All the UK strike dates confirmed for April and May 2023

Teachers, BBC journalists and Passport Office staff are taking action next month

Saturday 15 April 2023 10:28 EDT

Related: Unions suspend NHS strikes after pay negotiation breakthrough

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Teachers are set to walk out twice over the next month after rejecting a government pay offer.

Earlier this month, the National Education Union (NEU) rejected the government’s latest pay offer as “insulting”, paving the way for school strikes to take place on Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May.

Thousands of British workers from a host of public-facing professions have undertaken industrial action over the course of the winter, from train drivers to NHS nurses, civil servants and postal workers, demanding salary increases and improved working conditions to ensure they are not left behind by the cost of living crisis.

After a period of intensive talks with unions, the government had offered teachers a £1,000 one-off payment for the current school year and an average 4.5 per cent pay rise for staff next year.

However, the NEU said a members ballot had returned an “overwhelming” 98 per cent vote in favour of rejecting the deal from a 66 per cent turnout.

The union said it has scheduled walkouts for Thursday 27 April and Tuesday 2 May but urged education secretary Gillian Keegan to return to the table with an improved offer.

Members of HM Passport Office in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland will also continue a five-week strike, which will end on May 5, over the Public and Commercial Services union’s (PCS) long-running dispute over pay, pensions, redundancy terms and job security.

Journalists at the BBC’s local networks will also go on strike on May 5 over job cuts prompted by stations sharing content.

The plan is for more radio shows to be networked across several stations after 14:00 on weekdays and weekends, meaning the public broadcaster would produce 20 afternoon programmes across England and 10 programmes in the evening.

A BBC spokesperson said: “We are protecting all live local output from 6-2pm on weekdays as well as all sports programming across the week on every station. In addition, a number of our larger stations will retain their own dedicated local programmes in the afternoon across the week.

“Even where we propose to share some local programming across neighbouring stations in the afternoon, we will still produce 20 different local programmes across England.”

While some of the disputes have been resolved – criminal barristers in England and Wales and London bus drivers have accepted improved offers, for instance – and RMT rail strikes suspended for now, many more unions are still planning new strikes next month.

Here is a list of all the walkouts currently scheduled for April and May so far:

Saturday 15 April