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Africa

Nigerian resident doctors continue national strike over lack of pay, funding and conditions

Nigerian resident doctors are continuing national strike action begun November 1. They demand payment of unpaid allowances accumulated to N48 billion, an end to late salary payments, as well as better welfare and funding for the hospitals.

The Nigeria Association of Resident Doctors President, Dr. Mohammad Suleiman, said the strike had become inevitable after numerous ultimatums expired without any government response. “This is a national security matter and a national disaster. We hope the government gives it the emergency attention it deserves,” he said.

Many prospective patients at hospitals around the country were asked by nurses to go home and return when the strike has finished.

Judicial staff in Osun State, Nigeria continue strike over conditions

Judicial staff in Osun State, Nigeria are continuing a strike, begun September 19, over lack of promised promotions.

The Chairman of the Judiciary Staff Union of Nigeria, Osun State Chapter, Idris Adeniran, said the stoppage will continue until all outstanding promotion issues are addressed and confirmed. He added that the abandoned 2023 promotion exercise must also be ratified.

Kenyan postal workers continue national strike over salary arrears

Over 2,000 Kenyan postal workers are continuing their national strike, begun October 27. The strike is to demand the payment of more than six months of salary arrears.

Hundreds of workers have lost their jobs from the postal service.

Workers in Johannesburg, South Africa protest dire water crisis

On Saturday, hundreds of residents of informal settlements joined residents of Johannesburg, South Africa outside the Council Chambers to protest the catastrophic water crisis.

Every day, millions face interruptions of water supply, dry taps and substandard sanitation, which also affects schools and hospitals. The situation is even more dire in the informal settlements.

Around 100 residents of the COVID informal settlement in Mfuleni held a march October 31 to the premier’s office and Cape Town mayor’s office, demanding water and electricity services and sanitation. The settlement was set up in 2020 during lockdown. Lacking even toilets, residents risk life and limb crossing busy roads to relieve themselves. They have to use dirty water from a dam for their laundry and boil water for drinking.

South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world, with two billionaires holding wealth of $19 billion between them. Millions are threatened with hunger as the Government of National Unity–led by the African National Congress–plans to terminate the Social Relief of distress in 2026 under pressure from the International Monetary Fund. In the second quarter of 2025, the unemployment rate was 33.2 percent, rising to 62 percent for 15-24-year-olds.

There are regular demonstrations by youth and workers demanding employment and permanent jobs. Hundreds of garment workers staged a march through Maseru on October 31. They anticipate the collapse of Lesotho’s textile industry due to a feared end to duty-free exports to the American market.

Europe

Tens of thousands of metalworkers across Spain strike for more pay and improved working conditions

Metal workers in Barcelona, Spain began a four-day strike October 27. Over 2,500 workers took to the streets Thursday and demonstrated outside the offices of the employers’ body, Unió Patronal Metal-lúrgica.

The COOO and UGT union members demand better salaries, more regular working hours and improved health and safety conditions.

More than 15,000 metalworkers in the province of Ciudad Real also stopped work Monday in a separate COOO/UGT-organised two-day strike. They demand pay increases, improved bonuses and standardised working conditions across all workplaces.

Senior Health Technicians in Spain stop work in protest at government refusal to recognise their professional status

Senior Health Technicians throughout Spain held strikes October 30-31 and November 3-4, with a demonstration and march to government offices held in Madrid on Monday.

The State Union of Higher Health Technicians members are reiterating calls for professional recognition, pay levels comparable with other similarly qualified public servants and transferable qualifications recognised across Europe.

The technicians previously called a strike in July, which was cancelled when the Ministry of Health agreed to their demands. The government has now reneged on this, provoking the current walkouts.

Turkish solar panel factory workers strike for inflation-related pay increase

Workers at Smart Solar, solar panel manufacturers in Gebze, Turkey have been on indefinite strike since October 21 in support of a salary rise pegged to inflation. Their previous pay agreement was in June 2023.

The 260 United Metal-İş union members demand at least a 50 percent rise, due to the high inflation and real wage losses in Turkey. They rejected the company offer of 6 percent.

UK bus strikes spread to First Bus Cymru in Swansea, Wales

Bus drivers at First Bus Cymru in Swansea, Wales began a stoppage Wednesday until Saturday over pay.

First Cymru covers services in Swansea, Llanelli, Bridgend, Neath-Port Talbot, Pembrokeshire and Carmarthenshire, plus routes through the Vale of Glamorgan and Cardiff.

