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Nurses vote for pay strikes in 176 trusts

Tens of thousands of nurses have voted for pay strikes, with action set to start in December, the RCN union announced on Wednesday. The news will come as a massive blow to Tory plans for more austerity in next week’s new budget statement

RCN members at 176 NHS employers met the turnout thresholds to strike under the anti-union laws— including at many of the biggest hospitals in Britain (see full list below). Workers at all NHS employers in Scotland and Northern Ireland will be included, and all bar one NHS trust in Wales.

There should be nurses’ picket lines in almost every town and city—and they could easily become the focus for the huge well of anger against the government. Every trade union activist must now start planning how they will deliver solidarity to the nurses.

“This is massive and I’m absolutely buzzing,” Midlands RCN union rep and nurse Matt Tacey told Socialist Worker. His trust is one of those set to strike. “We will be on the picket lines for the first time, and it’s long overdue,” he says.

“For the union and activists like me, this has been a marathon. But we can absolutely win this—and that would be a huge step in defending the NHS.”

Matt says nurses must now start preparing for action. “We will face an onslaught of attacks from the Tories because of this,” he said. “The same people who clapped us as heroes will say we are greedy and selfish—and that we don’t care about our patients.

“Nothing could be further from the truth. Strikes will of course close services and lead to cancellations. But this is already happening every single day in the NHS because there are not enough nurses.

“How many operations have been postponed because there are not enough theatre nurses? How many appointments are lost because we are too thinly spread?

“We will guarantee a minimum level of staffing on strike days—and that could mean that some wards are actually safer than they are on a normal working day. Our strike is about defending the health service, and an attack on our pay is an attack on our patients.”

The union leadership must be “absolutely resolute” in the face of the attacks, says Matt. “We can force the government into making yet another U-turn and making a new pay offer, but we have to stand firm,” he says.

The ballot was not successful everywhere. In nearly half of NHS trusts, the voting did not meet the harsh requirements of the anti-union laws. The union must call then out anyway or at least now plan to re-ballot quickly those trusts where a new campaign could get them across the threshold too.

News from the RCN comes as the major Unison health service union is balloting some 350,000 members in England and Wales for strikes—and the GMB and Unite unions have joined them. The physiotherapists’ CSP union is set to do the same this week. Knowing that nurses have already decided to take to the frontline should be a spur to get the vote out in those ballots.

Leading Unison activist Karen Reissmann greeted the RCN’s “brilliant” results. “You are an inspiration to us and we will do all we can to win our ballots too. Solidarity from all of us in Unison,” she said.

All health workers should now be thinking about solidarity with nurses’ strikes. That could mean organising delegations and collections to take to RCN picket lines. But it could also go further. No NHS worker will want to cross nurses’ picket lines, so why should they?

Imagine the impact of groups deciding to stand together on the picket, irrespective of what job they do or which union they belong to.

A national branch of doctors in the Unite union has passed a motion calling for “all trade unions to declare a day of solidarity action in support of NHS workers”. Such a move could see thousands of workers rallying to the nurses’ fight. Activists should push for solidarity walkouts and marches to NHS picket lines.

And, with many other groups of workers readying for battle over pay, such a move could not come at a worse time for the Tories. In addition to postal, telecoms and rail workers already in dispute, university workers are set to strike soon and civil service workers, teachers and others could be out the door too.

The NHS, and those who work in it, have huge support from across the working class. Activists in other unions should begin now arguing for solidarity—from visits to pickets to strikes—when the NHS walkouts take place. Every union leader should be pushed to organise such action, whether it’s allowed under the anti-union laws or not.

Rishi Sunak’s gang are planning to make “eye-watering” cuts in their budget statement later this month. They must now face stiff resistance.

Union leaders must urgently grasp the mood and use it to launch hard-hitting and united action. This is not a time for conciliation or backroom deals. Matt’s message to the Tories is, “If you want to come for us, bring it on. We’re ready to hit back.”

