking, decent taxpayer. There could be no simpler way…than by bringing the nurse strike to a swift close”.@patcullen9 makes direct appeal to the Prime Minister for decisive action on pay.
Full letter
pic.twitter.com/ZUcF2dlgd4
— The RCN (@theRCN) February 5, 2023
Strikes all over
Other notable walkouts taking place include ambulance workers on 6 February. When combined with other industrial action, it’s predicted this will be the NHS’s “biggest ever strike”. Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:
Rather than act to protect the NHS and negotiate an end to the dispute, the Government has disgracefully chosen to demonise ambulance workers. Ministers are deliberately misleading the public about the life and limb cover and who is to blame for excessive deaths.
Other industrial actions include:
- Environment Agency workers on 8 February – due to below-inflation pay raises, workers have seen their pay shrink by 20% since 2010.
- Sheffield College workers – following an “insulting” 2.5% pay offer (2022 inflation was around 9%, which makes the 2.5% offer a real-terms pay cut). The University and College Union (UCU) has organised the strike.
Meanwhile, engineering workers at “whisky giant Diageo’s plant” in Leven will walk out on 3-5 and 10-13 February. Graham said:
Unite’s engineering members at Diageo’s Leven plant have had enough of pay cuts especially as the company’s profits are soaring. Diageo recorded £4.4bn in profits – up nearly 20 per cent – directly on the back of our members’ hard work. Yet some of our members are now facing considerable pay cuts when inflation has hit a 45-year high. This is totally unacceptable and we will stand with our members in their fight against corporate greed at Diageo.
StrikeMap
StrikeMap provides an interactive map of upcoming and current industrial actions in the UK. The site describes itself as:
a ‘worker-powered’ attempt to map the industrial action taking place and relies purely on the information supplied via our submission form. We do not claim to be an official account of all action across the country, or represent all the collective action and different tactics of disruption that people are engaged in.
The group is also trialling a new map of solidarity messages for striking workers:
Here is how it works.
- Click here to go to our solidarity message page.
- Record a video, upload a photo or leave a message of solidarity
- We will then publish them for nurses to see.
With so many workers out on strikes across the nations, StrikeMap’s organising is vital. Thanks to the group, we can all get behind our striking comrades.
Featured image via StrikeMap – screengrab
By The Canary
