Winter of discontent - Christmas travel and postal deliveries to be impacted as Scarborough hit by disruptive strike action

Christmas travel is also likely to be affected as both road and rail workers strike.

Members of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) will continue strike action this month as their long running dispute over pay and working conditions continues.

Over recent months, members of the CWU have held a number of walkouts, which the Royal Mail claims has so far cost them £100 million.

In total, six strike days are planned in the run up to Christmas - these are Friday, December 9, Sunday, December 11, Wednesday, December 14, Thursday, December 15, Friday, December 23 and Saturday, December 24.

As a result, the recommended last posting dates for Christmas have been brought forward. Second class mail should now be posted by December 12 and the last date to post first class mail has been pushed forward from December 21 to December 16.

Members of the Rail Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) have announced eight days of strike action during December. More than 40,000 train workers are expected to walk out in a dispute over pay, working conditions and job security.

The first 48-hour RMT strike will be held on Tuesday 13 and Wednesday 14 December, followed by repeat action on Friday 16 and Saturday 17 December.

Members will then walk out again at 6pm on 24 December and will not resume duties until 6am on 27 December.

Previous action has seen Scarborough Rail Station close on strike days and it is likely that the latest round of action will have the same impact.

Some driving examiners who are members of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union are planning to take industrial action over pay, pensions, jobs and redundancy terms.

The action may affect car driving tests, motorcycle tests and other vehicle and advanced driving tests at both the Scarborough and Bridlington DVSA test centres between Monday December 19 and Saturday December 24.

Theory tests are not affected by the strike action and will take place as planned.

PCS general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “This is the first wave of the hardest-hitting industrial action the government will have faced in decades and will cause a massive amount of disruption.“The government, which has spent years turning a blind eye to our pay demands, will no longer be able to ignore us.

“Our members are proud of their work, so it’s not easy for them to take action they know will affect the very people they came into the job to serve.

“But the government has given them no option. Their pay has fallen far below inflation and many of our members – the government’s own workforce – are forced to use food banks because they can’t afford to eat.

"The government is in the position to stop these strikes by putting money on the table. Ministers must know we will not stop until our demands are met and our members receive the decent pay rise they need to get them through the cost-of-living crisis and beyond.”

National Highways which operate the A64, A1 and A19 will also be affected by strike action in Yorkshire on December 16 and 17 members of the PCS union take industrial action.

The union’s traffic officer service employees are set to strike in a dispute over pay, pensions, jobs and cuts to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme.

National Duncan Smith, Executive Director of Operations at National Highways, said: “We’re aware of strike action announced by PCS whose membership forms a small part of our overall workforce.

“We’ve reviewed the impact this may have and are confident we have well-rehearsed resilience plans in place to ensure the continued safe operation of our network.

“Millions of people rely on our roads and there is a possibility that they may be busier than usual on strike days, particularly when they correspond with industrial action on other transport modes, so we’d urge drivers to take extra care.”

More than 10,000 ambulance workers from the GMB union have voted to strike across nine trusts in England and Wales, including Yorkshire, on December 21 and 28.

Paramedics, Emergency Care Assistants, call handlers and other staff are now set to walk out in a dispute over an imposed 4% pay offer.

Rachel Harrison, GMB National Secretary, said: “Ambulance workers – like other NHS workers – are on their knees.

“No one in the NHS takes strike action lightly – This is as much about unsafe staffing levels and patient safety as it is about pay.

“A third of GMB ambulance workers think delays they’ve been involved with have led to the death of a patient.

“GMB calls on the Government to avoid a Winter of NHS strikes by negotiating a pay award that these workers deserve.”

Nick Smith, Executive Director of Operations at Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: "Our priority is to ensure we keep patients safe during any industrial action and we are

working with colleagues across the Trust, our healthcare partners and trade union representatives to put plans in place to keep critical services operational.

“We are currently assessing the possible impact on all of our services and acknowledge the concern and worry that forthcoming industrial action will have on patients, members of the public and our hard-working staff.”

Two nurses strikes planned by the Royal College of Nursing on December 15 and 20 will not affect Scarborough.

A spokesperson for York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said: “While the RCN did receive sufficient numbers to take strike action at our Trust, the RCN are not striking at all trusts on those dates. We are not included in this first round of action.”

Sir Robert Goodwill, MP for Scarborough and Whitby said: “The Government isn’t sitting on a pot of money - all of those people who want inflation-busting pay rises - every single one of us pay for that.

“Nobody’s saying the nurses don’t deserve to be well-paid - but most of the money to pay them is coming from the tax-payer or, in the case of the rail industry, from the people who pay for their ticket - most of whom are earning less than the person driving the train.”