From NHS to teacher strikes, here's everything you can expect in the week of 6 February

This month the UK will face waves of industrial action with the transport network, civil service, NHS and teachers all striking over pay and conditions.

Wide-scale strikes have been held across the country for several months, disrupting healthcare, education and bringing transport to a halt. This week has already seen ongoing train strikes with members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at Network Rail and 14 other train operators staging a walkout today. Whilst the weekend is going to be strike-free, the week ahead will see more disruption as the action resumes on Monday.

Train strikes

Train drivers are walking out again today with the industrial action bringing much of the railway network to a standstill. The following operators have confirmed they will not be running services, as per iNews:

Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Gatwick Express, Great Northern, Heathrow Express, Island Line, London Northwestern Railway, Northern, Southeastern, Southern, Thameslink, TransPennine Express and West Midlands Railway.

And there will be a reduced service with the following operators:

Greater Anglia & Stansted Express, Great Western Railway and LNER

The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) has advised:

It is expected that nationally around 30 per cent of train services will run, but there will be wide variations across the network – with the possibility there will be no trains in some parts of the country and other lines running a normal service.

It is likely that evening services on some lines will be affected on the days before each strike. Morning services on those lines may also be disrupted on Saturday 4 February because much of the rolling stock will not be in the right depots.

If you have tickets for between Wednesday and Friday you can use them the day before the ticket date, or up to and including Tuesday 7 February. Also, passengers with advance, anytime or off-peak tickets for travel on strike days can have their ticket refunded if the train they have booked is cancelled, delayed or rescheduled.

Read more:

⋙ Travel warning issued to passengers as these popular airlines announce major delays

⋙ Thousands claiming Universal Credit to be impacted by major rule change from 26 February

Read more:

⋙ Millions to receive first £301 instalment of £900 cost-of-living payment

Strikes week commencing February 6

Strikes for the week ahead will be happening in the NHS and also in higher education. The strike on Monday is expected to be the biggest in the history of the NHS with both nurses and paramedics walking out, as per The Guardian:

Monday 6 February

• Nurses represented by the Royal College of Nursing begin a third round of strike action in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
• Ambulance workers will stage a strike coordinated by the GMB, Unison and Unite in trusts across England and the national Welsh service.

Tuesday 7 February

• Nurses continue strike action into a second day.

Thursday 9 February

• NHS physiotherapy staff across England continue strike action.
• University staff at more than 150 universities across the UK continue strike action.

Friday 10 February

• University staff at more than 150 universities across the UK continue strike action.
• Ambulance workers who are Unison members in London, Yorkshire, the south-west, north-east and north-west go on strike.

The industrial action is ongoing as union leaders say the government has refused to offer anything that would be meaningful enough to call off the strikes with the leader of a national federation of trade unions, Paul Nowak, commenting, according to CBS News:

The message to the government is that this is not going to go away. These problems won't magically disappear.

Sources used:

- The Guardian 'UK strike calendar – service stoppages planned for February and March'

- iNews 'When are the train strikes in February 2023? Full list of upcoming strike dates and why drivers are striking'

- CBS News 'Strike in U.K. sees up to half a million workers walk off jobs in biggest industrial action in over a decade'