Before Christmas, Thousands Of Nurses Will Strike

Thousands of nurses will strike before Christmas after union’s members voted in favour of a first-ever mass NHS walkout.

Britain’s nursing union, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), closed its historic strike action ballot of its 300,000 members on Wednesday.

The union is demanding nurses receive a cost of living pay rise of 5 per cent above inflation which presently sits at 12.3 per cent.

It’s set to be the first national walkout in the 106-year-old history of the RCN.

A union source told a newspaper outlet that this will see the majority of services taken out, and picket lines across the country.

The NHS is also gearing up for possible industrial action from other staffing groups with junior doctors, midwives and non-clinical workers like cleaners and porters also considering union action.

It comes as NHS hospitals in England were ordered to plan a military-style operation to prepare for protentional devastating walkouts this winter.

Officials have been told to ensure each part of the service is prepared if historic, NHS-wide industrial action goes ahead, an operation dubbed Exercise Arctic Willow.

Widespread industrial action could see thousands of operations and appointments cancelled.

The Tories have warned that the walkouts would be criminal and risk lives, although the NHS unions dispute this.

The operation, an extension of usual routine winter exercises carried out by trusts to prepare for happenings like flu outbreaks, will take place in mid-November.

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen said the Government’s current proposal, around £1,400 per nurse, in fact, makes a difference to a nurse’s wage of 72p an hour.

This, the union argues, is forcing nurses to exit the NHS for better-paid positions in retail and hospitality, further worsening staff shortages.

The RCN is demanding nurses get a wage uplift of five per cent above inflation. This would give the average nurse, who makes approximately £35,600 each year, an additional £6,150.

The RCN will be expected to maintain a minimum staffing level to ensure patients have access to emergency care, and urgent diagnostic procedures and they’re not at risk of death or disability.

Like other workers, NHS staff can’t legally be sacked if they partake in official and lawful industrial action.

Nurses could be joined by midwives later in the year, with the Royal College of Midwives set to launch its own ballot next week.

The British Medical Association, a union representing 160,000 GPs, consultants, and junior doctors, has also warned industrial action by the profession was inescapable.

Well, if the nurses are going on strike I do hope people with cancer, that they’re cancer goes on strike as well, but of course, it won’t, and most of these people wouldn’t get through their treatment without these incredible nurses, so pay them what they want so they can carry on working.

Nurses don’t get the credit that they deserve or the wages that they deserve. They work extremely long hours which can be extremely stressful, and they’re taken for granted. I bet they won’t be taken for granted now once they go on strike. Although I’m not sure it was the right decision for them to strike because by striking there will be patients that will need life-saving treatment, cancer treatments and dialysis et cetera and they won’t get it.

Nurses are worth their weight in gold, so they should be given what they’re asking and without them, we’re basically stuffed, but this is what the Tories want. Private Health Insurance so that they can ditch the NHS, and those that afford it will prevail, those that can’t, will die.