Related: Ambulance strike to continue as talks fail to break impasse
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Families are being urged to get their Christmas travel plans in motion “as soon as possible” as a four-day motorway strike, set to coincide with a new wave of rail cancellations, threatens travel chaos over the festive period.
National Highways staff will strike from today until Christmas in the latest phase of strike action by the country’s biggest civil servants union ahead of the Christmas weekend.
The strike involves members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union working as road workers and operational staff at a regional operations center in London and South East England.
It comes as industrial action across Britain’s rail network will see some trains stop running from Friday ahead of national strikes that start on Christmas Eve.
The Independent’s Simon Calder urged families to hit the roads as soon as possible, saying: “I’ve never seen a Christmas like this for travel stress.
He added: “It will become very, very difficult towards the end of the week and into Christmas as the roads will be very busy.
“And the railways, well, services will end either on Friday night or quite early on Saturday.”
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National highways strike until New Year
National highway strikes in London begin today and are set to last until Christmas, but union leaders warn this is just the beginning.
Industrial action on Britain’s roads will resume on December 30 when PCS members in the West Midlands and South West England road service take action.
The walks are then expected to hit the East Midlands and East Anglia on January 6.
PCS also says all its National Highways members working for the traffic service will take action on January 3 and 4.
Emily Atkinson December 22, 2022 11:00 am
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Rail chaos spreads ahead of next national rail strike
Rail passengers between London, the West Midlands, North West England, North Wales and South Scotland are facing delays and overcrowded trains.
Avanti West Coast has canceled at least 40 express services to and from London Euston for Thursday, blaming crew shortages. The disrupted services include five in each direction between the capital and Manchester Piccadilly and the same number to and from Liverpool Lime Street.
Ahead of strike action by members of the Unite union working for East Midlands Railway, commuters between London, Leicester, Derby, Nottingham and Sheffield will have no northbound trains after 7.35pm on Thursday.
A skeleton service will run on Friday 23 December, with no trains – apart from the Corby-London shuttle – on Christmas Eve morning.
The next RMT national strike starts at 6pm on December 24 and ends at 6am on December 27.
Simon Calder December 22, 2022 10:45 am
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Thursday will be a ‘very busy day for emergency departments’
Matthew Taylor of the NHS Confederation said he expected Thursday to be “a very busy day for emergency departments” following strikes by ambulance workers.
“This is the worst possible time for industrial action,” he told Sky News, pointing to the winter pressures already facing the NHS.
He said there was currently a gap between “demand and capacity” and that “consistent funding” and the “right policies” would be needed to address this.
“There is now money that has been made available to help people out of hospital into the community, to give them support at home and that is welcome.
“The problem is that the money wasn’t announced until a few weeks ago, so it didn’t get to the front lines.”
He warned that the winter would be “incredibly severe”.
“There are signs of hope for the future, but now we are paying the price for those 10 years of austerity, for falling behind on Covid, for not addressing these issues.
“So this winter is going to be incredibly hard, there’s nothing we can do about it. But the strike action adds to an already challenging situation,” he said.
But he also urged people not to delay seeking treatment. “It’s really not in anyone’s interest if people don’t come forward.”
Emily Atkinson December 22, 2022 10:30 am
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Start Christmas travel plans “as soon as you can”, travel experts warn
Families are being urged to get their Christmas travel plans in motion “as soon as possible” as a four-day motorway strike, set to coincide with a new wave of rail cancellations, threatens travel chaos over the festive period.
National Highways staff will strike from today until Christmas in the latest phase of strike action by the country’s biggest civil servants union ahead of the Christmas weekend.
Simon Calder of The Independent urged families to hit the roads as soon as possible, telling Good Morning Britain: “I’ve never seen a Christmas like this for travel stress.
He added: “It will get very very tricky towards the end of the week and into Christmas as the roads will be very busy.
“And the railways, well, services will end either on Friday night or quite early on Saturday.”
Emily Atkinson December 22, 2022 10:25 am
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Hospitals are bracing for ‘surge in demand for emergency care’ after leaving
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said hospitals were prepared for “increased demand for emergency care” as a secondary effect of the ambulance and nursing strikes.
She told Times Radio that there was a “very difficult picture” in the health and care system, with social care “extremely stressed” and a “deeply challenging” situation in the NHS.
She urged ministers to negotiate pay with unions – something Health Secretary Steve Barclay has so far ruled out.
Emily Atkinson December 22, 2022 10:00 am
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National Highways will strike from Thursday until Christmas
National Highways staff are set to strike from today until Christmas as the winter of discontent continues to snowball.
This latest phase of industrial action by the biggest civil servant union was launched by members of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) working as road workers and operatives at a regional operations center in London and South East England.
PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “We are aware that our actions are likely to cause inconvenience to commuters, but although we are escalating it before Christmas, we are reminding people that this dispute can be resolved today if the Government puts more money on the table .
“Our members tell us they have to cut back on their spending at Christmas because they’re running out of money. They were offered below-inflation pay at a time when inflation was higher than 10 percent.
Emily Atkinson December 22, 2022 9:30 am
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Society should always consider responsible use of the NHS, says health chief
Matthew Taylor of the NHS Confederation said the public should always consider how to use the NHS responsibly.
It came as politicians and NHS staff urged the public to take extra care, avoid risky behavior and curb binge drinking as ambulance strikes hit the health service on Wednesday.
“It’s important that the public use the NHS in the best possible way,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He said it was no solution to the pressures facing health services, warning of the danger of creating “pent-up demand”.
“We cannot ask the public to deal day in and day out with the lack of services that the NHS wants to offer.”
Emily Atkinson December 22, 2022 09:00 am
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NHS boss warns health services cannot ‘continue to cope’ with winter strikes
Matthew Taylor, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the health service had “performed as well as could have been expected” on Wednesday during the ambulance workers’ strike.
He also warned the NHS could not “continue to cope” with a winter of strikes and industrial action, calling on the government and unions to reach a deal.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “The NHS has done as well as could be expected.”
He said this was due to planning and thanked the public for their response, adding that there appeared to be more demand for primary care services.
“We did the best we could yesterday but it’s vital we recognize that we cannot continue to deal with strike action in the NHS because every time it happens there are direct consequences but also all sorts of side effects .
“We will repeat the call to the unions and to the government to step back from the rhetoric and move on to negotiations. We cannot move towards more and more strike action.”
Emily Atkinson December 22, 2022 8:30 am
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Junior minister calls on striking workers to ‘get off the pickets, get back to work’
Junior minister Mark Spencer called on striking workers to “get off the pickets, get back to work”.
Appearing on Times Radio the morning after the ambulance workers’ strikes, the Tory MP refused to speculate on how the pay review process might work next year.
He stressed that it is not only public sector employees who are “under pressure”.
The Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries told the broadcaster: “I think the first response is to get off the column to get back to work.
“The pay review body is an annual process, of course that will happen again as we move into next year, but we have to accept this year and then of course next year’s pay review body will take inflation into account, which we have seen over the last 12 months, which is putting pressure on everyone, not just those working in the public sector.
“As a society, we have to try to find a way to overcome this together. We must try to balance the burden…
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