UK nurses warned there will be no quick conclusion to strikes as health-care workers prepare for a new walkout beginning tonight.
(Bloomberg) — UK nurses warned there will be no quick conclusion to strikes as health-care workers prepare for a new walkout beginning tonight.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing will strike from 8 p.m. Sunday until midnight on Monday. Ambulance staff in some regions will also walk out on Monday and Tuesday, in the sixth consecutive month of industrial action for the National Health Service.
The strike is particularly controversial after members of another major health union, the GMB, voted Friday to accept the government’s latest pay offer. That may add to pressure on the RCN to accept a deal with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government after a May 2 meeting of the NHS Staff Council, an umbrella labor body.
“The government wants to bring NHS strike action to a close this coming week, but with several big unions — and nursing as the largest part of the NHS workforce — still in dispute, it has to do better,” RCN General Secretary Pat Cullen said in in an emailed statement.
Health leaders in England warned of significant disruption to services this bank holiday weekend, with the walkout affecting emergency departments, intensive care and cancer wards for the first time. Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the strike action by nurses was the “most worrying so far.” Some hospitals were struggling to find enough staff for specialist areas including children’s services, he said in an emailed statement.
“It is hugely disappointing some unions are escalating strike action this week — including the RCN, despite only a third of its members rejecting the government’s fair and reasonable offer on pay, which other unions accepted,” Steve Barclay, the health secretary, wrote in an emailed statement.
The GMB union voted on Friday 56%-44% to accept the government’s offer, which has split NHS staff including nurses, dietitians and ambulance attendants across the country. Earlier on Friday, members of the Unite union turned down the same nationwide package by a similarly narrow margin of 52%-48% and are participating in the weekend walkouts.
The vote by the GMB could be pivotal for the government’s effort to end the dispute, since it is one of the larger unions and could tip the balance toward acceptance.
The Conservative government has been battling with industrial disputes across multiple sectors as union leaders demand workers’ pay keeps up with soaring inflation, which remains around 10%. The walkouts in health care, education, train services and other critical industries are now entering a 12th month. The unrest appears to have hurt Sunak’s Tory party, which is trailing Keir Starmer’s Labour Party by a double-digit margin ahead of a general election expected next year.
–With assistance from Ali Asad Zulfiqar.
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