The Work Conditions of the National Health Service During the Great Backreaction of 1978 and 1979: A Story of Strikes and Scarceness for Nurses
Inflation is in double digits, and the recession — the worst of all Group of 7 countries — is expected to last deep into 2024. The National Health Service is on life support, public transport is sputtering, and worker shortages are widespread. Homeowners face soaring mortgage rates, renters are subject to no-fault evictions, and millions can’t afford to heat their homes. Food banks, which barely existed a decade ago, are at breaking point, and 14.5 million people are in poverty. Winter is here, and it’s bleak.
The impact of those strikes has led parts of the British media to rekindle memories of the so-called Winter of Discontent in 1978 and 1979, when demonstrations brought the UK to a standstill – though this year’s level of industrial action constitutes a fraction of those months, where several million working days were lost.
Ordinary Britons are saying there is an alternative to suffer and it is called solidarity.
But it comes after several years of hardship for employees of Britain’s National Health Service (NHS), a revered but beleaguered institution that is straining due to staffing shortfalls, sky-high demand and stretched funding.
Pamela Jones, who is striking today because of the change she has seen in the nursing profession, told PA Media that the changes had been “astonishing” over the course of her 32 years as a nurse.
“I feel really sorry for the young girls who are now trying to get into the profession, they have to pay for their training. The public need to understand the pressures that everyone’s under. You’ve only got to come into A&E and see the queues, there’s no beds.
Emma Sudol, a nurse at Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, told PA Media how since she qualified three years ago the situation had worsened and described the working conditions in her department as “scary” and “dangerous” for both staff and patients.
“It’s definitely scary. It is scary for them because they are being put in a situation that is unsafe, Ms. Sudol said.
The NHS and the Covid-19 pandemic: a common apology from the UK health secretary Steve Barclay during a CNN interview
The RCN is calling for a pay rise of 5% above retail inflation, which on current figures amounts to a 19% hike, and for the government to fill a record number of staff vacancies that, it argues, is jeopardizing patient safety. Steve Barclay, the UK’s health secretary, told CNN in a statement earlier this week that their demand is “not affordable.”
A lot of disputes over the level of pay for NHS employees have happened over the years. The Health Foundation, a UK charity that campaigns for better health and healthcare, says the pay of nurses has fallen for five years in a row. They didn’t have pay for the first three years.
More than a million people are currently waiting for treatment in England, according to the British Medical Association. The figure seven years ago was 3.3 million.
“I work alongside some amazing (nurses) who have come in early, left late, worked through breaks and lunch, agreed to come in on their days off for an overtime shift to make sure their patients are kept as safe as we can manage,” Mackay told CNN.
She said that she understands that there is a limit to the money available, but it is needed for the health and safety of patients.
The NHS, which is free at the point of care, forms a central part of Britain’s national psyche and third rail of the country’s politics. During the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic, thousands of Britons stood outside their homes to applaud NHS workers, in a weekly ritual championed by the government.
disgruntled employees call that an empty gesture as the government’s pay offers have not represented the same spirit.
What do police and armed forces tell us about union strikes in Britain? The impact on the NHS and the NHS from Sunak’s row with RCN
Keir Starmer told Rishi Sunak that the whole country would be happy if he halted the strike and struck a deal with RCN.
It has left the government scrambling to respond. Members of Britain’s armed forces were being trained to drive ambulances and firefight in the event of strike action, ministers said earlier this month. The request for police officers to drive ambulances was opposed by the Police Federation.
And unions have threatened more action in the New Year, when a cost-of-living crisis that has clouded Britain in recent months is expected to worsen still.
The ONS reported that a total of 417,000 working days were lost in October, the most recent month for which figures are available. That is the highest number since 2011.
Sunak has been accused by opposition parties of refusing to negotiate with unions in good faith, and not doing enough to prevent strikes from going ahead.
But the ongoing disputes are a thorny issue for both major parties. Labour – a party with strong historic links to trades unions – has been walking a tightrope, urging the government to do more but refusing to explicitly support the demands of picketers.
The UK Travel Chaos December 2022: How Hard is it to Travel in the Presence of Industrial Warfare during the Christmas Season?
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The UK: home to tradition, cozy cottages and Christmas movies. The holiday season is a great time to stay in a cottage like in the movie “The Holiday” or enjoy a romantic airport arrival like “Love Actually”.
The UK has seen snow in southern England — that could be a good time for it. For the first time in years a white Christmas could be on the cards.
It’s just one problem getting there. Although the UK has had no Covid-mandated travel restrictions this Christmas, it’s still questionable as to whether it is a feasible destination this month.
Amid political chaos — the country went through three prime ministers in seven weeks, earlier in the fall — the UK is seeing industrial action on an unprecedented scale.
The highways workers will strike from December 17 to December 16 in the busiest part of the Christmas season, and then from December 30 to January 4-7 in various parts of the country. The PCS union warns of a road network standstill as a result of the strike.
The UK is battered by freezing weather, with roads jammed up by snow, airports forced to close and flights diverted due to ice.
It’s a toxic combination of high inflation, job cuts, and a government that isn’t giving concessions to workers.
People who travel to be with their family over the festive period are likely to be impacted, and it’s really stressful, especially after years of being separated from loved ones. We do not know how bad it will be because we haven’t seen industrial action on this scale before.
Two friends of hers were planning to travel to the UK for a short break — one from Ireland, one from Belgium — but decided against it, because of the strikes.
It doesn’t feel like it is that severe because you don’t think of it as that, but it does feel that you aren’t guaranteed to go ahead if you rely on public transport.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/uk-travel-chaos-december-2022/index.html
Travel chaos at the UK border — a warning from Braverman, Rhys Jones and the advice for anyone traveling over December 10-2022
The biggest obstacle for those from abroad? The border, where immigration officers will down tools over the Christmas period at six major airports — Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester, Birmingham, Cardiff and Glasgow — and Newhaven port.
