MARCH 17, 2023
By Harry Mottram: This week has seen the industrial unrest that has affected Bath and the whole country continue as workers take to the streets in protest at working conditions and low wages.
Teachers took part along with civil servants, medics and train staff in a huge demonstration in London’s Trafalgar Square on Wednesday 15th March to campaign for improved pay and conditions. It is estimated around 50,000 people took part with many from Bath and the surrounding area travelling up to the capital.
University staff are taking strike action today with railway workers involved in action on 18th March, 30th March and the 1st April with Great Western Railway at Bath Spa Railway Station affected.
The situation nationally is fluid with the nurses and health professionals seemingly about to settle with a revised pay offer backed by the the Royal College of Nursing, Unison and the GMB.
Passport workers are planning a a strike sparking alarm amongst those applying for a new passport ahead of the summer. Members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union working across England, Scotland and Wales will take part in the action from 3 April to 5 May in their demands for a cost of living increase in pay.
Unions for NHS staff, including nurses and ambulance workers, recommended their members accept a 5% rise – lower than they had hoped for – and it includes a sweetener in the form of one off payment of around £1,600. However the doctors’ union the BMA have not yet entered talks with the Government in pursuit of the 35% pay rise. Unite do not support the deal but will accept a vote by their members.
The Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train companies, have offered the railway workers a 4% rise which has not been accepted as the unions point out inflation is more than 10%. and with Network Rail planning to slash hundreds of jobs it seems unlikely to be settled soon.
Bath Voice Monthly Newspaper is distributed free to thousands of homes and some supermarkets – distributed from the first of the month. Harry Mottram is the News Editor
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