Tuesday’s strike goes ahead as Royal College of Nursing highlights low pay
Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland went on strike on Tuesday in an ongoing dispute with the government about pay and concerns about patient safety.
Up to 100,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) took part after it balloted its members in October. It has said that low pay is the cause of chronic understaffing that is putting patients at risk and leaving NHS staff overworked.
Continue reading...Patients with serious conditions and injuries will have to get themselves to A&E, NHS chiefs say
Thousands of patients who have had strokes, heart attacks or broken bones will have to get themselves to A&E on Wednesday when ambulance staff strike over pay, NHS bosses have warned.
The disruption is expected to last for up to three days, with crews not reaching some patients who called 999 on Wednesday until Thursday or Friday.
Continue reading...Leaders say ‘there’s no trust left’ between unions and the government as they play down prospect of meaningful talks
Good morning. We’re in the final week before Christmas, and the strikes affecting public services are set to get even more serious. Last week’s strike by the Royal College of Nursing was unprecedented, because the RCN had never called a strike before, but ministers fear that a strike by ambulance staff in England and Wales on Wednesday could be even more serious because of the impact it will have on patients needing emergency care.
As Jessica Elgot and Andrew Gregory report in their overnight story, Steve Barclay, the health secretary, has signalled that he is open to further talks in the hope of averting this week’s strike.
Look at Scotland. The government there came back to the negotiating table, made a new offer and the strikes were cancelled. Yet in England they refuse to negotiate a new deal with the unions or go back to the pay review body.
It’s Steve Barclay who is holding the country to ransom. He will have to carry the can if patients suffer because he thinks this is his Thatcher moment.
The government has been completely intransigent here. We’ve been calling on them for weeks and weeks to talk to us about this, to actually sit down and have a proper discussion before we try and resolve this dispute, and they have adamantly refused to do that.
I don’t know how much stronger myself, or Pat Cullen [the RCN general secretary] or Gary Smith of the GMB [need to be] – all of us are saying the same thing, we are prepared to talk to you, but they will not talk to us about the elephant in the room, which is pay.
It has be a very firm commitment. There is no trust left between us and the government. They would have to come up with something more that was more than just ‘Let’s talk about this’ for us to call off the strike on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Mere commitment to discuss pay, so far refused by health secretary, would now be insufficient
Ambulance staff would require a definite commitment from ministers on pay rather than just a promise of talks to call off their planned strike on Wednesday, according to a union leader who said trust had largely broken down with the government.
Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, one of three unions involved in the strike by ambulance crews in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, said even a commitment to discuss pay, thus far refused by the health secretary, Steve Barclay, would now be insufficient.
Continue reading...Government accused of prioritising contingency planning ahead of securing a deal with workers
Unions have lashed out at plans for the armed forces to cover for striking public sector workers in the run-up to Christmas, claiming the military are not “sufficiently trained” to plug staffing gaps on the frontline.
The government is deploying 1,200 troops from the army, navy and RAF to fill in for ambulance drivers and border staff during widespread strikes over the festive period, with more than 1,000 civil servants also drafted in to help.
Continue reading...Ambulance workers and nurses are taking action in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Here’s what to expect
• Nurses pledge tougher strikes
Nurses will hold their second day of strike action on Tuesday in more than 70 trusts and health organisations in England, Wales and northern Ireland. On Wednesday, three unions, the GMB, Unison and Unite, will take strike action at ambulance trusts across the country. More than 10,000 ambulance workers in the GMB have voted to strike at nine trusts in England and Wales.
Continue reading...Nursing union gives ministers until Thursday to open pay talks as first signs emerge of bid to end dispute and prevent NHS collapse
• How will NHS strikes affect you?
Union leaders threatened on Saturday night to order a fresh wave of more severe strikes in the new year in which nurses would offer “less generous” support inside hospitals, in a dramatic escalation of their pay dispute with the government.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), in a marked hardening of its line, said there would be “more hospitals and more nurses taking part than at present” in strikes throughout January, unless ministers backed down by Thursday.
