Aslef has announced more strikes, which will coincide with the Conservative Party Conference in Manchester.
Trade unions have announced further industrial action, as disputes around pay and conditions continue. Here’s all the strikes scheduled for the forthcoming weeks.
Universities
140 universities across the UK will be taking part in strikes for five consecutive days from September 25 to September 29. The announcement to take further strike action over the continued dispute over pay was made by the University and College Union (UCU).
University staff in England, Northern Ireland and some Scottish institutions are taking part in the five days of strike action.
Announcing the fresh round of industrial action, UCU general secretary, Jo Grady, said: “We are left with no option but to strike during the start of term because our members refuse to stand by while pay is eroded and staff are shunted onto gig-economy contracts.”
NHS staff
The British Medical Association (BMA) has announced that hospital consultants and junior doctors will be taking strike action next week. Consultants will be striking from 7am on Tuesday September 19, to 7am on Thursday September 21. Junior doctors will be striking from 7am on Wednesday September 20 to 7am on Saturday September 23.
Further strikes will be held by consultants and junior doctors from Monday October 2 to Thursday October 5.
The Society of Radiographers (SoR) has also announced that its members will strike from 8am on Tuesday October 3 to 8am on Wednesday October 4.
This week, BMA leaders criticised Rishi Sunak for blaming record NHS waiting lists of strike action by doctors. The union says that sustained government neglect of the health service is the real cause.
Trains
Train drivers represented by the Aslef union are taking strike action on Saturday, September 30 and Wednesday, October 4, as part of a long-running dispute with rail companies over pay.
The walkouts will coincide with the Conservative Party Conference that is taking place in Manchester on Sunday October 1 until Wednesday October 3. The strikes will affect 16 train companies and will mean that almost zero services operate on strike days.
Additionally, there is a ban on overtime on Friday, September 29, and from October 2 to 6, which could see services reduced and last-minute cancellations.
Mick Whelan, Aslef general secretary, said while the union regretted striking again, “the government, and the employers, have forced us into this position.”
Whelan described how the union’s members had not had a pay rise since 2019 which was “not right when prices have soared in that time.”
“Train drivers, perfectly reasonably, want to be able to buy now what they could buy four years ago,” he added.
Gabrielle Pickard-Whitehead is a contributing editor to Left Foot Forward
Image credit: Keith Partlow – Creative Commons
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