Teachers, train drivers and civil servants will on Wednesday join the biggest day of strike action in the UK since 2011 as ministers continue to resist unions’ demands to boost public sector pay.
About 150,000 teachers are expected to walk out across England and Wales, affecting more than eight in 10 schools. Commuters will also be stranded, with 12,500 train drivers shutting some lines entirely and leaving just a third of services running across the network. Roughly 70,000 university lecturers will hold the latest in a series of walkouts.
More than 100,000 members of the Public and Commercial Services Union, which represents civil servants, will also strike. Their walkout will affect Whitehall departments, regulators and other agencies, museums and jobcentres — as well as border posts, where military personnel have been drafted in to check passports.