TENS of thousands of underpaid Royal Mail workers, university lecturers and sixth form college staff walked out today in one of the biggest strike days of 2022’s year of industrial unrest.

Picket lines nationwide saw strong support from the public as the fightback against more than a decade of Tory austerity pay and attacks on working conditions and pensions gathers pace.

Railway workers are set to continue their six-month industrial action with a series of 48-hour strikes over the next two months, while NHS staff and ambulance workers could down tools across England, Wales and Northern Ireland in the run-up to Christmas.

The Communication Workers Union (CWU), which has scheduled seven more 24-hour strikes at Royal Mail, including on Christmas Eve, also announced that its members will converge on London on December 9 for the “biggest strike demonstration this country has ever seen.”

The event is needed because of a “stubborn refusal by bosses to treat their employers with respect,” general secretary Dave Ward stressed. 

The union’s London division rep Mark Dolan added that the dispute is about “saving this Great British institution, the 500 years’ service given to the public and also the destruction of our terms and conditions.

“The company has made over £700 million off the backs of our membership, who during Covid put their own lives on the line connecting the country — we were hailed as key workers. 

“And yet, 18 months later, the company have announced they have got no money. They gave most of the profits away to shareholders and the people who sit on the board.”

Mr Dolan stressed that members are “not prepared to stand by and watch this great public institution turned into another gig economy service where they get rid of the current workforce and replace them with workers on 20 per cent less money and worse  terms and conditions.”

The action coincided with teaching staff, represented by the National Education Union (NEU), going on strike at 77 sixth-form colleges across England after suffering a real-terms pay cut of a whopping 20 per cent since 2010.

Addressing a picket line in Islington, north London, joint general secretary Dr Mary Bousted warned about the “decimation of worker terms, pay, working conditions and the funding for sixth form colleges, which in real terms will be less in 2025 than it was in 2005.

“This is a government that talks about growth but deliberately underfunds a sector which is the absolute bedrock of growth, particularly in terms of skills,” she charged.

Former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, who also addressed the rally, ridiculed the Daily Mail for echoing claims by bosses that strikers want to “destroy Christmas” before calling for all workers to “pull together” and resist further attacks.

The University and College Union followed up a national 48-hour strike by lecturers last week with another 24-hour walkout.

General secretary Jo Grady said: “University staff are prepared to do whatever it takes to win decent pay, secure employment and fair pensions, and vice-chancellors need to understand that they cannot simply ride this out.

“Students and staff are united like never before,” she warned. 

“Our union is ready to deliver more industrial action next year, but avoiding that is entirely the responsibility of employers who have to make an improved offer — the ball is in their court.”