Nurses to stage walkout next month as Britain braces for Christmas strike chaos

Thousands of nurses will stage a walkout in a row over pay as Britain braces for a series of strikes in the run up to Christmas.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) on Thursday announced its members would stage their first national strike on December 15 and 20. The protest action will take place in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The move comes as members of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union announced a series of 48-hour strikes next month and in January by its members at Network Rail and 14 train companies – and an overtime ban over Christmas and New Year, likely to cause travel chaos over the festive period.

The RCN has rejected the “final” offer and is pressing ahead with a series of strikes in the coming weeks, including on Black Friday and on December 24, Christmas Eve.

The nursing group said it was calling strikes after the UK government had turned down its offer of formal, detailed negotiations as an alternative to industrial action.

Picket lines were stationed outside schools, universities and Royal Mail centres on Thursday as tens of thousands of workers went on strike in worsening disputes over pay, jobs and conditions.

Union leaders said walkouts were being solidly supported amid a bitter war of words in the industrial unrest sweeping the country.

The general secretary of the Communication Workers Union accused the Royal Mail of subjecting its workers to a “psychological attack”.

About 70,000 members of the University and College Union were due to strike on Thursday and Friday, and again next Wednesday, in a dispute over pay, pensions and contracts.

It will be the biggest strike of its kind, affecting an estimated 2.5 million students, with the union warning of escalated action next year if the row is not resolved.

The RCN this month announced that nursing staff at the majority of NHS employers across the UK had voted to take strike action over pay and patient safety.

It said that despite a pay rise of about £1,400 ($1,700) awarded in the summer, experienced nurses were now worse off by 20 per cent in real terms due to successive below-inflation awards since 2010.

RCN general secretary, Pat Cullen, said: “Nursing staff have had enough of being taken for granted, enough of low pay and unsafe staffing levels, enough of not being able to give our patients the care they deserve.”