Up to 25,000 paramedics, emergency call handlers, ambulance drivers and technicians staged a strike in England and Wales on Wednesday against a below-inflation 4% pay deal. It was the latest in a series of stoppages in the healthcare sector.
The UK government is accused of actively undermining talks with union leaders in a bid to encourage strike action and depress workers’ wages across the economy.
Downing Street was hoping for a public backlash, to justify newly introduced legislation that would force unions to provide a “minimum service” in public sectors, railway union leaders said.
Unions agreed to respond to the most urgent category-one calls. But the UK’s winter of disputes shows no sign of abating.
Nurses will again walk out next week and more than 100,000 civil servants will join one-day strike action on 1 February.
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