The Birmingham bin strikes have sparked fears that industrial action could spread to other sectors and parts of the country, heralding warnings of a “summer of discontent”.
Sir Keir Starmer came to power on a pledge to settle public sector pay rows, saying triumphantly in August that Labour had “ended the national strikes that have crippled our country for years”.
However, unions have raised the prospect of a return to walkouts for teachers, civil servants and resident — previously known as junior — doctors.
The Conservatives are warning of a “summer of discontent”, a play on 1978-79’s winter of discontent that was characterised by crippling strikes under the Labour prime minister James Callaghan.
These are the sectors where the prospect of industrial action looms.
Bins
The pay claim rows that sparked the Birmingham bin strike could spread to other parts of the country.
The walkout being staged by Unite stems from the scrapping of the role of waste recycling and collection officer. It came after lawyers successfully argued the role discriminated against female workers on pay grounds.
About 25 equal pay claims are being launched by the GMB Union, including against councils in Brighton and Hove, Sheffield, Coventry, Glasgow, Barnet, Southampton, Leeds and Cumbria.
If the moves are successful, government sources said that similar strikes could break out over waste collections roles being axed.
Clare Keogh, Unite’s national officer for local authorities, said this week that anger at council cuts was growing nationwide among refuse workers and that there was “massive potential this will escalate”.
NHS
After the Covid pandemic the NHS was plagued by strikes, with resident doctors undertaking action for
nearly two years. They were intermittently joined with action from nurses, GPs and pharmacists, all unsatisfied with their pay and conditions.
The Labour government swiftly ended the resident doctors’ action, and later resolved family doctors’ work-to-rule-style measures.
Now resident doctors have re-entered a pay dispute with the government, saying that key elements of the agreement last year have not been upheld.
Junior doctors in a rally outside Downing Street in June last year
WIKTOR SZYMANOWICZ/FUTURE PUBLISHING/GETTY IMAGES
The Review Body on Doctors’ and Dentists’ Remuneration, which advises the government on doctors’ pay, has not yet published its annual report. Now the BMA’s resident doctors committee (RDC) has voted to restart their dispute — the first stage before potentially beginning industrial action.
The co-chairs of the RDC, Melissa Ryan and Ross Nieuwoudt, said that it was “disappointing” to be in this position.
They said: “We had hoped that the pay deal last year marked the start of a new era of co-operation between the government and doctors in securing a path to pay restoration through mutual trust and negotiation. Wes Streeting [the health secretary] has made it clear that he wants to avoid the mistakes of the previous government’s intransigent approach, and we welcome that.
“However, co-operation requires mutual trust. The failure to keep to agreed timetables is an ominous sign that that trust is already eroding.”
Schools
Teachers are one step closer to walking out after the National Education Union (NEU) backed a formal strike ballot unless the government improves its pay offer and promises to fund it.
Delegates at the union’s annual conference in Harrogate this week voted to trigger a ballot if ministers refuse to raise the proposed 2.8 per cent rise for 2025-26, which they condemned as “inadequate and unfunded”.
Union leaders warned the offer would deepen the recruitment crisis and jeopardise the government’s own target of hiring 6,500 more teachers.
NEU members in England have already signalled support for industrial action in a preliminary vote, demanding a fully funded increase in line with inflation.
The Department for Education (DfE) argued in December that the proposed rise was “appropriate” given the “challenging financial backdrop”.
Teachers received a 5.5 per cent pay boost this academic year, fully funded and widely welcomed, but the union said the latest proposal fails to address retention issues and amounts to an effective pay cut. With no funding attached, the stance from ministers has further inflamed tensions — prompting union leaders to brand the offer “insulting” and warn that strike action remains firmly on the table.
Meanwhile, teachers and support staff are walking out at schools earmarked for forced academisation by the DfE, as concern grows over the consequences of the policy.
The DfE insisted the policy was designed to drive up standards, particularly in underperforming schools, but opponents said it was increasingly triggering resistance on the ground. Some schools have held weeks of strikes, with one taking industrial action for 48 days in the past six months.
Universities
Relentless announcements of job losses and course closures sweeping across British universities have inflicted lasting reputational damage and threaten to deepen the
financial crisis engulfing the sector, senior academics have said.
Staff at institutions facing redundancy programmes said the impact of the cuts was being felt beyond campus walls, with concerned students and parents raising the issue at open days.
Some events designed to attract applicants have been disrupted by protests.
At Coventry University, members of the University and College Union (UCU) staged an “alternative open day” last month to draw attention to proposed job losses, prompting the institution to accuse its branch of an “extraordinary act of self-harm”.
Universities are contending with a toxic mix of soaring costs, a downturn in international student recruitment, rising staff bills — including employer national insurance contributions — and the expense of maintaining vast campuses.
The union estimated that one in two institutions is planning staff or course reductions, with 5,000 job cuts already confirmed since September and up to 10,000 roles at risk this academic year.
Civil service
Officials at
Angela Rayner’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) are to stage a walkout from April 22 for up to nine days.
Plans to reduce working from home and the closure of some buildings have sparked a row with the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS). Members at the Newcastle branch of MHCLG, which is under imminent threat of closure, will walk out from April 22 to May 2.
Officials at other offices said to be at risk of being shut down will strike for four days from next Tuesday in Birmingham, Exeter, Truro and Warrington.
The mandate for strikes lasts for six months, leaving open the possibility that further industrial action could be taken up over the summer and up until September 8.
PCS said last week that talks so far had been “unsuccessful and largely disappointing”.
Railways
There are no planned strikes on lines operated by the Department for Transport.
However, drivers at Hull Trains last month launched a fresh round of strikes lasting eight weeks over claims a colleague was unfairly dismissed.
Members of the Aslef union have already held walkouts in March and April, with the current dispute expected to last until May 24.