Continue reading...People urged only to travel if absolutely necessary on last weekend before Christmas
Rail passengers face another day of reduced services on Saturday as thousands of Rail, Maritime and Transport workers’ union (RMT) staff continue a 48-hour strike.
People have been urged to only attempt travel if absolutely necessary on the last full weekend before Christmas, with only a skeleton service running and all train journeys ending by early evening.
Continue reading...NHS Providers boss says nurses’ strike had ‘significant impact’ as senior Tories urge government to negotiate
Planned strikes next week will be “very challenging” for the health service, hospital bosses have warned, after they conceded that Thursday’s nurses strikes had had a “significant impact”.
The comments from NHS Providers came amid mounting pressure on the government from senior backbenchers and usually supportive newspapers to try to resolve the dispute.
Continue reading...Mick Lynch speaks after talks with minister on Thursday as one in five trains expected to run today and some National Highways workers strike
RMT leader Mick Lynch has said there are “no new proposals on the table” after talks convened by rail minister Huw Merriman on Thursday.
Speaking from the picket line at London Euston station, the union chief told Sky News:
“We had an exchange about what might be possible and some ways forward and ideas that all the parties shared, and the rail minister requested that all the parties get down to some more discussions in the next period.
“We’ll look to arrange those meetings with the employers and see if we can develop some solutions to the issues that hopefully all the parties can support.
If we get a set of documentation and a pay proposal that our members want to support, it will resolve the dispute and we can take all the action away.
I hope we can do that as quickly as possible.
“We started today with 46 organisations.
And why did we do that? We did that because we wanted to make sure that we manage this strike safely and effectively for every patient, the people that I’m speaking with here tonight in this room, and every other patient in England and Wales and Northern Ireland.
Continue reading...For many striking in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, staff shortages are a bigger issue than pay
In many professions, working a 14-hour day with no break would be unthinkable, but for many nurses on freezing picket lines across the country on Thursday it is increasingly becoming the norm.
“It’s tough at the moment,” said Ella Savage, a children’s specialist nurse at Leeds General Infirmary, where about 200 nurses were gathered at one of 125 Royal College of Nursing (RCN) pickets across England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Continue reading...Prime minister makes statement in Commons, saying he wants to abolish backlog of unprocessed asylum claims by end of next year
The Conservative MP Adam Afriyie has been made bankrupt after a judge in a specialist court heard how he owed around £1.7m, PA Media reports. A bankruptcy order was made against Afriyie, who represents Windsor, at an online hearing in the insolvency and companies court today by judge Nicholas Briggs.
This story, by my colleagues Heather Stewart and Rowena Mason last year, explains the background to this case.
We completed our enquiry into the impact of the ending of freedom of movement on the adult social care sector in April and submitted the report to government and parliament. We recommended that care workers continue to be eligible to apply for a health and care worker visa and made some additional recommendations for changes to the immigration system to ease the burden on social care employers and migrants.
However, our main recommendation was that a minimum rate of pay should be established for care workers at a premium to the statutory minimum wage where care is being provided with public funds. We suggested that this should initially be set at £1 per hour above the national living wage but expected a more substantial premium to be needed to properly address the crisis in social care recruitment and retention.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing leader criticises ‘belligerence’ in meeting with Steve Barclay at which ministers refused to discuss pay
Nurses’ strikes will go ahead this week after a meeting between the union and the health secretary ended in deadlock, with the Royal College of Nursing condemning ministers’ “belligerence” for refusing to discuss pay.
Six hundred military personnel from all three armed forces will start training to drive ambulances to cover for striking NHS workers across the UK later this month. A further 150 are being readied to act as logistical support, defence sources said, with training for both groups to start “shortly”.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing says Steve Barclay refused to discuss pay at meeting on Monday; Welsh nurses to strike after last-minute talks fail. This blog is now closed
Pat Cullen, the Royal College of Nursing’s general secretary, told ITV this morning that there was no point talking to Steve Barclay, the health secretary, if he was not prepared to discuss pay. She said
What I’m saying … to the health secretary this morning, is if you don’t want to speak to me directly about nurses’ pay, we have engaged with the conciliation service Acas, they can do that through Acas, but our door is absolutely wide open and it appears at the minute that theirs is totally shut …
Fundamentally, I need to get to a table and talk to them about pay. This isn’t just me, it’s the 320,000 nurses that voted for strike action … They voted through an independent ballot that we carried out and surely to goodness you couldn’t look at one of those people this morning in the eye and say: ‘You’re not worth an extra brown penny’. In my mind they absolutely are.
