UK government offers millions of public sector workers pay raises in push to end strikes

abcnews.go.com:

The British government has agreed to offer millions of public sector workers pay raises in a bid to end an array of strikes, including a five-day walkout from doctors in the early part of their career in Britain’s publicly funded health service

LONDON — The British government has agreed to offer millions of public sector workers pay raises in a bid to end an array of strikes, including a five-day walkout from doctors in the early part of their career in Britain’s publicly funded health service.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak confirmed Thursday that the government was accepting the recommendations from pay review bodies, that will see police get a 7% rise, 6.5% for teachers and 6% for the junior doctors, who commenced their strike early Thursday.

He said the offer is “final” and that there will be “no more talks on pay.”

In what is being described as the longest-ever strike in the National Health Service, many of the tens of thousands of doctors in England are making the case for a 35% pay bump.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.

Britain's state-funded health care service is facing what is being described as its longest-ever strike as tens of thousands of doctors in England launched a five-day walkout over pay on Thursday.

So-called junior doctors, those who are at the early stages of their careers in the National Health Service in the years after medical school, started their latest strike at 7 a.m., with many of them making their case for a 35% pay rise in picket lines outside hospitals across England.

The British Medical Association, the doctors’ union, has asked for a 35% pay rise to bring junior doctors’ pay back to 2008 levels once inflation is taken into account. Meanwhile, the workload