FROM SARDAR SHAHAB
LONDON: Nurses in the United Kingdom have staged an unprecedented one-day strike as a “last resort” in their fight for better wages and working conditions.
Up to 100,000 members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are stopping work from 08:00 GMT to 20:00 GMT on Thursday after rejecting a government pay offer.
The RCN’s industrial action is part of a growing wave of stoppages by public and private sector employees. Picket lines were being set up at leading state-run hospitals, including Guy’s and St Thomas NHS Foundation Trust in London.
Ameera, a senior nurse in London, told media that “we have not chosen industrial action lightly”. The strike is the first in the RCN union’s 106-year history. “We’re tired. We’re fed up,” added the nurse, who asked that her last name not be reported. “We need a pay rise now to make a living.”
The UK is currently grappling with a cost-of-living crisis as spiralling inflation outstrips wage growth. Union leaders and health workers also said nurses were being overworked due to staff shortages, as the state-run National Health Service (NHS) battled a backlog in appointments made worse by cancellations during the coronavirus pandemic.
Chemotherapy, dialysis, intensive care and high-dependency units, as well as neonatal and paediatric intensive care will be protected. But other services will be reduced to Christmas staffing levels during the walkout, the RCN said.
Saffron Cordery, interim chief executive of NHS Providers, said NHS trusts were “pulling out all the stops” to lessen the effect on patients. “The picture will vary across the country as trust leaders work out service levels with unions locally,” she added.