Suella Braverman, the UK Home Secretary, warned of “undeniable, serious disruption” because of the strikes and urged anyone flying to rethink their travel plans over the holidays.
As a contingency, the government is deploying the army to man immigration desks. Army personnel were watching the border process at Heathrow as far back as December 10, in preparation.
According to a spokesman for the Home Office, military aid to civil authorities is a longstanding and established process that allows the specialist capabilities of the UK armed forces to be utilized.
No airline has yet been ordered to cut 30% of flights by the government, and only easyJet is giving affected passengers free rebooking.
“It could go really, really badly,” says Rhys Jones. If border delays lead to overcrowding in the terminal, airplanes could be asked to keep passengers onboard, and thus lead to delayed flights as well. From then, it’s a snowball effect.
“Aviation works on planes being in the right place at the right time,” says Jones. “If aircraft are out of position, all of a sudden you have a massive network crisis.” The worst case scenario? “Knock-on effects for days.”
Jones thinks that the strikes will not be a total catastrophe, but he thinks there will be delays. Airlines have not canceled flights so far, and anyone with a biometric passport can use the e-gates. “The main bottleneck will be where you have to see an officer,” he says.
He says that changing your flight means you’re taking less of a risk. “That said, if the airlines haven’t canceled flights yet, I’d hold fast.”
Rhodes’ advice is to arrive with plenty of time at the airport, and not to rely on public transport to get there. She had a travel insurance with cover for delays or missed flights on her Christmas list.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/uk-travel-chaos-december-2022/index.html
Can the rail strikes save the hospitality sector? The crisis since the 1998 London train accident occurred in 2003, when Russia’s invasion of Ukraine devastated the railway system
But no. The hospitality sector will lose an estimated 1 billion dollars in earnings as people stay home due to the rail strikes, according to the UKHospitality CEO. The same financial impact was experienced by the arrival of the omicron variant last December.
“This is the worst state the railways have been in in the 30 years I’ve been reporting on them,” says Christian Wolmar , railway analyst and author of multiple books about trains.
The situation was only worse, he reckons, in 2000, after a crash outside London killed four people, injured more than 70, and showed up a horrifying lack of maintenance and accountability within the railway system, which had been privatized in 1993.
The causes of the strikes are many, but the one that is causing the most concern is inflation from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There are parts of the public service that have been vulnerable for a while. The National Health Service, which provides free care, has been underfunded and hemorrhaging workers for years.
The politicians lumped together regular pay negotiations and structural decisions about cost cutting, maintenance and staffing numbers. “The government could solve this if it took a more sanguine view of what could be achieved, instead of mixing productivity deals with sorting out the wage rises,” he says.
“It has antagonized by mixing in a lot of [cost-cutting] demands. It’s not necessary to be complex to negotiate a pay rise with a cost of living crisis. They’re happy with 5-6%.” In October, UK inflation hit a 41-year high of 11.1%. In the first and second year, 5% and 4% was offered to workers, plus a guarantee that they wouldn’t lose their jobs until 2025. The terms were accepted by the TSSA on December 15. The nation’s largest transport union has not budged.
Unions have suggested the strikes could continue on and off for months, after the government refused to deny scuppering a last-minute deal before strike action began.
The UK Railways are Connected, but the Industrial Crisis is Already Changing. Is it Still Open for Business in the UK?
It added that the offer is reasonable and fair, and it is obvious to everyone that it is delivering vital reforms to our railways.
Iain Griffin, CEO of Seat Frog , which allows users to bid for cut-price upgrades on trains, calls the strikes’ impact “unprecedented — definitely the worst it’s been in my lifetime.”
After a devastating couple of years for its inbound tourism — visitor numbers were down 82% in 2021 compared to pre-pandemic figures, and this summer saw a furore over water companies discharging raw sewage onto beaches — perhaps “functional” is the best the UK can hope for.
Turner, who works for clients from around the world, says there’s definitely knowledge of it out there. He has several hundred clients visiting the UK this month, and his team is working extra hours to create contingency plans.
Kate Nicholls agrees that it’s already changing habits. She says that European visitors, who come for a weekend, have changed their mind and will not come. “It feels like the whole transport system is creaking and it impacts on international consumer confidence that they can come to the UK and get around. It might take longer to get around, but the UK is still open for business.
The NHS Needs Iron Lady: A Nurse’s Perspective on Trade Unions in the Age of Competition and Dilemma: A One Day Nurse Walkout in London
Hundreds of nurses formed a picket line across the river from Big Ben. One waved a sign that read, “Can anyone find my friends? All of them quit.
Woods and tens of thousands of other nurses staged a one-day walkout Thursday, the biggest nursing strike in the history of Britain’s National Health Service.
Woods focuses on identifying children who may have been victims of domestic violence. She says because of low pay and high turnover among her fellow NHS workers, hundreds of children fall through the cracks.
On strike days, rail workers have reduced train operations by 80%. By early Friday evening, the doors to London’s Waterloo station and its 24 train platforms were locked shut. Beginning on Christmas Eve, rail worker strikes are scheduled to begin.
Matthew Lee, a train guard, picketed last week in front of London’s King’s Cross station, which was nearly empty. He said that one of his coworkers is no longer able to afford dinner.
She says there was rhetoric about having a hard line on trade unions in the Conservative leadership contest over the summer.
Lee believes that British trade unions could use a dose of Iron Lady, a nickname given to a former Conservative prime minister who used to crush trade unions.