THE ROYAL College of Nursing (RCN) has announced a round-the-clock 48-hour strike from 8pm on Sunday 30th April to 8pm on Tuesday 2nd May, meaning that there is a national nurses strike on May Day, Monday 1st May.
Nurses decisively rejected the derisory 5% Tory pay offer to nurses in an RCN ballot, with a turnout reaching 61% of eligible members – 54% voting to reject and 46% to accept.
For the first time the RCN strike will also involve nursing staff working in emergency departments, intensive care units, cancer care and other services that were previously exempt.
The RCN will now conduct a new England-wide statutory ballot to extend the scope and duration of the current mandate for industrial action.
More than six in ten eligible members took part in the ballot, with a clear majority of 54% voting to reject the latest Tory pay offer.
Announcing the ballot result yesterday afternoon, RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Pat Cullen said: ‘We have today issued notices for strike action at the end of April and beginning of May and then we will move to reballot our members for a further period of strike action leading into the next six months.’
She went on: ‘We’ve always said as a college and a ruling council that we would listen to our members. Our members have made their decision today. This offer was not enough for our members.’
Cullen wrote in a letter to Tory Health Secretary Barclay: ‘What has been offered to date is simply not enough.
‘The government needs to increase what has already been offered and we will be highly critical of any move to reduce it.
‘Since our talks in February, we have seen the pressures on the NHS continue to increase.
‘The crisis in our health and care services cannot be addressed without significant action that addresses urgent recruitment and retention issues and nursing pay to bring this dispute to a close urgently.
‘Until there is a significantly improved offer, we are forced back to the picket line.
‘Meetings alone are not sufficient to prevent strike action and I will require an improved offer as soon as possible. In February, you opened negotiations directly with me and I urge you to do the same now.’
‘After a historic vote to strike, our members expect a historic pay award.’
