Nurses to strike 15 and 20 December

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has called its first strike dates, on 15 and 20 December, kicking off what will hopefully be a string of NHS strikes.

176 Trusts across the UK crossed the threshold in the strike ballot and have a legal mandate for action. Of those that got over the line in England, less than half will be taken out on strike in December. The union is in the process of establishing strike committees which will, among other things, determine derogations: the members that will be exempt from action and asked to keep a minimum service running. This is a very important decision — derogating too many staff will undermine the efficacy of the strike. But some are concerned that derogating too few, or even matching day-to-day (and often unsafe) rosters, will give Trusts ammunition down the line to keep wards spread too thin. The committees will have RCN staff, local reps and lay members sitting on them, and they — not RCN HQ — will make decisions about the running of the strikes. This is good, but it only comes after the decision of which Trusts will see strikes has already been made centrally; taking that crucial decision out of members’ hands.

Fears about RCN staff capacity have led to it “focusing resources”; it will bring only a portion of the 176 Trusts out on strike. Thousands of nursing staff being told that they’re not needed in this round of strikes, after the significant battle to get yes votes in their ballots, risks demobilising and demoralising members that have very recently been moved to action.

The RCN is also concerned about its image in these strikes. It has told its members that it wants to maintain a “sombre” aspect on the picket line; that the impression members should give is that they’re “sad” that the strikes are happening at all.

While it’s reasonable to expect members to be respectful when sick or injured members of the public are going past in emergencies, a funeral party doesn’t seem like the right mood to strike either.

Striking can and should be an empowering experience, and having a crotchety picket supervisor take away any Father Christmas hats on show, will likely be quite jarring for members who have built themselves up for two days on the picket lines with their colleagues.

Fortunately, that’s exactly the kind of thing that can’t be policed — and the picket lines, at least, will be where the strike is in control of the members.

• Unison, a bigger NHS union, ended its pay-action ballot for NHS staff on 25 November, but we don’t know the results yet. Action ballots for GMB ambulance workers in 11 Trusts close on 29 November, and for Unite ambulance workers 30 November. Unite is currently balloting a “second wave” of NHS workers, with results due late December, and says it will ballot further “waves”. More on union responses in Scotland and Northern Ireland here.