Who’s on strike today and how will it affect you? Daily update for March 21
National Express drivers, Ofsted workers and university staff are all on strike today.
More than 3,000 members of Unite, employed by the coach operator in the West Midlands, continue their walkout.
A limited service, mainly serving major hospitals, will run after drivers ‘rejected an improved offer of a 14.3% pay increase’.
The strike, which started to affect service from 10.30pm on Sunday, will hit about 93% of the bus network, the union has warned.
It comes after National Express did not allow members to vote on the offer during meetings at their depots.
Regardless, Unite had already recommended members reject the deal because it has ‘more strings attached than a grand piano’.
The drivers work for the company’s local bus service in the West Midlands – not the white coach division, with National Express scheduled white coaches not impacted.
More than 70,000 staff at 150 universities are also striking today.
This week’s strikes are going ahead, despite hopes of a breakthrough last week with an offer from employers on pay, working conditions and pensions.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) are being reballoted on the dispute, which could still spark chaos for the rest of the academic year.
Meanwhile, Ofsted members working in the Applications, Regulatory and Contact (ARC) team and Inspection Support Centre (ISC) are taking to the picket lines over pay, pensions, job security and redundancy terms.
They have been walking out from Monday to Wednesday on every week in March, starting from 6 March.
Action will delay responses to queries and complaints from the public, schools and other education providers.
It will also impact on calls and inspection notices going out and limit the support available to inspectors.
Last month saw more than 500,000 people across public and private sectors taking to the picket line.
Since January, nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, rail workers, taxi drivers, civil servants, barristers and bus drivers have all launched industrial action.
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