Homerton Hospital may experience further industrial action after a nationwide strike on Monday failed to convince the government to meet NHS workers’ pay demands.
Staff picketed the hospital’s entrance between 7am and 11am on Monday despite heavy rain. According to Jordan Rivera, Joint Branch Secretary for UNISON’s Homerton Hospital and Community Services branch, the picket was 70 strong.
Rivera said she was “not hopeful” that the government would meet the demands of the unions, and that therefore “further strike action, for longer” was probable. “I don’t think a pay offer is likely.”
Rivera added that the numbers at the demonstration on Monday showed the strength of feeling among workers. “There were more people out on strike than there were for the pensions strike, despite the weather being worse.”
A Homerton Hospital midwife and UNISON member who picketed on Monday hit out at what she described as “emotional blackmail” by government, which has argued that awarding a one per cent pay rise to all staff would see management sacking around 4,000 nurses next year and 10,000 more the year after that.
The midwife, who did not wish to be named, said that the government’s arguments were “horrible, disingenuous and disappointing. NHS staff are fed up and angry. We’re not ever expected to put ourselves first. We’re expected to sit down and take whatever mud the government throws at us.”
A second midwife, who also wished to remain anonymous, expressed identical sentiments, saying: “The government’s own pay review recommended a pay rise. Given the amount of free labour we do every year, government manipulation of public opinion is just flabbergasting.”
The Royal College of Midwives (RCM) joined strike action on Monday for the first time in its 133-year history. Homerton Hospital does not have an RCM representative, but the union liaised with UNISON in order to support the hospital’s midwives.
On top of Monday’s strike, unions are telling their members to follow a work-to-rule policy for the rest of this week. Work to rule involves refusing to undertake unpaid overtime and insisting on timetabled breaks.
Image: Roger Blackman, Flickr. Some rights reserved.
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