{"id":1812,"date":"2014-10-13T14:02:47","date_gmt":"2014-10-13T13:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=1812"},"modified":"2014-10-14T21:41:14","modified_gmt":"2014-10-14T20:41:14","slug":"betrayed-nhs-staff-take-action","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=1812","title":{"rendered":"Betrayed NHS staff take action"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Unite joined six other unions in strike action today (October 13) in a historic four-hour work stoppage over NHS pay. Picket lines dotted hospitals and clinics throughout the country, as health service workers came out to demand the one per cent pay rise they were promised when the NHS independent pay review board made its recommendation to the department of health.
\nThis is the first NHS strike action over pay in more than 30 years.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been lied to\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/em><\/strong>
\nUNITElive came out to the picket line by St. Thomas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Hospital, a stone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s throw away from Westminster, where MPs lathered themselves with an 11 per cent pay rise earlier this year, all the while claiming a paltry one per cent rise for NHS workers was unaffordable.
\nUnite member Bob Davis, an electrician for the health service out on strike today, said he felt betrayed.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe were made to believe we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get a one percent pay rise, and it didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t happen,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been lied to.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nLynn Hubbard, a Unite member and NHS dietician, was also angered by the disingenuousness with which the government has come up with health workers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 pay award.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s really shocking that our Pay Review Body has rewarded us a one percent rise, and even that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not been honoured,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor so many of our members, the pay we get, you simply can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t live on it. The small one per cent rise we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re asking for is not even adequate anyway, after having a pay freeze for the past three years.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nCost-of-living rising<\/strong><\/em>
\nMany members out on the picket line voiced similar concerns about cost of living increases, which have far outstripped the meagre wages they earn.
\nUnite member Kim Lewis, a speech therapist, explained how difficult it is to keep up, especially in London.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI know a lot of people who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve just qualified, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re having to live far outside London and then travel to the centre of the city,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re living in worse accommodation than when they were students. Our wages just aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t enough to cover the most basic expenses.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nUnite rep Vanessa Williams-Herrington, who works in hotel services for the NHS, highlights how low pay forces health workers to work ever harder and longer hours.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening is, especially nurses, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re working extra hours just to make ends meet. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll finish a 12-hour shift, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get off and do another six hour shift,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not safe, not for anyone. If this government is really interested in putting patients first, they need to start staffing properly and paying properly.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nUnite regional secretary Peter Kavanagh contested the argument put forward by health secretary Jeremy Hunt that those on incremental pay increases don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need the one per cent pay rise.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIncremental pay is part of long-standing agreements within the health service, and indeed throughout much of the public sector, which reflects increasing levels of skill,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Kavanagh said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIncremental pay is an expectation once you begin the job. But a proper negotiated pay rise is an additional reasonable expectation to combat inflation, which has far outstripped wages in both the private and public sectors.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nGroundswell of public support<\/strong><\/em>
\nAlthough Unite\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s health workers expressed anger at the government for denying them the pay rise it promised, the most palpable emotion of the day was joyful solidarity.
\nA Unite-commissioned survey found that beyond unions joining together to fight for an NHS pay rise, the wider public overwhelmingly supported strike action as well. A full 61 per cent of those surveyed believed the strike was justified, with only a fourth of respondents saying it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.
\nStrikers at the picket line were not surprised by the results.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEveryone knows NHS workers, and everyone knows with the cost of living, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s getting harder and harder to live,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Bob Davis said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all in this together. The public, all of us, value the NHS.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe public realise that they need an NHS that works, because at some point, every one of us will use the service,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Lynn Hubbard added. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe public realise we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not greedy. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re not asking for the earth; we just want to be able to live.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nKavanagh said that the survey was proof against government and media claims that the strike action was disapproved of by the wider public.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe media and the government always attack strikers, no matter what sector they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll play the emotive card, you know, \u00e2\u20ac\u0098How dare they go on strike.\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 But this survey proves the public understands that these workers are going out on strike with great reluctance. They don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to be standing out here in the rain, they want to be on the wards, in the clinics looking after people. But this all just shows how desperate the situation has become and the public realises it.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nBeyond pay<\/strong><\/em>
\nWhile NHS workers on strike today were concerned about their own livelihoods, more than anything, they were concerned about the future of a health service in which patient lives are at risk because of politicians\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 neglect.
\nUnite rep Mark Boothroyd, a staff nurse at St. Thomas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 hospital, explained what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like on the frontline as Tories progressively seek to privatise the NHS.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf the NHS continues being privatised, even if we win decent pay, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be a worse service for everyone,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bServices are going to be rationed and patients are not going to get good care.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEven now, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s huge pressure on beds and we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re running on over one hundred per cent capacity. We discharge patients in the morning and we get more in the early afternoon. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no rest. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very heavy work.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nSteven Hack, a community speech and language therapist, agrees, arguing that it is privatisation that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s draining away funds from the NHS.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey bailed out the banks and recapitalised them with billions of pounds,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey can and should do the same for the NHS. If they stop private companies from taking over the NHS, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll save billions. Privatisation just wastes money.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nUnite general secretary Len McCluskey, addressing the St. Thomas\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 hospital picket line this morning, made clear the enormity of what was at stake.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is an outrage that every politician says they are so proud of our NHS, while they sell it off right before our very eyes,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bSeventy per cent of NHS services that have been tendered so far gone into private hands. We need to make sure to continue this fight to save our NHS.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165
\nStay tuned on UNITElive for the latest developments on the NHS pay strike.<\/p>\n

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Unite joined six other unions in strike action today (October 13) in a historic four-hour work stoppage over NHS pay. Picket lines dotted hospitals and clinics throughout the country, as health service workers came out to demand the one per cent pay rise they were promised when the NHS independent pay review board made its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1813,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[130],"wps_subtitle":"NHS workers turn out in droves to support first pay strike in over 30 years","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1812"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1862,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1812\/revisions\/1862"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}