Strikes are set to rock the UK in the lead-up to Christmas and Southwark will feel the brunt of much of it.
Here is a guide to the walk-outs and pickets hitting the borough’s streets and how you can avoid the disruption.
Nurses: Guy’s and St Thomas’ nurses swap patients for pickets
Dates: Thursday 15 and Tuesday 20 December
Nurses at Guy’s and St Thomas’ (GSTT) Hospital are striking over pay this week as part of national industrial action involving 100,000 nurses at 45 hospitals.
On Thursday, December 15, and Tuesday, December 20, “exhausted” nurses will down their scrubs and take to pickets from 7.30am to 8pm.
After rejecting the government’s 4.75 per cent pay offer, they are demanding an above-inflation salary boost of 17.6 per cent.
According to an economist from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, nurses have had a more than ten per cent real terms pay cut since 2010.
An Elephant and Castle learning disability nurse who wished to remain anonymous said: “It would not be my first choice to strike but something has to be done. Change has to be implemented because the government is not thinking about us.
“We are working tirelessly long hours because the NHS is short on staff and during covid some staff decided not to come back because they could earn good money elsewhere.”
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When she spoke to the News, she said she was working on a ward requiring ten nurses but they only had five.
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According to the NHS Pay Review Body, the medium nurse’s salary is £34,000 but this nurse says she supports her four children on £28,000 despite having five years’ experience.
The Royal College of Nursing, the union organising the strikes, says improving nurses’ pay will stop nurses leaving the profession.
GSTT has said some routine and non-urgent appointments and procedures will be postponed and that they’ll contact patients directly when this happens.
Services like critical care units, chemotherapy services, neonatal and paediatric intensive care units and paediatric A&E will remain open.
“We are communicating directly with all patients who have been affected and will be rearranging their appointments as quickly as possible.”
Health Secretary Steve Barclay said nurses’ demands are “neither reasonable nor affordable” and that its pay offer had been recommended by the independent NHS pay board.
“Despite the immense economic challenges this country faces, we accepted the recommendations of this independent body in full,” he said.
He added: “This means that we are giving over one million non-medical NHS workers a pay rise of at least £1,400 this year, on top of a 3% pay increase last year when wider public sector pay was frozen.”
Nurses at King’s College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Trust are not striking.
Paramedics: “The Government is putting lives at risk – not us”
Dates: Wednesday 21 December
Paramedics at the Waterloo ambulance station will strike on Wednesday, December 21, in a bid to secure improved pay and conditions.
From midday until midnight, UNISON members working for the London Ambulance Service will continue to offer “life and limb cover” but cut back on non-emergency response.
A UNISON spokesperson said the government’s 4.75 per cent salary increase offer would “deepen the severe staffing crisis” and “put patients’ lives at risk”.
According to the College of Paramedics, pay is often highlighted “as a reason for leaving and a potential tool for retaining existing staff.”
In a public statement, a UNISON representative said: “We know that our members never take the decision to strike lightly, but the failure of the government to meet with the trade unions and to engage in genuine talks about NHS pay… means it’s the government that are putting patients’ lives at risk on a daily basis, not our members who are taking strike action.”
Patients involved in category one or two incidents, from heart attacks and sepsis to strokes, will still be attended to.
But those who come under ‘less severe’ categories, including mothers in the late stages of labour or elderly people who have had a fall, may not get an ambulance.
http://southwarknews.co.uk/featured/were-so-grateful-link-age-southwark-raises-over-10000-in-just-one-week/
From 2021 to 2022 in Southwark, the average response time for category two incidents, including strokes and heart attacks, was already over 25 minutes, well beyond the eighteen-minute guideline, according to NHS data.
In September, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood Helen Hayes said soaring ambulance response times were creating “fear and anxiety” for her constituents.
Speaking to the News about the latest round of strikes, she said: “I support the right of public sectors to take industrial action.
“We’re seeing strike action across lots of very different public services. These are the Tory government’s strikes – a failure of the Conservatives to take care of public sector workers in the first place.
“Anybody working in healthcare doesn’t strike because they want to strike – it’s because it’s an absolute last resort.”
Post: Rotherhithe postie slams Royal mail’s working conditions ahead of strikes
Dates: Thursday 15, Friday 23 and Saturday 24 December
Letters “are piling high” in the Southwark delivery offices as Royal Mail postal workers continue their walk-outs.
Roughly 115,000 CWU union members furious with “unreasonable” working conditions and “unfair” pay will strike on December 15, 23 and 24, the latest escalation in a long-running dispute.
They have rejected a 9 percent pay rise, demanding an increase in line with RPI inflation which soared to 11.1 per cent in October.
But for a Rotherhithe postie, who wished to remain anonymous, conditions are more important than pay: “There are mothers who started that job because it suited them taking their kids to school and then picking them up. Now they’re being told to work start later and finish later!
“People are being sacked for sickness just as we’re coming up to Christmas – that’s the kind of people we’re dealing with.”
Royal Mail has now warned customers to send Christmas cards by December 19 if second class, and by December 21 if first class, to avoid disappointment.
The anonymous postal worker told the News that although strikes had been exacerbated post delays, they were already being caused by Royal Mail’s “policy of prioritising parcels” to keep up with companies like Amazon.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “Royal Mail does not operate a policy of prioritising parcels. We regularly remind colleagues that the delivery, collection and processing of letters and parcels should be treated with equal importance.”
MP for Dulwich and West Norwood Helen Hayes said East Dulwich residents have been struggling with postal delays for years and that “disruption bears no relationship to the strikes at all”.
Her constituents have long been reporting six-week delays to important letters containing passports, medical documents and fines.
