Workers at Sheffield’s Northern General Hospital look set to go on strike over pay cuts after management axed thousands of pounds in allowances. The ballot result was due on Thursday and, if passed, it would be the first strike of its kind at the hospital for 30 years.
A very slight improvement to the government’s pay offer to more than a million NHS staff has been enough to persuade the leadership of the Unison union to put plans for industrial action on hold.
Leading trade unionists from across Greater Manchester joined scores of health workers at a 300-strong meeting last week in support of Karen Reissmann.
A government-backed review of NHS services in London last week could lead to wholesale closures of accident and emergency wards, doctor’s surgeries and a number of district general hospitals.
The campaign to defend Karen Reissmann, the psychiatric nurse and Unison union activist who has been suspended from work, is continuing to gain support.
Supporters of Karen Reissmann – the psychiatric nurse and Unison activist who was suspended by her employer two weeks ago – were heartened to hear that both the national executive of her union and its health executive have pledged her their full backing.
Supporters of Karen Reissmann – the psychiatric nurse and Unison union activist who was suspended by her employer last week – were heartened to hear that Unison’s national executive committee have pledged their full backing for Karen.
A wave of anger is spreading among trade unionists, health workers and user groups in Manchester following the suspension of longstanding nurse and union activist Karen Reissmann from her job on Friday of last week.
Experienced staff at the Royal London hospital in east London are facing the possibility of being unable to continue work because of the closure of a scandal-hit private on-site nursery.
The revelation that the health service is predicted to underspend its budget by up to £500 million will come as shock to the thousands of NHS staff who, should they manage to keep their jobs, face a below inflation pay rise.
Leading trade union activists in the health service are battling to ensure that anger at the government’s 1.9 percent pay insult is turned into effective industrial action.
