UK Nurses Union calls first December strike in 106 years

The UK Nurses Union called a two-day strike in December, an unprecedented move in its 106-year history amid a public health crisis.

Nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will strike on December 15 and 20, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union announced on Friday.

“Nurses are fed up with being neglected, underpaid and understaffed, unable to give our patients the care they deserve,” union general secretary Pat Cullen said in a statement.

“Until we do that, we don’t see any chance of changes happening any time soon,” RCN UK director Patricia Marquis said, apologizing to patients for the inconvenience.

The strike comes against the backdrop of a rising cost of living crisis. The union is demanding a pay rise above the historical rate of inflation of more than 11%.

In recent months, the United Kingdom has been the scene of a proliferation of strikes in various sectors.

The mobilization of nurses will be interrupted by train stoppages, while the Post Office will close at Christmas time.

Health Minister Steve Barclay said he was “very grateful for the hard work and dedication” of nurses and regretted the strike, promising that disruption would be minimized and emergency services would remain operational.

“These are tough times for everyone and the economic climate makes it impossible to meet the RCN’s demands for a 19.2% pay rise, at a cost of £10 billion ($12 billion) a year,” he said.

The RCN laments that nurses’ salaries have fallen by 20% since 2010, due to persistently below-inflation increases.

In Scotland, after resuming regional self-government negotiations, the union suspended the call, offering an 11.3% increase for the lowest paid and a 7.5% increase for the average.

Health in crisis

British public health officials said in September that some nurses were skipping meals to feed and clothe their children and were struggling to pay bills.

According to NHS providers representing hospital groups, one in four hospitals in England have set up food banks for their staff.

“We are fed up. We need a raise to live,” Amira, a nurse at a London hospital who voted for the strike, told AFP in an interview.

“The British government is playing with the health of patients without raising wages,” he said, who did not want to give his last name.

The National Health Service (NHS) has been underfunded for years.

Rishi Sunak’s government this month announced a £3.3 billion increase in the budget over the next two years, mainly aimed at reducing long waiting lists for medical tests and treatments.

According to the RCN, 47,000 nursing jobs are unfilled in the UK due to “poor pay”.

Many nurses, led by Spaniards, left the UK as a result of Brexit, which ended a system that allowed British experience to be taken into account in their home countries.

In September, more than seven million people were waiting for treatment in hospitals in England, a record number since the indicator was created in 2007.