UK strikes: Travelers face disruption as rail staff, border forces move on | strike

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Commuters are bracing themselves for more travel disruption across the UK as rail staff and border forces unleash a new wave of strikes that has affected thousands returning home after Christmas.

Border force staff at Britain’s biggest airports, including those at passport control, resumed proceedings over salaries, jobs and working conditions on Wednesday. The 1,000 members of the Commerce and Public Services (PCS) union strike for four days leading up to New Year’s Eve.

Civil servants were called in to help the military cover striking workers at airports including London’s Heathrow and Gatwick, as well as Birmingham, Cardiff, Glasgow, Manchester and the port of Newhaven.

While the previous Border Force strikes, which lasted from December 23-26, caused minimal disruption as they fell during a period of low passenger traffic, union leaders have warned the dispute could drag on for six months if the government refuses to negotiate.

Meanwhile, members of the Transport Employees Association (TSSA) on Great Western Railway and West Midlands trains joined a rolling series of strikes by the union at various operators that began on 23 December, striking from noon on Wednesday until 11.59am on Thursday.

West Midlands Trains said none of its services will be running from Wednesday morning as a result of the TSSA strike.

The movement adds to the chaos of the rail network, which was still struggling to recover from engineering work swept after the station express strike between Christmas Eve and Tuesday morning.

Nadine Ray, the TSSA’s organizing director, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, it was up to the government to change its stance and avoid further chaos. “It is the government that needs to change this situation, and we really want it to. We know that disruption is frustrating for people.

“Things haven’t changed since before Christmas in terms of a deal. It remains the government’s gift to ensure that employers can negotiate freely and can work out a deal that is acceptable to our members and affordable to employers.”

Rural vehicle inspectors and payment officials have also staged strikes since Dec. 13, and they are expected to continue their industrial strike until Jan. 16.

Testers will strike at 71 drive-through testing centers for five days starting Wednesday, as the PCS union calls for a 10% pay increase for striking employees, as well as better job security and pensions. The union also wants to protect existing redundancy clauses.

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CPC General Secretary Mark Sirotka said the examiners’ strike “could be called off tomorrow if Rishi Sunak and Jeremy Hunt put some money on the table”.

Sirotka added: “Our members have been offered a pay rise of just 2% at a time when the cost of living is over 10%. We know our work will cause widespread disruption and inconvenience to people in the East of England and the Midlands – hundreds of driving tests have already been canceled in other parts of the country.” – But the government is to blame.

However, the government has so far refused to meet wage demands which it has described as “unsustainable”, with Rishi Sunak previously saying wage increases threaten to stoke inflation, which was at 10.7% in November. “Part of that is taking responsibility when it comes to setting public sector salaries,” said the Prime Minister. “In the long run, it’s the right thing for the whole country to beat inflation.”

Network Rail workers are set to resume strikes next week, just as people return to work in the new year.

RMT union members will strike about wages and working conditions from January 3-4, and again from January 6-7.

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