Saturday marks strike action for two workforces in Britain.
Ambulance drivers, teachers, Border Force officials and power plant workers have already dropped tools this week.
Today, employees of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in Liverpool are stepping down as part of a nationwide campaign for pay, pensions, job security and redundancy conditions.
Those at the Toxteth Jobcentre, Liverpool Duke Street Jobcentre, Liverpool City Jobcentre and Liverpool Innovation Park Jobcentre will go on strike.
Unions have warned that their lowest paid members earn just £21,000 a year.
But the DWP insists raising wages “would cost the country an unaffordable £2.4bn at a time when our focus must be on bringing down inflation to ease the pressure on households across the country”.
Members of the Vehicle and Driver Licensing Agency (DVLA) in Swansea and Birmingham are also taking industrial action in a similar dispute.
Those working at Drivers Medical were asked to strike for six days in total but were promised full pay from the union.
A spokesperson for the DVLA previously said: ‘It is very disappointing that the PCS is encouraging union members by paying them to participate in the action.’
More strikes announced
Yesterday, junior doctors in England revealed they would go on a three-day strike next month in the increasingly heated race for wages.
The British Medical Association (BMA) said workers had ‘no choice’ and would leave from March 13, having voted overwhelmingly in favor of industrial action earlier this month.
The BMA said junior doctors had called Health Secretary Steve Barclay twice in the past week to urgently meet with them, but added that no date had been set.
A meeting with Health Department officials earlier this week yielded nothing in terms of significant progress, the BMA said, adding that the minister declined to attend.
The co-chairs of the BMA Junior Physicians Committee, Dr. Rob Laurenson and Dr. Vivek Trivedi, said patients and the public needed to know that the blame for the strike “lay squarely at the government’s doorstep”.
They said: ‘The fact that so many junior doctors in England have voted yes to strike action should leave ministers absolutely in no doubt, which we have known for a long time and have tried to tell them, we are demoralised, angry and no longer willing to work for wages that have had a real drop of more than 26% in the last 15 years.
‘That, along with the stress and exhaustion of working in an NHS in crisis, has brought us to this moment, taken us on a 72 hour journey.’
The British Dental Association has announced that dentists working in hospitals employed under the junior contract will join the 72-hour walkout after voting for industrial action.
Eddie Crouch, president of the organisation, said: ‘This small but important group of dentists are working under the same contracts as their medical colleagues and, like them, are not worth a penny less than they were 15 years ago.
“Our members will stop training until the government comes back to the table with a serious offer.”
Miriam Deakin, director of policy at NHS Providers, said the attacks would result in “significant ramifications” for care.
She said: ‘Trusted leaders are deeply concerned about the details of the BMA junior doctors’ 72-hour strike next month.
‘The possibility of a complete work stoppage for junior doctors on strike during this period, including night and on-call shifts, will have significant ramifications for patient care.
‘This unprecedented scale of industrial action on the NHS threatens to cause serious inconvenience to patients, which is the last thing anyone wants. It will also likely hamper NHS staff efforts to deal with delays and meet elective targets.
“We understand that entry-level physicians feel they have been driven to this point by factors including salary increases below inflation and the vast workforce shortage.
‘As always, trust leaders will be working to ensure disruption is minimized on strike dates, but they desperately need action at the national level to end this.’
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