Nurses to strike again as ministers prepare to introduce ‘spiteful’ bill

A wave of further teaching, ambulance and civil service strikes is likely to move forward this week as nurses are set for their second major period of industrial action.

While ministers signalled a new deal may be close with the rail unions, strikes looked set to escalate in other sectors as ministers geared up to introduce controversial new anti-strike legislation to the House of Commons on Monday.

Nurses from the Royal College of Nursing will strike on Wednesday and Thursday, with the union warning that more members in England will take action the next time in early February if there is no breakthrough by the end of the month.

The RCN general secretary, Pat Cullen, described the prime minister’s position in their negotiation deadlock as “baffling, reckless and politically ill-considered”. Sources in the Department of Health said no talks were currently scheduled but they were still hoping for more meetings after discussions broke down bitterly last week.

Meanwhile, the National Education Union (NEU) and school leaders’ union NAHT are expected to announce the result of ballots for strikes over pay on Monday.

Mary Bousted, general secretary of the NEU, told Times Radio she was “confident based on our own internal surveys of our membership that we will reach the ballot threshold, but the only vote that counts is that reported by the independent polling company and we’ll know that just before we make the announcement to the members tomorrow afternoon”.

Also in the teaching sector, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) will stage a strike for 16 consecutive days until 2 February, which will see members in two local authorities strike each day. London bus workers at Abellio are going on strike on Monday and Wednesday.

Industrial tensions have also been inflamed by the government’s proposed anti-strike bill, which will have its first reading in the House of Commons on Monday.

The TUC, the coordinating body for trade unions, accused the government of being “spiteful” with the legislation and attempting to “steamroller” through new draconian new measures without proper consultation or scrutiny.

The organisation said that it would mean that when workers vote to strike in health, education, fire, transport, border security and nuclear decommissioning, they can be forced to work and sacked if they don’t comply.

Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader and shadow secretary for the future of work, called it a “shoddy, unworkable bill” that “won’t do a thing to help working people or avoid strikes”.

“Labour will be opposing this assault on common sense that would see fundamental British freedoms ripped up in order to distract from the crisis the Tories have inflicted on our country,” she said.

The FDA union of senior civil servants will reveal the result of its ballot for a strike of the graduate fast-stream early this week, and about 300 PCS union members in the court and tribunal service are set to strike on Saturday. GMB leaders will meet on Monday to decide whether to call more ambulance service strikes, with talks currently stalled.

With so many strikes in the pipeline, the sector that appeared closest to a deal was rail. Mark Harper, the transport secretary, confirmed on Sunday that he had given a “new mandate” to operating companies to discuss pay alongside reforms with the rail unions, raising hopes of a breakthrough in the long-running dispute.

He told Sky News: “The train operating companies have got permission from me to make a new offer to rail unions. “That is what they are going to be doing. That is what I was asked to do, that is my role in the process.”

A new Labour analysis also called into question the government’s claim that similar anti-strike legislation has been effective in France and Spain.

It found that in three years France lost eight times as many days to strikes, and Spain five times as many, as the UK. And the analysis showed that in 2019, France lost 23 times more days to strikes than the UK, and Spain six times.

Rayner added: “Ministers are desperately seeking to justify this legislation by using disingenuous comparisons with France and Spain. This just won’t wash, as both lose significantly more days to strikes than the UK.”

The TUC is coordinating a day of strike action on 1 February in protest against the legislation. About 100,000 civil servant members of the PCS union are likely to take action on that day.