{"id":2567,"date":"2014-12-19T16:18:23","date_gmt":"2014-12-19T16:18:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=2567"},"modified":"2014-12-22T11:58:11","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T11:58:11","slug":"stretched-breaking-point-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=2567","title":{"rendered":"Stretched to breaking point"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p>The nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s health workers will step up their fight over NHS pay with an escalation in strike action in the new year, Unite announced today (December 19).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Two days of strike action on January 29 and February 24, 2015 will see tens of thousands of NHS staff walk out for 12 hours and 24 hours respectively over the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continued refusal to award a one per cent pay rise to all NHS staff as recommended by the NHS pay review body (PRB).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The unions will also be escalating the action short of a strike with members working to rule and taking their full breaks for a longer period. \u00c2\u00a0 The action marks a significant escalation in the ongoing pay dispute which has seen NHS staff in England and Northern Ireland take part in two four-hour strikes last October and November.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Unite, which has 100,000 members in the health service, has warned the government that it is alienating huge swathes of the 1.4m strong NHS workforce by a continued refusal to negotiate on pay.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Rachael Maskell, Unite head of health said,\u00e2\u20ac\u015bPatient safety is our members\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 number one priority which is why they won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be taking action over the Christmas and new year period.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s continued refusal to negotiate on pay has left NHS staff with no option but to step up their fight with more strike action in the new year.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 1.4m NHS staff have seen their incomes shrink by 15 per cent since the coalition came to power in 2010. And clearly The government has stretched the goodwill of NHS staff to breaking point.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFour and a half years of the government\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s squeeze on NHS wages led staff to walkout for the first time in more than 30 years over pay in October and again in November,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 added Rachael. \u00c2\u00a0 \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBoth actions were strongly supported by the public and we believe that support will continue in the months ahead.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Staff believe the way that this government has attacked NHS pay, cut and privatised the service and is now denying NHS staff a miserly one per cent pay rise shows utter contempt for hardworking NHS staff.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnless Jeremy Hunt urgently\u00c2\u00a0establishes proper pay\u00c2\u00a0talks for the nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nurses, therapists, scientists and support staff, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be forced to escalate their industrial action until the general election,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 she warned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The nation\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s health workers will step up their fight over NHS pay with an escalation in strike action in the new year, Unite announced today (December 19). &nbsp; Two days of strike action on January 29 and February 24, 2015 will see tens of thousands of NHS staff walk out for 12 hours and 24 [&hellip;]<\/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 pay fight to continue in new year vow ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2567"}],"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=2567"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2567\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2572,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2567\/revisions\/2572"}],"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=2567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}