Tomorrow will be the first of six days of postal strikes across December.

Rail strikes will take place over four days next week, with more planned for January.

And new strikes announced on Monday will start on Christmas Eve and run until early on the 27th.

NHS workers are scheduled to walk out for four days in December.

Ambulance staff on the 21st and 28th and nurses on the 15th and 20th in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Border Force staff became the latest to announce industrial action, with airports affected from the 23rd of December to the 26th, and then again from the 28th to the 31st.

And driving test examiners, security staff at Eurostar, and some civil servants will also go on strike this month.

Ali Fortescue reports.

It's hard to list the sectors, the range of workers walking out.

I couldn't do my job safely.

Hard, too, to hear stories like Katie's.

I'm definitely working more, I'm being more mindful of my spending to make ends meet for sure.

I have colleagues that are using food banks.

I have had colleagues, you know, tell their children that they don't think that Christmas is going to be a particularly great Christmas for them than this year.

I actually feel, in a way, fortunate that I don't have children that I have to say that to.

And it's not just nurses.

This was the Home Secretary's response today to the latest action called by Border Force.

We've got plans in place that will involve, to a degree, bringing in some of our military colleagues to help us in a variety of roles.

And we want to⏤I mean, ultimately, you know, I'm not willing to compromise on security at the border.

And as train workers prepare to strike, too, the PM has talked about tougher anti-strike laws to stop the whole country (from) grinding to a halt.

Could we see the government increasing the threshold for strikes?

Make sure that more notice needs to be given.

There's plenty of options for legislation; it's something that's been looked at for a long time.

Something that Boris Johnson and Liz Truss were looking at, but it will take months to work.

It won't keep trains moving and sectors working in the short term.

And any constructive tone between the government and the unions last week turned to confrontation this week.

Do you accept that, for a lot of people, you've become the face of winter disruption misery for a lot of people over Christmas?

Well, our message is, we're really sorry for the disruption; we don't want that to happen.

We don't want our members out on strike at Christmas time; we've got a bit of sabotage going on, and that's not good enough.

We want Mark Harper and the government to be a facilitator for a settlement rather than an obstacle to it, and that's got to change.

And what of labor? It's not clear they have an answer, either.

Labor aren't offering inflation-busting pay rises; Lisa Nandy said that would be unaffordable.

You're waiting for inflation to come down, like the conservatives, aren't you?

One of the reasons why nurses, NHS workers, people who work on our railways are taking industrial action is, of course, as you say,

because we've got the highest inflation in 40 years, the highest tax burden in 70 years, and energy bills going through the roofs.

The government could also be doing more to tackle the root of some of these problems.

- When do we want it? - Now!

The government has moved from negotiation to preparation for a winter of strike strain that will impact us all.

Ali Fortescue, Sky News, Westminster.