Full list of those trusts that met the thresholds under the anti-union laws

England

Alder Hey Children’s NHS Foundation Trust

Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust

Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust

Bradford Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Bridgewater Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Cambridge University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust

Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust

Central Cheshire Integrated Care Partnership

Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Cornwall Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

County Durham and Darlington NHS Foundation Trust

Derbyshire Community Health Services NHS Foundation Trust

Derbyshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Devon Partnership NHS Trust

Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Dorset Healthcare University NHS Foundation Trust

Dudley Integrated Health and Care NHS Trust

East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust

Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust

Gloucestershire Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust

Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Guys and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust

Health Education England

Herefordshire and Worcestershire Health and Care NHS Trust

Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust

Hounslow and Richmond Community Healthcare NHS Trust

Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Kent Community Health NHS Foundation Trust

Kettering General Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Kings College Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust

Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital NHS Found Trust

Liverpool University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Liverpool Women’s NHS Foundation Trust

Mersey Care NHS Foundation Trust

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Midlands and Lancashire CSU

Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

NHS Bath, North East Somerset, Swindon and Wiltshire ICB (BSW Together)

NHS Birmingham and Solihull ICB (BSol ICB)

NHS Black Country ICB

NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT)

NHS Cheshire and Merseyside ICB

NHS Derby and Derbyshire ICB (Joined Up Care Derbyshire)

NHS Devon ICB (One Devon)

NHS Dorset ICB (Our Dorset)

NHS England

NHS Gloucestershire ICB (One Gloucestershire)

NHS Hertfordshire and West Essex ICB

NHS Kent and Medway ICB

NHS Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB

NHS Mid and South Essex ICB

NHS Norfolk and Waveney ICB

NHS North Central London ICB

NHS Nottingham and Nottinghamshire ICB

NHS Resolution

NHS South West London ICB

NHS Suffolk and North East Essex ICB

NHS Surrey Heartlands ICB

NHS West Yorkshire ICB

Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

Norfolk Community Health and Care NHS Trust

North Bristol NHS Trust

North East Ambulance Service NHS Trust

North of England CSU (NECS)

North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust

Northamptonshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust

Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust

Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust

Queen Victoria Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust

Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust

Royal Devon University Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust

Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust

Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust

Sheffield Children’s NHS Foundation Trust

Sheffield Health and Social Care NHS Foundation Trust

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

Shropshire Community Health NHS Trust

Solent NHS Trust

Somerset NHS Foundation Trust

South Central Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust

South East Coast Ambulance Service

South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

South Western Ambulance Service NHS Found Trust

Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust

St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

St Helens and Knowsley Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust

Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust

Tameside and Glossop Integrated Care NHS Foundation Trust

Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust

The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre NHS Found Trust

The Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

The Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust

The Walton Centre NHS Foundation Trust

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust

University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust

University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust

University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust

University Hospitals Dorset NHS Foundation Trust

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust

University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust

University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust

West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust

Wirral Community Health and Care NHS Foundation Trust

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Found Trust

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust

Wrightington Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust

York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust

 

Scotland

Healthcare Improvement Scotland

NHS 24

NHS Ayrshire and Arran

NHS Borders

NHS Dumfries and Galloway

NHS Education For Scotland

NHS Fife

NHS Forth Valley

NHS Golden Jubilee

NHS Grampian

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde

NHS Highland

NHS Lanarkshire

NHS Lothian

NHS National Services Scotland

NHS Orkney

NHS Shetland

NHS Tayside

NHS Western Isles

Public Health Scotland

Scottish Ambulance Service

The Highland Council

The State Hospitals Board for Scotland

 

Wales

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board

Powys Teaching Local Health Board

Welsh Ambulance Services NHS Trust Headquarters

Hywel Dda University Health Board

Swansea Bay University Health Board

Cwm Taf Morgannwg University Health Board

Betsi Cadwaladr University Local Health Board

Velindre NHS Trust

Public Health Wales

Health Education and Improvement Wales Health Authority

NHS Wales Shared Services Partnership

Digital Health and Care Wales