The NHS is not going to shut down, but nurses are going to be scared, and that’s the reason why I’m afraid of going on strike
The NYSNA president said during a virtual conference Saturday morning that they’re ready to go on strike if there is no agreement in the next few hours.
The British National Health Service is straining due to staffing shortfalls, sky-high demand and stretched funding after several years of hardship for employees.
I think this is the only way we can put our point across and that is why we want to save the hospital. We don’t want to be here. I was really torn about striking because it’s not something I’ve ever, ever thought in my lifetime I’d ever had to do, but yet the government has pushed us to this.”
“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 only have to go to A&E to see the lines and there are 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 is definitely frightening. It’s scary for us because our registrations are on the line and we’re being put in a position where it isn’t safe,” Ms. Sudol said.
NHS workers are frustrated by pay rises above inflation, but they aren’t willing to take heed of a third rail, as the NHS does
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. The health secretary of the UK said in a statement that their demand was not affordable.
The standoff follows years of disputes over the level of pay for NHS employees. In the five years from 2010 to 2017, nurses’ pay dropped 1.2% once inflation was taken into account, according to the Health Foundation. For the first three of those years, their pay was frozen.
A record 7.2 million people in England – more than one in eight residents – are currently waiting for treatment, according to the British Medical Association. Seven years ago, the figure 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 unless the government prioritized health, patient safety, and strengthened the workforce then the nation’s healthcare service is going to collapse.
Britain has a third rail in politics and the National Health Service forms a central part of it. 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.
A group of disgruntled employees say the government’s offers to staff have not fit in with their spirit.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/business/uk-nurses-strike-thursday-nhs-gbr-intl/index.html
The UK Nurses Strikes Tuesday Night During Prime Minister’s Questions: An Overview of the Strike Action by Premier Keir Starmer
Keir Starmer, leader of the Labour party, attacked Rishi Sunak during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, telling him that if he halted the strike by striking a deal with the RCN, everyone would breathe a sigh of relief.
Employees on Britain’s railways, buses, highways and borders are taking industrial action this month, bringing various forms of travel essentially to a standstill. Teachers, postal workers, baggage handlers and paramedics are all also due to strike in December.
The government is in a state of disarray. 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 Police Federation opposed a request for police officers to drive ambulances.
There will be more action by unions in the new year when the cost of living crisis is expected to get worse.
A total of 417,000 working days were lost to strikes in October, the most recent month for which figures are available, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS). That is the highest number for any month in the last four years.
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.
Source: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/15/business/uk-nurses-strike-thursday-nhs-gbr-intl/index.html
Labor Disputes: Wage Agreements, Salaries, and Healthcare Benefits in the New York Superunion Intensive Care Network
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.
The ongoing disputes are a big issue for the 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 NYSNA hit back Saturday at comments from Mount Sinai, which said Friday it was transferring infants in its neonatal intensive care units to other area hospitals because of the strike notice, adding the hospital was dismayed by the union’s “reckless” actions.
The hospital said Sunday its current wage offer “is identical” to ratified agreements at NewYork-Presbyterian and Maimonides – and would increase a Mount Sinai nurse’s base salary by 19.1 percent over three years.
“But NYSNA’s inconsistent bargaining, unwillingness to accept this offer, and insistence on moving forward with a strike has left us no choice but to take significant actions to care for our patients,” the hospital statement said.
“It’s unconscionable that Mount Sinai refuses to address unsafe staffing in our NICU and other units of the hospital but is now stirring fears about our NICU babies in contract negotiations,” he added.
In a statement Saturday, the NYSNA said nurses at BronxCare and The Brooklyn Hospital Center reached tentative agreements that will improve safe staffing levels and enforcement, increase wages by 7%, 6%, and 5% annually during their three-year contract, and retain their healthcare benefits.
On Saturday, nurses at NewYork-Presbyterian announced they had agreed to ratify their deal, but it was a close vote – 57% nurses voted yes and 43% were against.
“Voting on whether to ratify a contract is a key component of union democracy. The majority of the time, there is rarely 100 percent consensus in any democracy.