Smears, propaganda and belligerence: unions and ministers locked in strike blame game With neither side willing to back down over pay demands and working conditions, the threat of more strikes loom large this Christmas 🎄 Read more here ⬇️
Within hours of the nurses’ strike starting on Thursday, a handful of the Royal College of Nursing’s members left their picket line outside a London hospital and went inside to help out on a ward.
To the RCN, it is an example of how the union has taken every step to be as flexible as possible in the industrial action, in the face of “belligerence” and a fog of misinformation from ministers and the NHS. The mood in the union ahead of the meeting was hopeful. Although Mr Barclay had previously said he would not discuss pay, his officials issued no agenda ahead of the talks, prompting insiders to wonder whether a deal was possible.
On Tuesday, relations between the union and the Government and the NHS worsened. A letter leaked to thefrom Dame Ruth May, England’s chief nurse, and her three counterparts from the rest of the UK warned the RCN that their strike action would put patients at risk and that nursing leaders felt “let down” by the union.
Yet for a further 36 hours, ministers continued to claim that cancer surgery would not be going ahead on Thursday, despite the RCN guaranteeing that it would. Union officials said this was “propaganda” designed to break their resolve. An improved pay offer from Network Rail that would have seen workers receive a 5 per cent pay rise this year and a 4 per cent increase next, was rejected by the RMT. The union accused Mr Harper of hitching conditions that would allow operators to bring in driver-only trains as part of the terms of the pay deal at the 11th hour.
The source added: “We’re confident we have a good agreement. What we need now is a bit of realism about what is on offer, and a bit of realism about the proportion of members who just want to accept the pay deal and get back to earning their full salary again. These people don’t have the luxury to participate in ideologically driven strike action, they just want to get on.”
Union bosses believe there is little prospect of a deal being signed with the train operators, unless the companies put forward an improved offer from the current deal of an 8 per cent increase in pay over two years. The train operators insist they are hamstrung in their ability to offer improved salary terms by the Government, which is subsidising the rail network to the tune of £31bn.
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