Britain's summer of strikes: which workers are set to walk out?

Unions leaders have threatened walkouts over below-inflation pay offers

Unions across Britain will go on strike in a row over pay. Getty

Britain is facing widespread disruption this summer as major unions consider strike action over pay and conditions.

UK workers say they are at breaking point, amid a cost-of-living crisis in which inflation soared to a four-decade high of 9.4 per cent this week.

Public workers have also reacted angrily to below-inflation pay offers by the government, with doctors, teachers and nurses hinting that they will take action in the coming weeks.

Who is set to go on strike?

- A walkout by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers is expected to take place on Wednesday July 27 causing more disruption to British rail passengers. Only 20 per cent of services are likely to go ahead. Further action is planned for August 18 and 20.

- More than 115,000 postal workers at Royal Mail voted to strike over pay in what is expected to be the biggest industrial action to hit Britain this summer.

A total of 97.6 per cent of those who voted backed strikes, with a turnout of 77 per cent, in protest at a 2 per cent pay offer, the Communication Workers Union said.

- Staff at exam board AQA are to stage a 72-hour walkout over pay, which union leaders warn could affect the delivery of thousands of GCSE and A-level results.

- Members of Unison, the public service union, will walk out for three days, from Friday July 29 to Sunday July 31. The union warned industrial action is likely to escalate unless talks are reopened.

- Firefighters taking strike action is a “very serious proposition”, the leader of the union in Scotland has said. The Fire Brigades Union this week rejected a 2 per cent pay increase, which the union’s Scottish secretary described as “insulting”.

- Members of the Royal College of Nursing in England will be balloted on industrial action after being awarded what unions say is a real-terms pay cut.

-The British Medical Association, which represents doctors, said earlier this week it was on a "collision course" with the government .

- The National Education Union, which represents teachers, said it would recommend strikes unless the government renegotiates a new pay deal.

- Hundreds of dockworkers at one of Britain's largest container ports will be balloted for strike action in a dispute over pay and conditions.

The Unite union said more than 500 dockworkers at MDHC Container Services, part of Peel Ports, in Liverpool would be asked to vote over industrial action after a 7 per cent pay offer was deemed inadequate and workers were not given an agreed bonus.

- Hundreds of British Airways staff at London's Heathrow have voted to call off strike action, averting further disruption at the airport which is already struggling to cope due to a staff shortage.

Members of the GMB and Unite unions had voted for industrial action in a row over a pay cut during the pandemic.