NURSING STAFF have voted to strike in the majority of NHS hospitals across the UK, and the nurses union, the RCN, has called on the public to demonstrate support for the nursing staff. Workers must respond to this call.
The statement continued that nursing staff at the majority of NHS employers across the UK have voted to take strike action over pay levels and patient safety concerns, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has confirmed.
So far so good!
However action will only take place in the NHS Trusts or health boards that have met the relevant legal requirements, i.e. where there was a majority on site.
In this way the hospital workers’ leaders, by taking a sectional position, are actually dividing up their forces and are playing into the hands of their enemy even before the battle has been joined.
An army decides to go into battle as a single force, it has never been left up to individual units to decide whether they are going to fight or not. The history of the labour movement has been one to picket out those that wanted to take an individual position on the issue.
Otherwise it is rule by a minority over the majority! It has been left up to the individual to decide whether they will fight or not. This is no way to win a strike or any serious struggle. The NHS is a collective body defending the health care of the nation. Its defence is a national task, not an individual one.
However many of the biggest hospitals in England will see strike action by RCN members, with others narrowly missing the legal turnout thresholds to qualify for action. However all NHS employers in Northern Ireland and Scotland will be included and all bar one in Wales met the relevant legal thresholds.
Guy’s and St Thomas’ in London, opposite the House of Commons, appears on the list as well as other leading hospitals in capital cities of the UK – the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, University Hospital Wales in Cardiff and Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast.
The results for each NHS employer are analysed individually in what is known as a ‘disaggregated’ ballot.
Industrial action is expected to begin before the end of this year and the RCN’s mandate to organise strikes runs until early May 2023, six months after members finished voting.
Nursing staff were balloted following NHS Agenda for Change pay announcements earlier this year, which left experienced nurses 20 per cent worse off in real-terms compared to ten years earlier.
In the last year, 25,000 nursing staff around the UK left the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) register. Poor pay contributes to staff shortages across the UK, affecting patient safety. There are 47,000 unfilled registered nurse posts in England’s NHS alone.
The Fair Pay for Nursing campaign is calling for a pay rise of 5% above inflation (measured by RPI).
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen said: ‘Anger has become action – our members are saying enough is enough. The voice of nursing in the UK is strong and I will make sure it is heard. Our members will no longer tolerate a financial knife-edge at home and a raw deal at work.
‘Ministers must look in the mirror and ask how long they will put nursing staff through this. While we plan our strike action, next week’s Budget is the UK government’s opportunity to signal a new direction with serious investment. Across the country, politicians have the power to stop this now and at any point.
‘This action will be as much for patients as it is for nurses. Standards are falling too low and we have strong public backing for our campaign to raise them. This winter, we are asking the public to show nursing staff you are with us.’
Workers in the trade unions must give their full support to the nurses’ strike actions. In fact the entire trade union movement depends on the NHS for the security and safety of its members.
As is well known, the Tory government is organising new bodies of anti-trade union legislation to take away the right to strike of the whole working class and to legalise strike breaking and strike breaking practices.
The ruling class is in fact gripped by a desperate economic and political crisis. Its only way out is to crush the working class and the trade unions as it did in the hungry 1930s.
What must be done is that the working class must organise a general strike to defend the NHS, by bringing down the Tories and bringing in a workers government and socialism. Forward to the general strike to smash the Tories!
