UK health care and rail unions signaled they’re far from resolving their disputes with employers and the government, suggesting there’s no end in sight to a crippling wave of strikes.
(Bloomberg) — UK health care and rail unions signaled they’re far from resolving their disputes with employers and the government, suggesting there’s no end in sight to a crippling wave of strikes.
Some 14 health care unions representing more than 1 million workers on Wednesday said they won’t engage in talks over pay for the next fiscal year until the government discusses this year’s pay settlement — something Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s administration has said it won’t do.
Meanwhile the bosses of three rail unions told a House of Commons panel that they aren’t close to resolving their disputes with employers, despite months of strikes that have hampered commuters and disrupted travel over the Christmas and new year period.
Compounding the gloomy assessment by the unions, ambulance workers held their second strike day of the winter on Wednesday even as the National Health Service struggles to deal with surging demand and massive backlogs. In the Commons, Sunak described that walkout as “terrifying” because it left people not knowing if they can get emergency treatment.
Sunak’s administration is grappling to contain the widespread industrial action across sectors including public transport, the National Health Service and the Border Force, as unions protest against real-terms cuts in pay. The government on Monday organized a series of meetings between ministers and unions involved in the various disputes, but so far has failed to stem the workforce unrest.
Excess Deaths
The National Health Service has reached breaking point this winter, with excess deaths in England and Wales jumping 20% above average at the end of 2022, according to figures on Tuesday from the Office for National Statistics. And even before the strikes, the ambulance service was failing to meet targets, with many patients waiting several hours for an ambulance.
On Wednesday, physiotherapy staff in England said they will strike on Jan. 26, expanding the dispute across the NHS. Nurses also plan two walkouts next week after staging their biggest ever strike in December, while ambulance workers plan to strike again on Jan. 23.
UK Ambulance Workers Strike Again, Piling Pressure on NHS
Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, told Bloomberg Radio on Wednesday that the strikes would not be averted unless ministers start discussing a new deal for pay in the current year.
Providing a glimmer of hope, Health Secretary Steve Barclay finally agreed to discuss pay at Monday’s meeting, according to Unison’s head of health Sara Gorton. Speaking from a picket line in central London on Wednesday she said unions had proposed a meeting with Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt to negotiate extra funding for a raise. Barclay “said he would take it back to Cabinet,” she added.
‘Different Planets’
The government wants “to have constructive dialog with the unions,” Sunak told the Commons in his first weekly question session of the year. He didn’t clarify his pledge to reduce the long backlog of patients waiting for treatment when asked if he’d get the numbers back to where they were before the Covid-19 pandemic, or back to where they were more than 10 years ago.
In a bid to dispel the perception that he can’t understand the NHS’s problems because he uses private health care, Sunak told the Commons that he is registered with an NHS doctor, though he also acknowledged using private health care in the past. Sunak’s press secretary later told reporters the premier no longer has private health insurance. In recent days, he’d declined to clarify his family’s health care arrangements.
Earlier on Wednesday, appearing before the Commons Transport Committee, the chiefs of the RMT, the train drivers’ union Aslef and the TSSA were asked to rate how close to a resolution they were in their disputes, on a 1 to 10 scale. Committee chair Iain Stewart described 1 as representing “you remain on different planets.”
“I think you can include zero in your 1-10,” Aslef General Secretary Mick Whelan replied. “We’re further away than when we started.”
TSSA boss Frank Ward said he agreed with Whelan, while RMT chief Mick Lynch said “we haven’t got an agreement and until we get an agreement we’re not close to it really.”
Speaking later to the same committee, the employers were more optimistic about resolving the standoff.
Steve Montgomery, chair of the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train companies, said there’s an opportunity to move forward in talks with the RMT and TSSA with further discussions on Thursday, while there’s “more work” to do in dealing with Aslef.
Tim Shoveller, the chief negotiator for Network Rail, said it only has an ongoing dispute with the RMT, and that “there’s every chance by some very carefully targeted discussions” of reaching a resolution.
–With assistance from Kitty Donaldson, James Woolcock, Caroline Hepker, Yuan Potts, Leonora Campbell and Julian Harris.
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