UK nurses join wave of strike action to demand better pay

LONDON (AP) — Thousands of nurses have walked off their jobs in England, joining ambulance and postal workers, bus drivers and airport baggage handlers who have staged strikes or planned them this month. The Royal College of Nursing said emergency hospital care would continue as normal on Wednesday and nurses will still staff chemotherapy and neonatal and pediatric intensive care units. But many less urgent hospital treatments will be affected across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Although nurses did not plan to strike in Scotland, Thursday’s action was described as the biggest by nurses since the U.K.’s National Health Service was established in 1948. Public sector workers are demanding better pay an inflation and cost-of-living crisis.