UK 

Nurse Strikes to Go On Even as GMB Union Accepts Pay Deal

Ambulance staff also plan two-day walkout beginning Monday

Health leaders warn of significant disruption to service


Royal College of Nursing members protest in London, UK, on April 27.

Photographer: Vuk Valcic/SOPA Images/LightRocket/Getty Images

By Kwaku Gyasi and  Alexandra Muller

April 30, 2023

UK nurses warned there will be no quick conclusion to strikes as health-care workers prepare for a new walkout beginning tonight.

Members of the Royal College of Nursing will strike from 8 p.m. Sunday until midnight on Monday. Ambulance staff in some regions will also walk out on Monday and Tuesday, in the sixth consecutive month of industrial action for the National Health Service.

The strike is particularly controversial after members of another major health union, the GMB, voted Friday to accept the government’s latest pay offer. That may add to pressure on the RCN to accept a deal with Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government after a May 2 meeting of the NHS Staff Council, an umbrella labor body.

In an interview with Sky News, RCN General Secretary Pat Cullen said that her membership had made it “loud and clear” that the current deal still wasn’t good enough and that the offer does nothing to address the staffing crisis at the NHS.

“The current pay structure does not work for nurses otherwise we would not have the retention and recruitment problems we’ve got,” Pat Cullen told Sky News on Sunday, adding that if the Secretary of State and the government continue to ignore the nurses’ voices and try to impose a settlement, “we will be re-balloting our members come to mid may, close to mid June, and that means we could face strike actions right up until the Christmas period.”

Health leaders in England warned of significant disruption to services this bank holiday weekend, with the walkout affecting emergency departments, intensive care and cancer wards for the first time. Julian Hartley, chief executive of NHS Providers, said the strike action by nurses was the “most worrying so far.” Some hospitals were struggling to find enough staff for specialist areas including children’s services, he said in an emailed statement.

“It is hugely disappointing some unions are escalating strike action this week — including the RCN, despite only a third of its members rejecting the government’s fair and reasonable offer on pay, which other unions accepted,” Steve Barclay, the health secretary, wrote Saturday in an emailed statement.

Cullen said that national exemptions were in place to make sure patients received critical care. “Our nurses, as I’ve said time and time again, will never leave their patients unsafe or create more risk that’s already in the system at this point in time,” she said on Sky.

The GMB union voted on Friday 56%-44% to accept the government’s offer, which has split NHS staff including nurses, dietitians and ambulance attendants across the country. Earlier on Friday, members of the Unite union turned down the same nationwide package by a similarly narrow margin of 52%-48% and are participating in the weekend walkouts.

“I would urge them to think again and to do what the other trade unions in the health service have done, which is to accept what I think is fair and reasonable pay offer, reflecting the value that we do place on hardworking NHS staff,” Transport Secretary Mark Harper said on Sky.

The vote by the GMB could be pivotal for the government’s effort to end the dispute, since it is one of the larger unions and could tip the balance toward acceptance.
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The Conservative government has been battling with industrial disputes across multiple sectors as union leaders demand workers’ pay keeps up with soaring inflation, which remains around 10%. The walkouts in health care, education, train services and other critical industries are now entering a 12th month. The unrest appears to have hurt Sunak’s Tory party, which is trailing Keir Starmer’s Labour Party by a double-digit margin ahead of a general election expected next year.