Local strikes December 2022: All major ongoing and upcoming strikes affecting Peterborough - including rail

Train services have been severely disrupted after rail workers walked out in the first of a wave of 48-hour strikes.

Around half of Britain’s rail lines will be closed all day on Tuesday, with trains in other areas only running between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

Rishi Sunak told his Cabinet that the country faced a “challenging period” with a wave of industrial action over coming weeks.

So, what should we expect here in Peterborough?

Here is a list of all of the ongoing and upcoming strikes which are set to affect Peterborough residents – including rail, postal, nursing and driving examiner strikes.

Rail strikes

Members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union began their latest strike action today (December 13).

It is set to disrupt the national rail network all of this week, with four days of walk-outs starting today and scheduled for Wednesday (December 14), Friday (December 16) and Saturday (December 17).

It comes after union members rejected a fresh pay offer from Network Rail on December 12, which RMT described as “substandard”.

Only 20 per cent of services are expected to run and train operators are urging passengers to travel only if necessary.

On December 13 through to December 16, a reduced service is planned to run across the East Midlands between 7.30am and 6.30pm.

Passengers who are likely to be affected by the strike action are being advised to contact their retailer for a refund or to amend their date of travel.

Train services cancelled due to strikes will not be replaced by buses.

Additional rail strikes are also likely over the Christmas period, with the RMT scheduling industrial action from December 24 – 27.

Which train companies’ workers are striking in December?

Workers from Network Rail and the following 14 train companies will walk out in December and January.

Chiltern Railways

Cross Country Trains

Greater Anglia

LNER

East Midlands Railway

c2c

Great Western Railway

Northern Trains

South Eastern

South Western Railway

Transpennine Express

Avanti West Coast

West Midlands Trains

GTR (including Gatwick Express)

Nursing strikes

Up to 100,000 nurses from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will stage their biggest-ever walk-out across the UK on December 15 and 20.

It comes after talks between the union and health secretary, Steve Barclay, to avert the strike fell through.

Staff at Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust are set to join the national strikes due to a long-running dispute over pay.

Staff at the trust will join those of around a quarter of hospitals and community services in England in walking out between 8am and 8pm across the two dates.

These include leading care centres such as Great Ormond Street and leading cancer centres the Royal Marsden and Clatterbridge.

Driving examiner strikes

Some driving examiners are striking this December and into January next year as part of national industrial action by the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union over pay, pensions, jobs and redundancy terms.

The strikes will affect test centres across the country, but will impact Peterborough and the East of England across a four-day period from December 28 – 31 this year, and on January 3, 2023.

The PCS union has told the Driving and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) that the strike action will affect driving examiners employed at both the Peterborough and Peterborough LGV test centres, in Second Drove.

This is likely to affect car and motorcycle tests booked for these dates, as well as driving tests for other vehicles.

The DVSA has said that if you have a test booked on any of these dates you can change it online three full working days ahead of your test. If you decide not to change the date of your test, you should still go on the date and time of your driving test – unless the DVSA contacts you to tell you not to.

Postal strikes

Peterborough’s postal workers are set to strike in the lead-up to Christmas – with 48 hours of strike action starting from 4am on Wednesday (December 14).

The strikes on December 14 and 15 are part of long-running industrial action, which Communication Workers Union (CWU) Anglia Division Representative Steve Butts said is over “more than just pay” – including “protecting members and their jobs”.

Peterborough’s postie’s previously joined a picket line outside the Papyrus Road, Werrington, sorting office on December 9 – however, Steve said workers will not be demonstrating during the strikes this week.

Further strike action is scheduled in the lead-up to Christmas, on December 23 and 24.

Royal Mail made a ‘final’ offer to the Communication Workers Union (CWU) in a bid to prevent strike action – but the union has said they cannot accept the offer.