Britain Strikes

Largest nursing strike in NHS history starts

Britain set for a heavily disrupted Christmas period as waves of strikes sweeping the country reaches its peak this week. But surely there is a reason for all of this striking?  This month the UK has recorded the highest number of working days lost to labour disputes in more than 10 years. The Office for National Statistics reported that in 2019, on average 19,500 days a month were lost to strike action. In July 2022, the figure was 87,600, and industrial action has only intensified since the summer, with some 417,000 working days lost to strike in October.

Workers across a range of sectors have gone on strike in recent months, from Dockers to teachers, postal staff to lawyers. 40,000 railway workers begin their latest round of walkouts on Tuesday in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions, and nurses will follow suit cranking up the pressure on the Prime Minister. But the government has so far refused to budge on pay and is instead looking to tighten laws to stop some strikes, meaning there is no end in sight for what has been dubbed a new "winter of discontent" in reference to the industrial battles that gripped Britain in 1978-79.

Yesterday nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland started a nationwide strike in the largest action of its kind in NHS history. The Royal College of Nursing said staff had been given no choice after ministers refused to reopen pay talks. With the government starting that the RCN’s 19% pay rise demand was ‘simply unaffordable’. Such responses have had no effect in quelling the increasing demands of members, RCN general secretary Pat Cullen has called on the government to "do the decent thing" and resolve the dispute before the year ends.

Like most planned industrial action this winter, the nurse strike has caused considerable backlash from the media and others. But, this will be only the second time RCN members have walked out in its 106-year history and strike action has been a significant defence for workers throughout history. Without industrial action workers would not benefit from rights such as a minimum wage, maximum weekly working hours, maternity leave, and sick pay.

Union bosses have offered to suspend strikes if the government agrees to reopen serious discussions over pay. But a face-to-face meeting earlier this week broke down, with the RCN accusing Mr Barclay of "belligerence" and having "too little to say". This winter, a number of other major health unions, including Unison, the GMB, Unite the Union and the Royal College of Midwives, have also voted to strike in different parts of the UK, with a series of walkouts planned over Christmas and the new year.

So why are we seeing so many strikes in the UK? Well with inflation hitting a 41 year high of 11.1% in October as household energy bills and food prices continue to dramatically increase, it’s no wonder so many are feeling the squeeze this winter. Many public sector workers have taken a real term pay cut since the Covid-19 pandemic, an amount that is becoming unsustainable for workers and strike action is bringing to the fore greater bargaining power for employees.

One of Big Help’s Unite the Union representatives Andrew Wilson says that workers are facing pay cuts.

"If every year for the past ten years prices have gone up by more than your wages go up then you've had a wage cut every year.”

Mr Wilson believes that the government is lying when they say wages have “increased” and that they are providing record amounts of cash for public services such as the NHS.

“If the funding for your service or industry is not raised in-line with inflation then your job satisfaction and the pressure you face grows and grows and you are worried that the service won't be there for you and your family.   When government is asked about this under-funding they say "we are providing”, deliberately misleading someone is the same as telling a lie.”

Unite the Union representative Jayne Huxley has also cited “incredibly high inflation” and “stagnant wages” as the reason working people are facing a deficit in the expendable income, “hence the cost of living crisis”. Another representative Chris Riley has suggested that strike action is a matter of “fairness”, and it is really unfair for workers that wages aren’t going up but the cost of living is. Thus, “strike action is needed to create a balance.”