Thousands of British workers across several sectors will take to picket lines on Wednesday as they continue to fight against "insulting" wage increases and offers in the midst of an ever worsening cost of living crisis. The planned walk-outs are the latest in a long series of strike actions sweeping the country for the second year running.
Rail workers, street cleaners, nurses, emergency services staff, dock workers, civil servants, and teachers and lecturers are just some of those who have taken industrial action in recent months. Thousands have taken action to demand better pay and working conditions following 12 years of austerity.
Teachers in Wales rejected the Welsh Government's offer of a 5% increase in November, calling it an "insult". They said real-term reductions in pay over the years have led to a recruitment and retention crisis with schools struggling to cope with higher workloads and unable to recruit enough staff.
READ MORE: Teacher strike: Dates North Wales school staff will walk out in February
With that in mind, here are all the workers going on strike on Wednesday, February 1.
Train drivers and transport workers
Transport for Wales (TfW) is not involved in industrial action by members of the train driver’s union ASLEF and RMT (train driver members). TfW services will be running, but other train operators' services across the UK will be limited and may affect times and trains in Wales.
RMT members from 14 different train operators will walk out on Wednesday as the long-running row over pay and working conditions continues. Trains run by Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern, South Western Railway, Transpennine Express, Avanti West Coast, West Midlands Trains and GTR will be affected.
The union has called for a significant pay increase to keep up with the soaring rate of inflation - rejecting Network Rail's recent offer of a 5% pay rise backdated to January 2022, with another 4% at the start of 2023. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: "Our negotiations will continue with the rail operators to create a package on jobs, conditions and pay that can be offered to our members."
Teachers
Teacher members of the National Education Union in England and Wales voted overwhelmingly in favour of strike action, with a majority of 90.44% in England and 92.28% in Wales.
Minister Jeremy Miles said this week he believes the strikes will cause some schools to close in Wales. Speaking on BBC Wales Politics, he said the "exact number" of schools set to shut was not yet known but that he expected some to do so. "Over the past week the unions have been telling schools the number of members they have in a particular school and now heads are looking at provision," he said.
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"Most authorities generally want to give around a week's notice to parents of what that will mean in schools. They will need to make judgements at a school level with local authorities around whether schools are staying open or closing."
This is the first of four planned strike dates - the others are February 14, March 15 and March 16. The unions, councils and Welsh government say they want to keep talking to try to resolve the dispute.
University and college union members
More than 70,000 staff at 150 universities are due to take part in 18 days of strike action over two months, starting on Wednesday. The University and College Union (UCU) said employers must "substantially improve" on their 4-5% pay offer to avoid disruption, demanding "a meaningful pay rise to deal with the cost-of-living crisis as well as action to end the use of insecure contracts".
Welsh universities that will be affected by the UCU strike include Aberystwyth University, Bangor University, Cardiff Metropolitan University, Cardiff University, University of South Wales, University of Wales Trinity Saint David and Wrexham Glyndwr University. Students from these universities may see their lectures, tutorials and seminars cancelled.
Civil servants
Some 100,000 Public and Commercial Services Union members from 122 different government departments voted to strike over the government's "measly" 2% pay rise offer.
The union said: "With inflation over 10% and the government offering a measly 2%, we can't afford not to win this dispute. As well as this, one-day strike of all members, we have called hard-hitting, targeted action over long periods to put real industrial pressure on the government, including the Home Office, Border Force, Department for Transport and Defra."
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