Summer of unrest lies ahead as teachers, NHS workers, civil servants and university staff could stage walkouts

Union leaders across the UK may be preparing for strike action over job cuts and dissatisfaction, grievances over pay and working conditions.

Bin workers "overwhelmingly" rejected an offer from Birmingham council to halt their long-running dispute on Monday.

Rubbish has been piling up on the city’s streets and there have been warnings of a public health emergency as hundreds of workers have been on all-out strike for more than a month.

Craig Cooper, strategic director of city operations, said collections would focus first on "the poorest parts" of the city "affected the most" by the ongoing bin strike.

Mr Cooper said the amount of uncollected waste had peaked at 22,000 tonnes, but he expected to be back to "one household collection every week" for all residents by the weekend.

Read more: Birmingham bin strikes are just the latest example of the military stepping in to keep essential services running

Read more: Birmingham bin strike cannot continue, council leader says ahead of fresh talks

This comes months following Labour's yield to unions, offering increased and backdated pay rises.

Following Sir Keir Starmer's election win, the prime minister celebrated the end to the national strikes that had plagued the UK in recent years.

Sir Keir's public sector pay increases for 2024-25 - worth almost £10 million - were intended to keep union discontent at bay.

Yet industrial action might create chaos for schools, hospitals and streets in the coming months.

On Tuesday, the National Education Union (NEU) said it would initiate a formal ballot on industrial action if the offer from ministers is deemed "unacceptable".

Daniel Kebede, NEU's leader, cautioned that a new wave of teacher strikes could strike schools in September.

In 2023, millions of pupils were impacted by teacher strikes across the UK.

This included eight says of walkouts by NEU members across England.

Also on Tuesday, one of the UK's biggest unions - Unison - asked health worker members in England and Wales whether they would consider a walk out if pay does not "keep up with rising living costs".

Andrew Griffith, shadow business secretary, told the Telegraph: "With the £31 million in union donations since Starmer became leader and private political summits with union bosses in No 10, it’s no wonder the trade unions think they’ve got the upper hand".

The head of the union at the centre of the Birmingham bin strikes warned they could spread to other parts of the country.

Sharon Graham, who runs the Unite union, also slammed the Labour government - telling LBC's Nick Ferrari at Breakfast that ministers "don't seem to understand the basics of what's going on here".

Asked how likely it was that the bin strikes, which have gone on for over a month, could spread to other parts of the country, Ms Graham said: "Well, if other councils decide to make low paid workers pay for bad decisions that they did not make, workers paying the price yet again, then absolutely, of course, we all have to take action in those other areas."

She was critical of Labour's inaction in the ongoing dispute between bin workers and Birmingham City Council, saying: "It's taken the government a huge amount of time to get involved in the dispute".

She added: "I've been urging them to do that for weeks and now they are. They don't seem to understand the basics of what's going on here."

"These workers are being asked to lose £8,000 of their pay. That is essentially a quarter of their pay."

Following the Government's public sector pay increases, tension between unions and Labour calmed last year.

Ms Reeves has since suggested a 2.8% pay increase for teachers, civil servants and medics for 2025-26.

She said this increase was all that ministers could afford in a challenging economic climate and was faced with backlash from unions last year.

The Civil Service is also set be hit by strikes as officials in Angela Rayner's department clampdown on working from home and protest a series of office closures.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) Union said staff across six branches of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will stage walkouts for up to nine days from April 22.

Fran Heathcote, the PCS leader, called this "a last resort".

She added: “Angela Rayner’s department has shown a blatant disregard for our members and the communities they serve.

“We will not stand by while offices are closed, and our members are forced into rigid attendance policies. We demand meaningful negotiations and real commitments to address these issues.”

Staff at multiple universities - including Durham University, University of Sheffield, and University of Edinburgh - could stage walkouts.

Meanwhile, the University of College Union members at Cardiff University are planning to strike on May 1 - followed by a potential "assessment boycott" from May 6.

There are also seven further strike days in May and June in a disagreement about redundancies.

A Labour spokesman told The Telegraph: “We’ve been clear that there is a fair and reasonable offer on the table and have urged Unite to end the strike and return to talks to reach the resolution that is fair to the workers and residents of Birmingham.

“The Tory government oversaw the worst strikes in more than three decades. Labour will turn the page on the Tories’ scorched earth approach to industrial relations.”