The British nurses have announced that they are suspending their strike actions, in particular the 48-hour strike scheduled for next week. The government has agreed to sit around the negotiating table with the unions, which demand more pay and better working conditions.
In a joint press release, the Royal College of Nursing, the key nurses ‘ union, and the UK Department of Health announce that they agree to start a process of “intensive negotiations”. The talks will be about “the wages, the conditions and the reforms to increase productivity”.
Health Secretary Steve Barclay will meet with union officials tomorrow. In anticipation of this, the Union suspends the strike actions.
The union had announced another 48-hour strike action for next week, starting March 1. That mobilization, the longest ever in the sector, would for the first time also cover intensive care, oncology and other departments that had not experienced so far.
The nurses demand a salary increase for the current year, but the government has so far only wanted to negotiate next year. She called the Union’s demands “unaffordable”, after which the nurses and paramedics decided at the beginning of this month to stop the work: the largest mobilization ever in the history of the British health system.
The railway staff and the staff of certain public services have also resigned several times in recent months. They too are demanding higher wages, now that inflation in the UK has risen to a record high – in January it was still above 10 percent. Because wages do not rise automatically, as in our country, many Britons have a hard time making ends meet.
