The walkout could cost as much as ￡90m per day (Image: Getty)
Britain is facing an autumn of discontent with strikes set to disrupt crucial services across the country.
The RMT union announced on Thursday that commuters would endure a week of industrial action on the London Underground at the start of September, just as schools return and passenger numbers are expected to rise.
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These strikes look set to be followed by months of walkouts across the public sector, reports The Telegraph.
GPs, junior doctors and nurses may strike during winter, the health service's busiest time of year, over demands for pay and funding.
Meanwhile, strikes have already hit the residents of Birmingham where bin collectors are poised to continue a five-month walkout until Christmas over pay cuts.
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Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, had hoped to keep unions on side by handing out ￡10bn worth of backdated public sector pay rises after taking office, but these have failed to deter further walkouts, with Britain losing more than 280,000 working days to strikes in the first half of this year alone.
The walkouts threaten to overshadow Sir Keir's reported plans for a reset next month in order to prove that Britain is not "broken", while adding further pressure to Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor, who is scrambling to plug a black hole in the public finances of up to ￡50bn.
Read more: Millions of Brits facing travel chaos as huge rail union vows strike action
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Stnad up to unions
Wes Streeting, the Health Secretary, said on Thursday that ministers had a "responsibility" to stand up to public sector pay demands to help support the Prime Minister and Chancellor.
"You look at the range of pressures we're facing domestically, internationally, economically, public services, the expectations of the country, the pain that families are feeling in their pockets and I'm always conscious that over and above everyone else, Keir and Rachel are carrying all of those pressures together," Mr Streeting told the Political Currency podcast.
"And so I think it is our responsibility to say to our own departments, or own audiences, or the people we're responsible for and the services that we're responsible for, 'you need to understand that we can't do everything for everyone, everywhere, all at once'."
Tube strike
The Tube strike will take place for a week starting from September 5, with backroom staff including signallers, engineers and service control personnel downing tools on different days to bring the capital to a standstill.
While drivers are not joining the action, the walkouts will cause disruption across multiple Underground lines, a Transport for London source confirmed.
The RMT union announced its strike after members rejected a 3.4 per cent pay offer, despite typically demanding increases in line with RPI inflation from February the previous year – which stood at 3.4 per cent.
The walkouts will cause disruption across multiple Underground lines (Image: Getty)
NHS ambulance strikes discussed by GMB union official
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Special payments
The Telegraph reports that demands over special payments for working on Boxing Day and the shortening of the working week from 35 hours to 34.5 hours were also behind union leaders' decision to call a strike vote, as well as alleged failures by Tube bosses to enter negotiations.
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Simon French, chief economist at investment bank Panmure Gordon, said the walkout could cost as much as ￡90m per day, while Martin Beck, WPI Strategy's chief economist, said: "We estimate that it could cost the London economy up to a quarter of a billion pounds in the form of lost revenue to TfL and London businesses, more congestion on the roads and extra travel time for commuters."
Eddie Dempsey, general secretary of the RMT, insisted his members, who include Tube drivers earning above ￡70,000 a year, were not after "a king's ransom" but that "fatigue and extreme shift rotations are serious issues impacting on our members' health and well-being – all of which have not been adequately addressed for years by [London Underground] management".
Sir Sadiq Khan, the Labour Mayor of London who is in charge of TfL, condemned the walkouts. "Nobody wants to see strike action or disruption for Londoners," a spokesman said. "The mayor urges the RMT and TfL to get around the table to resolve this matter and avoid industrial action."
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