The Unite union members are demanding £14.20 an hour backdated to April, £14.50 from December and £15 from April.

They initially planned to strike on October 22 but Unite suspended the action to ballot workers on an offer which was rejected. There followed a walkout for four days ending on November 2.

According to Unite, new recruits are paid a lower rate for a year. The First Group made profits of £200 million last financial year. First Bus drivers in Wales receive £3 an hour less than drivers in Bristol.

There have been a spate of bus strikes across Britain over pay and conditions, such as First West in Bristol, First Bus in Rochdale and Stagecoach and Metroline in Greater Manchester–part of the Bee Network. Unite’s opposition to a united struggles of transport workers allows below-inflation pay deals to be imposed company by company and depot by depot.

Staff at Transport for Greater Manchester, England strike over pay

Staff at Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) walked out November 5, after rejecting a 3.2 percent pay offer. RPI inflation stands at 4.5 percent.

The Unison members, who work as administrators, route planners, station assistants, IT experts, control room operators and cleaners, worked to rule on Tuesday. The work to rule will continue indefinitely from Saturday. Unison only plan a further stoppage on November 7.

The Unite and Unison union members plan a joint stoppage on November 12.

Metrolink tram drivers are also balloting for strike action over conditions at work leading to exhaustion.

Unite pushed through substandard deals aided by Labour Mayor Andy Burnham to end strikes by Greater Manchester drivers at three bus companies, just as staff who run the Bee Network began balloting over pay. Council body TfGM runs the Bee Network, coordinating fares and timetables on behalf of the private, profit-making bus companies.

Middle East

Iran: Kermanshah nurses protest pay, but critical nurses are barred from official Nurses Day ceremony

At Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, nurses staged a protest rally Monday over unpaid wages. The nurses complain they have not been paid shift allowances and overtime for more than a year, and accuse officials of ignoring their complaints.

One banner read “We protest the injustice, discrimination and neglect of our one-year demands and request the University President respond to us.”

The health sector is in crisis, with nurses accusing the Health Ministry of breaking promises made at the height the COVID pandemic. Nurses complain of exhaustion, frustration and lack of motivation.

Some 2,500 nurses are reported to have left Iran in the last year alone, exacerbating the crisis. Health standards require three nurses per 1,000 citizens or two nurses per hospital bed. Iran fails both requirements.

Unrest in the sector is making government officials anxious. Last Thursday was marked nationally as Nurses Day. Several nurses critical of working conditions were barred entry to the official ceremony with President Masoud Pezeshkian in the state broadcasting authority’s conference hall.

Esmail Shariati, head of the Shahrood nursing association, was among those barred entry, according to Nursing House secretary-general Mohammad Sharifi-Moghaddam.

Nationwide protests over wages and benefits continue across Iran

On Monday, protests continued across Iran over unpaid wages and pensions. Telecommunications Company retirees held protests and marches in cities including Shiraz, Tabriz, Isfahan, Khoy and Tehran. They denounced privatisation of the company, and protested at delayed payments, welfare allowances, insurance issues and healthcare services.

Workers also protested unpaid wages. Tehran Alvan Poultry Food Complex workers walked out over three months’ unpaid wages. In Lavan, Continental Shelf Oil Company workers protested to demand reform of minimum-wage salaries. They are calling for the full restoration of allowances including hardship climate and family separation premiums, the removal of retirement seniority caps, refund of excess deducted taxes and the payment of related arrears.

Petrochemical workers in Chovar staged two protests at low wages in one week. They accuse management of indifference to their living conditions.

On Saturday, contract workers in the oil industry protested outside the presidential office in Tehran. They accuse the government of failing to keep promises to eliminate private contractors and secure direct employment with the energy companies to improve their conditions and pay. Contract workers are excluded from key benefits and protections enjoyed by directly employed workers.

Pezeshkian had promised to abolish subcontracting firms, convert contract positions into permanent ones and implement an equal pay system across the sector, but the promises remain “only on paper.” The result is “continued discrimination and job insecurity for thousands of experienced workers.” Workers said if their demands are not met by the end of November, they will expand their protests.

Electricity distribution workers in several provinces joined oil demonstrators to demand better conditions. This follows recent strikes over unpaid wages and job insecurity by National Iranian Steel Industrial Group workers in Ahvaz.

Workers are reacting to worsening living conditions and a collapsing economy, exacerbated by the “snapback” reimposition of UN sanctions as part of the US/NATO machinations in the Middle East, as a prelude to trade and military war against China. At least 3,702 protest gatherings and strikes have been recorded across all sectors in Iran this year.