Vol. 78/No. 39      November 3, 2014

Real wages for National Health Service workers have fallen by as much as 15 percent since 2010.

The strike, organized by seven trade unions representing more than 400,000 NHS workers, was called after the government refused to implement an across-the-board 1 percent pay increase recommended by a pay review body. The ruling excluded those it claims receive annual incremental raises, so some 60 percent of NHS workers received no raise.

At the Oldham picket line passing cars honked in support as some 70 workers waved placards.

“Some midwives have not had a rise now for three years,” said Julie Beattie. “There’s been a two-year wage freeze and the incremental rises are not guaranteed — it depends on what managers say about your performance.”

“We do a job where we can often work through our paid breaks in a 12-hour shift,” she said. “Now for the rest of the week we’ll be ‘working to rule’ including taking breaks.”

U.K. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt threatened to lay off 14,000 nurses if the strikers’ demands were met.

The government called in police and army personnel to run ambulances in London and North West England, despite the unions organizing to provide emergency care during the action.

“I’m always saying to the managers we’re a hospital, not a factory,” Brian Cardwell, a porter and union steward at Stepping Hill Hospital, Stockport, told the Militant while picketing with 50 workers there.
 
 
Related articles:
UK workers march for pay increase in show of solidarity among unions
On the Picket Line
 
 
 
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