Helen Hayes said: “I visited a local delivery office while the industrial action was ongoing and they said when they strike, they are cleared within two or three days. I don’t think our delays are related to the strike.”
She said post in SE22 has been “unreliable” ever since the Silvester Road branch closed in 2018 and was merged with Peckham.
She said Royal Mail had sold the branch for £7 million and failed to reinvest it in providing effective local postal delivery.
“I want Royal Mail to look at what they need to do in order to be able to deliver a consistently reliable service as they are legally advised to do under the universal service obligation,” she said.
http://southwarknews.co.uk/news/transport/is-this-tube-map-fairer-to-south-london/
Postal workers are also accusing Royal Mail of modernising at the expense of workers’ jobs as it adapts to a more parcel-orientated industry.
In March 2021, union bosses and the Royal Mail CEO Simon Thompson signed ‘The Pathway to Change’, a document recognising the need to modernise while safeguarding jobs and conditions.
The document said that Royal Mail Group (RMG) “will avoid compulsory redundancies”. Workers claim Royal Mail rowed back on this promise when it announced there would be 10,000 job losses by next year.
A Royal Mail spokesperson said: “The CWU is striking at our busiest time, holding Christmas to ransom for our customers, businesses and families across the country.
“We have well-developed contingency plans in place to minimise delays and keep people, businesses and keep the country connected.
“We are proud to have the best pay and conditions in our industry. In an industry dominated by the ‘gig economy’, insecure work, and low pay, our model sets us apart and we want to preserve it.”
Bus Drivers: The routes affecting Southwark
Dates: Friday 16 and Saturday 17 December
Bus drivers working various Southwark routes have continued their strike this week, causing havoc for commuters across the borough.
Unite union members working for bus operator Abellio are unhappy about pay and walked out last Friday and Sunday. They will also be taking industrial action on Friday, December 16 and Saturday, December 17.
They have previously walked out on November 22, 25, and 26 and on December 1, 2, 3, 13 and 14.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Abellio is a vastly wealthy multinational company that could and should be paying its workers a fair pay increase.”
Drivers based at garages in Battersea, Beddington, Hayes, Southall, Twickenham and Walworth are part of the walk-out.
On Thursday, December 8, Unite secured an 11 per cent pay increase for Metroline drivers in London.
That strike would have involved 2,000 drivers, mainly affecting routes across North and West London.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the “greatly improved pay offer” was “a significant victory”.
http://southwarknews.co.uk/news/politics/southwark-council-leader-slams-autumn-budget-saying-taxpayers-are-having-to-foot-the-bill/
But the Abellio strikes remain set to go ahead. Here are the routes likely to be affected:
3 – Crystal palace through Kennington to Whitehall
45 – Clapham park to Elephant and Castle
68 – West Norwood through Elephant and Castle to Euston
159 – Streatham through Kennington to Oxford Circus
196 – Norwood Junction to Elephant and Castle
201 – Herne Hill to Morden
322 – Crystal Palace through Herne Hill to Clapham Common
345 – Peckham to South Kensington
344 – Clapham through Elephant and Castle to Liverpool Street
381 – Peckham to Waterloo
415 – Old Kent Road to Tulse Hill
C10 – Victoria to Canada Water
P5 – Patmore Estate to Elephant and Castle
P13 – New Cross Gate to Streatham
N63 – Crystal Palace through Peckham to King’s Cross
N109 – Katharine Street through Kennington to Oxford Circus
N381 – Whitehall to Peckham Bus Station
Rail workers: Train strikes affecting Southwark
Dates: Friday 16, Saturday 17, Saturday 24, Sunday 25, Monday 26 and Tuesday 27 December
Railway bosses are urging commuters to plan Christmas travel plans carefully, with strikes set to disrupt train travel across London.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) says 40,000 members working for Network Rail and the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) will walk out over the festive period.
People traveling through Southwark, which is served by Southeastern, Thameslink and London Overground routes, will be affected.
There will be 48-hour strikes on the following dates:
16-17 December
24-27 December
3-4 January
6-7 January
Southeastern
Southeastern runs trains through much of south-east London, including London Bridge, Blackfriars, Elephant and Castle, Peckham, Denmark Hill and Nunhead.
The company has confirmed it will be affected by all the 48-hour strikes listed above.
Bosses are urging customers to avoid all travel on Tuesday 13, Wednesday 14, Friday 16 and Saturday, 17 December, unless its absolutely necessary.
They say there will be a limited service running on the network and some routes will be closed altogether.
Strike action will also affect services on Christmas Eve and December 27. Southeastern do not run trains on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. They are yet to give travel advice after the new year.
Thameslink
Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) runs trains through several Southwark stations, including London Bridge, Elephant & Castle, Denmark Hill and Herne Hill. The company has also confirmed it will be hit by all the 48-hour strikes listed above.
Customers have been told to avoid all travel on strike days unless it’s absolutely necessary and to check their journeys at NationalRailEnquiries.co.uk.
London Overground
Much of the London Overground network is served by Network Rail so it will be hit by all the strike dates listed. Customers are urged to plan ahead.
Firefighters could be next
Firefighters at Dockhead and Southwark fire stations are voting on whether to strike following a 5 per cent pay offer.
The Fire Brigades Union (FBU) described the proposal as “derisory” and is balloting its 32,000 members from December 5 to January 30.
Matt Wrack, FBU general secretary, said: “Strike action will always be a last resort. But we are running out of options. Many firefighters and control staff are desperate.
“Some are struggling to afford for they and their families to live. It is a dreadful and very serious state of affairs.
“We are doing everything we can to secure a decent offer. We have held talks with and written letters to many different parties. But no such pay offer has been forthcoming.”
