More strikes got underway today with Royal Mail, BT and North Sea oil rig workers all taking part in industrial action over pay and conditions.
Communication Workers
Communication workers Union members have begun 24 hours of strike action, with members at BT, Openreach and Royal Mail all taking part in the walk out.
Today’s strike is just one of 19 days of action planned for Royal Mail workers between October and December, with Black Friday shopping set to be one of the days disrupted.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “On Friday, 14 October, we announced losses of £219 million in the first half of the year.
“Further strike action would materially increase our losses for the full year and may necessitate further operational restructuring and job losses.
CWU said a Royal Mail announcement, that threatened 10,000 redundancies, was “nothing but an intimidation tactic”.
BT and Openreach workers have one more day of industrial action currently planned aside from today, on 24 October.
Offshore drilling workers
A 48-hour strike by offshore drilling workers has also begun, after 96% voted in support of industrial action following the rejection of a 5% pay offer.
Those striking are members of the UK Drilling Contractors Association (UKDCA) and work for the likes of Archer, Mearsk, Transocean and Odfiell on North Sea installations.
Having been organised by Unite union, its industrial officer Vic Fraser said: “Unite has an emphatic mandate for industrial action from our members covered by the UKDCA. The level of participation from our drilling members is totally unprecedented with Unite’s membership growing on a daily basis.
Further strikes are planned for UKDCA members between 3-4 November, 17-18 November and 15-16 December.
Railway strikes
Yesterday, rail unions also announced new walk-outs for 3, 5 and 7 November after pay negotiations collapsed.
A Transport Strikes Bill is set to be introduced into parliament, requiring unions to ensure enough staff went into work on strike days so a minimum level of service could continue.
If minimum requirements were not met, union members could risk losing legal protection from automatic unfair dismissal.