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Nurses have voted to stage strikes across the UK for the first time in their history in pursuit of a better pay deal, in a move that will seriously disrupt NHS care.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced on Wednesday that nurses at many, but not all, hospitals and other places of NHS care would take industrial action before Christmas and could continue striking until next May.
The impending strikes are likely to be the first in a potentially prolonged series of actions over the winter and into the spring by other groups of health workers, including junior doctors and ambulance staff. NHS bosses are bracing themselves for junior doctors, ambulance staff and others also taking action.
The move comes amid mounting action by public sector workers. Rail staff have staged regular strikes over the last five months in their pay dispute, as have Royal Mail personnel, while 70,000 members of the University and Colleges Union decided on Tuesday to take industrial action, all over pay. The Public and Commercial Services union is due to announce on Thursday if civil servants will be joining the growing wave of action.
It is the first time in the RCN’s 106-year history that it has instigated a statutory ballot of its members across all the countries of the UK about industrial action.
“Anger has become action. Our members are saying enough is enough,” said Pat Cullen, the union’s general secretary and chief executive. “Our members will no longer tolerate a financial knife-edge at home and a raw deal at work.”
But the RCN did not disclose how many of the 300,000 members it balloted had voted or how many had endorsed or rejected strike action.
The results of the ballot reflect widespread anger among nurses that the government has refused to increase the offer it made in July of a pay increase of at least £1,400 to about a million people working in the health service in England, excluding doctors and dentists, which is worth between 4% and 5%.
Cullen urged the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, to use his budget next week to come up with extra money to give nurses a much bigger rise and thus avert the prospect of a long-running dispute.
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CARTOON AT TOP BY GILES. NURSES "STRIKE" IN 1988......
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- By Gus Leonisky at 11 Nov 2022 - 7:33am
- Gus Leonisky's blog
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massive protests......
By Peoples Dispatch
Health workers’ unions in the U.K. are gearing up for massive protests, including strike action, to assert the demand for decent wages and more recruitment and resources for the National Health Service (NHS).
The UNISON union is currently balloting its members in England, Wales and Northern Island to determine if industrial action [job action] should be taken.
Meanwhile, on Nov. 9, the nurses’ union of Royal College of Nursing (RCN) announced plans to initiate strike action before Christmas at many big hospitals and several other NHS care facilities. The RCN union decided to go on strike after the Tory government refused to meet their demand for a pay rise between 4.5 percent to 5 percent to meet the soaring inflation, which currently stands at 10.1 percent.
Junior doctors affiliated with the British Medical Association (BMA) are also gearing up for a strike ballot in January to protest overwork and underpayment. Health workers’ unions are also concerned about likely cuts and austerity measures in the autumn budget of Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, announced on Thursday.
For the past many years, especially under the rule of the Conservatives Party, the NHS has seen steady underfunding and bids for privatization. The health service was stretched beyond its limit during the Covid-19 pandemic. Grossly underpaid NHS workers are now finding it difficult to make ends meet amid the ongoing cost of living crisis.
[Related: Corporate Takeover of NHS: The Demise of British Primary Care]
READ MORE:
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/11/17/uks-national-health-system-gearing-up-for-wage-actions/
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