NHS and health

May 12 and 13 will see workers employed by Train Operating Companies (TOCs) on the mainline railway return to industrial action after a lengthy pause. RMT members, who strike on the 13th, returned a huge majority for action, on a 70% turnout, in their latest re-ballot. Drivers’ union Aslef has also rejected the latest offer put to it by the Rail Delivery Group, the umbrella body representing the TOCs. Aslef drivers strike on the 12th. RMT’s ballot result shows there is still a strong will to fight amongst members; the union leadership must now act on those results by calling the sustained...

Tobacco smoking causes cancers and a whole range of life-limiting diseases. The active ingredient of tobacco, nicotine [1], is one of the most addictive substances known. As well as denying or suppressing the evidence of smoking harm, tobacco companies have also researched safer ways to deliver nicotine. The problems with smoking are mainly tar, nicotine and carbon monoxide (CO). The invention 20 years ago of the e-cigarette enabled nicotine to be delivered without the tar and CO. In order to deliver nicotine efficiently into the user’s bloodstream (and thence to the brain), e-cigarettes...

RCN (54%), Unite (52%), RCP (podiatrists) and SOR (radiographers) voted against the government's NHS pay offer

The final day (2 May) of a planned strike by nurses’ union the RCN has been cancelled, after the government took the union to court to block the strike. The judge agreed with the government’s assertion that the RCN’s industrial action ballot mandate expired at 23:59 on 1 May, making the final day of the strike unlawful. The RCN held a protest outside the Royal Courts of Justice, where protesters held placards including one reading “who takes their heroes to court?” RCN leader Pat Cullen said: “The full weight of government gave ministers this victory over nursing staff. It is the darkest day...

The return to strikes by nurses’ union RCN, from 8pm on 30 April until 2 May, is an important opportunity to revive and accelerate the pay fight in the NHS. Unite members in various NHS trusts, including several ambulance trusts, will also strike on 1 and 2 May. If GMB members in the NHS also reject the pay offer in their ballot closing 28 April (possible, despite the GMB leadership recommending acceptance), their members in ambulance trusts and elsewhere in the NHS could also strike, officially from mid-May, but sooner if GMB members refuse to cross other unions’ pickets. Although junior...

As the RCN and some Unite health branches prepare for more industrial action, the Tories have taken the RCN to court to try to stop the action. Stephen Barclay, the Health and Social Care minister, says that the original ballot closed at midday on 2 Nov 2022 and therefore its six-month mandate does not cover strikes on 2 May. The RCN has said that the strike (from 8pm 30 April to 8pm 2 May) will continue, and accuses the Tories of bullying. This use of the courts by the Tories and employers could become commonplace if the next raft of anti-trade union law, the Strikes (Minimum Service Level)...

Junior doctors in the British Medical Association (BMA) are discussing further strikes for “pay restoration”, after seven days of strikes in March and April. They will not strike alongside other NHS workers at the start of May, but their leaders have indicated a desire for coordinated action. The BMA calculates real-terms pay has fallen 26% since 2008 – one of the biggest cuts for any group of workers. It is calling for a real-terms pay rise this year and a clear timetable to restore pay through a 35% increase. The government has responded by offering another real-terms pay cut and refusing to...

Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England have rejected the government’s derisory offer on NHS pay. Nurses recognised the offer did nothing to redress pay erosion and nothing to solve the job-vacancy crisis that is crushing the NHS. It got nowhere near the original union claim for inflation plus 5%. 54% of members, on a 61% turnout, went against the recommendation made by the union nationally. New strike dates, without derogations, have been announced from 8pm on 30 April to 8pm on 2 May. These days will allow reignition of the dispute alongside the BMA junior doctors action...

The junior doctors’ strikes for “pay restoration” on 11-15 April had a huge impact, with almost 200,000 hospital appointments and procedures in England cancelled — up by 20,000 from the strike days in March. The NHS’s national medical director publicly described the impact as “colossal”. This when NHS services are already desperately overstretched. But if NHS workers cannot turn the tide against a government that is determined to run down the health service, that overstretching will get worse and worse. Junior doctor activists pushing for an escalation of strikes, and greater coordination with...

A fringe meeting on pay, organised by “Time for Real Change”, on the first day of this year’s Unison Health sector conference, attracted 40 delegates (17 April). It decided that we needed an ongoing network of health activists to continue organising on pay restoration. On 18 April the conference passed emergency motion 1 from the top table which noted the vote to accept the offer and which said the union will seek implementation. Speeches have been made against the Service Group Exec’s ballot recommendation to accept the offer, but we have been unable to get a vote on any wording about that...