In a protracted salary dispute, BT employees and Openreach engineers will go on strike once more on Thursday. Emergency services will be disrupted, according to the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which said that its members who answer 999 emergency calls will also strike.
Additional strikes are scheduled for October 10, 20, and 24 and have already been participated in by 10,000 BT call center employees and around 30,000 Openreach engineers.
The union claimed the protests are in response to BT Group’s imposition of a “extremely low” flat-rate pay increase of £1,500, which it referred to as a “dramatic real-terms pay loss” due to escalating inflation.
The 999 call handlers were supposed to be immune from strikes in the past, according to the CWU, but amid considerable resentment over the business’s “refusal” to talk with union officials, these workers will now be joining their company coworkers.
According to CWU general secretary Dave Ward, the conflict encapsulates modern Britain in one sentence: lives are in danger because a company’s management won’t listen to employees. The choice was not made lightly, but management consistently rejected our union’s attempts to open conversations since they obviously felt they were above discussing a reasonable contract for those who generate enormous profits for them. In addition to accessing food banks, 999 operators are overworked and concerned about the cost of living. Due to corporate avarice, Goodwill is unable to pay the bills, which has resulted in the disruption of essential services.
He remarked that while BT management obviously does not regard its employees or their contribution to society, this union does, and we will continue to oppose this company’s efforts to subject its employees to even greater misery.
That BT Group’s reluctance to treat its members with even the slightest amount of dignity has resulted in this, according to CWU deputy general secretary Andy Kerr, is just shameful.