Peter Lazenby
This is the last article you can read this month
You can read more article this month
You can read more articles this month
Sorry your limit is up for this month
Reset on:
Please help support the Morning Star by subscribing here
A HISTORIC vote on strike action by 300,000 NHS nurses begins today as a poll shows that almost two-thirds of the public would support a walkout.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) are voting on whether to withdraw their labour for the first time in the union’s 106-year history.
In a last-minute appeal to members, general secretary Pat Cullen urged them to “vote Yes.”
Large numbers of nurses are being driven out of the NHS by low pay, severe understaffing and unmanageable workloads.
The RCN, the world’s biggest professional nursing union, said that NHS nurses’ pay has fallen by twice as much as that of their private-sector counterparts in the last decade.
Nurses want a pay rise equal to inflation plus 5 per cent to make up for years of government-imposed pay freezes and below-inflation rises.
The union is appealing to the public to co-sign a letter from Ms Cullen to Prime Minister Liz Truss, saying: “On behalf of the nursing profession, I implore you to see sense. Protect nursing to protect the public.”
In her message to nurses, Ms Cullen said: “This is a once in a generation chance to improve your pay and combat the staff shortages that put patients at risk.
“Governments have repeatedly neglected the NHS and the value of nursing. We can change this if together we say: ‘Enough is enough.’
“Record numbers are feeling no alternative but to quit and patients pay a heavy price. We are doing this for them too.”
A new poll by YouGov shows 65 per cent of the public declaring “consistent” support for nurses taking strike action.
In the same survey, 75 per cent said that there were too few nurses to provide safe care in the NHS.
The RCN has derided a pledge given by new Health Secretary Therese Coffey at the Conservative Party conference to “deliver” for the NHS.
“She’ll struggle to deliver anything unless she urgently addresses the staffing crisis,” said Ms Cullen.
“In the week 300,000 nursing staff are being asked to vote for strike action, her speech will do little to convince them the UK government has any understanding of the scale or impact of the problem.
“Years of real-terms pay cuts have forced thousands to leave the profession.”
