HEALTH Secretary Hunt’s contract imposition has already begun to hit the rocks with 10 of the 20 NHS executives who signed the Dalton letter to him speaking out to say that they did not support contract imposition on the junior doctors!
Dalton, Hunt’s negotiator, had claimed in his letter that the recommendation ‘to make sure that a new contract is in place’ was supported by ‘chief executives across the country’, and supplied 20 names. The Dalton letter was then used by Hunt in parliament on Thursday in his imposition of the contract.
After the 10 spoke out, slippery Dalton responded by stating that if anyone wanted to make an inference from this that they supported imposition, ‘then that is their inference, [but] that is not what [the signatories] have committed their names to’.
‘I neither want to say they do or that they don’t. There is a variety of opinion on this.’
That this is not the position that was put by Hunt to parliament is absolutely obvious!
Junior doctors are now angrier than ever and are preparing for the action against the Hunt contract.
Meanwhile, the nurses justifiably feel threatened by the dictator’s action. Josie Irwin, Head of Employment Relations for the RCN said on Thursday: ‘The imposition of the junior doctor contract sets a worrying precedent …
‘Like junior doctors, most nurses are already working seven days a week, and they agree that patient care on Saturday and Sunday should be the same as on a Tuesday. Nurses’ pay has fallen 14% in real terms between 2010 and 2015 and as a result many rely on their unsocial hours payments to make ends meet.
‘Our members are increasingly anxious that there will now be moves to take their unsocial hours payments away as well, and concerned that this will have a detrimental impact on patient care.’
The nurses are in the same trench as the junior doctors. But they are not alone. There are 1.5 million NHS workers! Unison, with many NHS members, commented that ‘Jeremy Hunt’s mishandling of the junior doctors’ dispute has undone decades of consensus in the NHS. Unions can’t have faith in any future negotiations if ministers just choose to impose what they want, when they want.’
Unison is in the same trench as the BMA and the RCN, yet it does not pledge that it will be out with the junior doctors when they take their next strike action. Unite, with many NHS members, commented: ‘Unite calls on Hunt to seriously rethink the imposition and get back around the table with the British Medical Association (BMA).
In the meantime, we will offer all the support of the union to the junior doctors, since an attack on them is an attack on all NHS workers.’
This support means Unite ‘will assist junior doctors in the weeks and months to come as their employment circumstances change … The losers are certainly the doctors, but more importantly, patients …’ For Unite, the struggle is over, and there is no thought of the implications for its own members in the NHS of contract imposition.
The GMB called on Prime Minister, David Cameron to remove Jeremy Hunt from these negotiations and this dispute. ‘Jeremy Hunt has lost the confidence and trust of all NHS staff. GMB also calls for the imposition of the contract to be suspended and for expert industrial relations negotiators to be brought in to reach an agreeable resolution.’ This is living in Alice in Wonderland – it is not the real world!
The TUC has not even issued a statement. It is too busy currying favour with Tory Lords to try and get the anti-union legislation amended so that it can accept it, and does not want to offend the House of Lords by supporting the junior doctors.
The truth of the matter is that life for workers will be a living hell if the Tories manage to privatise the NHS. All unions must support the junior doctors and organise for general strike action to smash this imposed contract that is a threat to every trade unionist.
The TUC General Council must be sacked for its treachery. Trade union leaders that are neutral must be sacked with them! Now is the time to call the general strike. A victory for the junior doctors will be a victory for every worker!