British Ministers Accused of Going Missing as Strikes Go On

Unions to launch fresh industrial action in 2023 across health, post and rail sectors

Mick Lynch (centre) general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) joins members on the picket line outside London Euston train station during a strike in a long-running dispute over jobs and pensions. Picture date: Wednesday December 14, 2022.

MINISTERS were accused today of being “missing” ahead of this weekend’s Christmas strikes, despite unions reiterating calls for negotiations.

Waves of new strike action will be launched in the new year across the health, post and rail sectors, unions revealed today.

The government also came under fire for using the military to undermine strikes and for paying armed forces personnel a £20-a-day bonus for taking strikers’ places at work, including at airports’ passport control desks today.

Shadow Defence Secretary John Healey said the military “are once again having to bail out Conservative ministers who are grinding our country to a halt.”

Nurses’ and ambulance workers’ leaders announced dates for expanded strike action in January, while the “missing” accusation came from rail union RMT whose members are on strike tomorrow.

RMT also said it had reached agreements on pay in every part of the rail network where the dead hand of the Transport Department was not involved – evidence of the government’s sabotage of any attempts to settle with employers.

The union said: “Government ministers have abdicated their responsibility to sort out strikes by blocking rail employers from making a deal with RMT.

“The union has done deals in every part of the railway network where the Department for Transport is not involved,” including in Scotland and Wales and where metro mayors control rail franchises.

At Network Rail, which is government controlled, proposed increases were well below those accepted by rail workers elsewhere.

Network Rail also insisted on ripping up working practices by cutting essential maintenance by 50 per cent and imposing more unsocial hours of work, said RMT.

Rail operators were told by government to demand driver-only operations be part of any settlement – a practice historically resisted by RMT, including with strike action.

Despite the manipulations, RMT says it is still ready to negotiate.

General secretary Mick Lynch said: “The union remains available for talks to resolve this dispute.”

Unions GMB and Unison have announced new dates for strikes by ambulance workers following last Wednesday’s stoppage.

Workers across five ambulance services will be out on Wednesday and Monday, January 11 and 23.

The services are London, Yorkshire and north-west, north-east and south-west England.

The action will last 24 hours and will include all ambulance employees, not just 999 response crews as was the case on Wednesday.

Unison said the strikes are “a direct result of the government’s repeated refusal to negotiate improvements to NHS pay this year.”

Emergency cover plans will be drawn up jointly by unions and employers.

Unison is also to re-ballot workers at 10 English NHS trusts and five ambulance services where turnout did not meet statutory minimums set by the government in an original ballot.

Nurses have announced new strike dates following the first-ever stoppage in the 106-year history of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) last Tuesday.

They will strike on January 18 and 19 if the government still refuses to negotiate on pay and the action will affect 55 English NHS trusts, eleven more than the 44 affected in the first strike.

In Scotland, RCN members have overwhelmingly rejected a revised NHS pay offer from the Scottish government, and strike dates in January are expected imminently.

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said: “The government had the opportunity to end this dispute before Christmas but instead they have chosen to push nursing staff out into the cold again in January.

“I do not wish to prolong this dispute but the Prime Minister has left us with no choice.”

She said public support had been “heartwarming.”

In London the capital’s newest Underground service the Elizabeth Line will be hit by its first strike action when members of technical and managerial rail union TSSA walk out in a dispute over pay on January 12.

NHS Confederation chief executive Matthew Taylor warned that trouble awaited in the new year, adding: “No health leader wants to be in this situation and the new strikes announced for January could have been avoided had the government attempted to find more common ground with the unions over pay.”