NewsNurses’ strikes can break Tories and inspire others
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After voting no to a shoddy deal, nurses in the RCN union should defy the Tories attempts to stop their strikes
By Yuri Prasad
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Tuesday 25 April 2023
Issue 2852
Members of the RCN march earlier this year (Picture: Guy Smallman)
Thousands of nurses across England were preparing to strike this weekend as part of the battle over NHS pay. The action comes shortly after members of the RCN defied the government, and leaders of their own union, to reject a shoddy deal that both had recommended.
The spirit of rank and file resistance drove the vote—and shocked the press and politicians that wanted the long-running dispute wound up. Tory health secretary Steve Barclay was furious.
This week he instructed lawyers to try and stop the
RCN from striking, insisting that action would breach the anti-union laws. These are an attempt to tie the unions in knots by limiting the time gap between strike ballots and action to just six months.
But already his expensive legal counsel has been forced into a retreat. Barclay now accepts that at least the first day of action—for 24 hours from Sunday night—can go ahead. He was still battling as Socialist Worker went to press to stop the second day of the 48-hour strike.
The RCN must stand up to this bully boy and his courtroom buddies. And that means far more than just defending the right to strike in front of judges. If nurses declared they would strike on Tuesday as planned, no matter the court’s decision, it would send a bolt of electricity through the whole trade union movement.
For too long union leaders have spoken of defiance of unjust laws and invoked the radical history of the workers’ movement as their inspiration. But when it’s come to taking action, suddenly they are nowhere to be seen.
The nurses, whose
raw militancy has been a shock to both employers and union tops, could teach the rest of the movement what unions are really about by walking out unofficially. In the coming weeks, the RCN will ballot its members for a strike. Voting will be on an aggregated rather than disaggregated basis.
That means instead of individual NHS trusts coming out on strike, all nurses will be asked to
strike together. If the vote is won with a high enough turnout it would mean action on a greater scale than anything yet seen in the NHS.
Winning a national ballot is a big ask. But if activists mobilise in ways similar to when they rejected the pay offer, there is every chance they could pull it off. The combined power of striking nurses and junior doctors would be catastrophic for the Tories.
It could pull behind them all health workers in every NHS union—and not only them. Millions of people know that health strikers are fighting for the survival of the NHS.
A massive strike would be a beacon of resistance to all those who depend on it. That’s why this week’s strike is so critical. It has to mark the start of a new phase of resistance that can finish off this rotten government.
- Lobby the High Court when the Tories try to outlaw the RCN strike. Thu 27 April, 9.30am, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2A 2LL. Called by the RCN
Reject the shoddy deal in Wales
The
Welsh government has made another poor pay offer to NHS workers. The deal includes a new one-off payment, backdated to last year. That’s in addition to the extra 3 percent the government has already imposed.
And pay will rise by just 5 percent from the start of this month. That means the lowest paid staff will be on just £11.39 an hour after the increase.
Unite, which will begin balloting its members in May, said the pay offer fell short of inflation so did not address the cost of living concerns, but was a “significant improvement”.
But Unison is urging its members to accept the offer, saying that it is the “best that can be achieved through negotiation”. All health workers should vote against the deal and argue for strikes.