I think it’s a very challenging international picture. About a third of the world’s economies are predicted to be in recession, either this year or next.
We’re no different in this country and truthfully, it is likely to get worse before it gets better, which makes it even more difficult when we have big public sector strikes going on at the moment.
Continue reading...Royal College of Nursing and Unison call on health secretary to negotiate with them to avoid action at Christmas and new year
Health unions made a dramatic offer on Saturday night to suspend a wave of planned strikes that threatens to cripple the NHS over Christmas and the new year if ministers agree to open serious discussions over pay.
The moves by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the country’s biggest union, Unison, are the first signs of flexibility by either side in a dispute that has been deadlocked for weeks.
Continue reading...Combination of overstretched forces and few licensed drivers means requests expected to be turned down
Police say they will not replace striking ambulance drivers as health trusts scramble to limit the effects of a wave of industrial action.
The trusts, which are responsible for running ambulances, have approached individual police forces to see if officers might ferry patients to and from hospital.
Continue reading...The RCN boss poised to lead the first NHS-wide strike reflects on her long-established readiness to tackle perceived injustices
Pat Cullen tells a story that is very revealing about the character of the woman who is about to lead Britain’s nurses into their first-ever NHS-wide strike – herself.
Almost 40 years ago, back in 1983, Cullen was an 18-year-old trainee nurse at Holywell psychiatric hospital in Antrim, Northern Ireland. She was appalled that under its “token economy system” staff punished patients whose behaviour proved difficult by taking away their personal possessions – sweets, cigarettes, washbags or blankets.
Continue reading...Chancellor did not contest claim when asked whether his department blocked a pay rise of around 10% for rail workers
Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, has refused to quash claims that the Treasury vetoed a pay offer that may have led to a resolution of the rail strike.
Last month the Daily Telegraph claimed that the Department for Transport wanted to offer rail workers a rise worth between 8% and 9% over two year, but that it was prevented from doing so by the Treasury.
There is unanimity across the government in that it wants high inflation to be temporary, and I think there is understanding that that is essential for the very people who are feeling most angry about their situation.
We have to be really careful not to agree to pay demands that have the opposite of the intended effect because they lock in high inflation.
So if we make the wrong choices now, we won’t have that 3.7% of inflation in January or February of 2024 and this will change from being a one-off problem, to being a permanent problem, which will be the worst possible thing for people working in public services. That is why it’s generally a very difficult issue.
I would urge everyone to boycott Netflix and make sure that we actually focus on the things that matter.
Continue reading...Comparisons with 1979 are misleading – strikes over pay now are smaller in scale and focus, and stoked by inflation
Britain is facing a winter of strikes, as industrial action on the railways spreads to the health service and other key sectors of the economy. Such is the wave of discontent that more than 1m working days could be lost to disputes in December, the most since 1989, during Margaret Thatcher’s final years in power.
With inflation at the highest rate in 41 years amid the cost of living crisis, it’s not difficult to see why workers are pushing for better pay. Coming after the worst decade for average wage growth since the Napoleonic wars, including deep real-terms pay cuts for many in the public sector, it’s even less surprising still.
Continue reading...The prime minister says due process needs to be followed after revelations about Baroness Mone in the Guardian
Everyone is hard up at the moment – including the Conservative party, it seems. According to Bloomberg’s Alex Wickham, the party is raising membership fees by 56%.
This morning Steve Barclay said Rishi Sunak was taking “a very strong stand in terms of the priority of getting inflation down”. (See 10.02am.) But not for Tory members, it seems.
Continue reading...