LONDON: Nurses in Britain are ready to strike until Christmas if they cannot agree with the government on salary, the leader of the country’s major nursing union said on Sunday.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing would strike at the end of this month and the start of May before holding a vote on continuing the strike to the end of the ongoing year, union leader Pat Cullen said.
If that voting is successful, it would mean further strike activities until Christmas; she told the BBC.
The union’s members rejected a government pay offer on Friday and announced an escalation in strike action.
It had been hoped that nurses in England would accept the 5% pay offer brokered by the government and RCN in March.
But after presenting the offer to its members, the RCN said 54% turned it down.
Nurses’ walkout
RCN members will walk out for forty-eight hours from 8:00 pm (1900 GMT) on 30 April, with the action extended to intensive care, staff in emergency departments, and cancer care units for the first time.
The refusal is shocking for the government, which had hoped for an end to the crippling strike in the health sector that has seen thousands of appointments and operations cancelled.
Hospital doctors below the consultant position have been on a 4-day strike this week, demanding better salaries and conditions.
The union leader said she had received a letter from Secretary of Health Steve Barclay on Sunday after requesting negotiations with him about the salary offer last week.
RCN walked out for the first time in the group’s 108-year history in 2022, joining a wave of private and public sector workers demanding pay rises as inflation soared.
The government said the RCN’s refusal of the pay offer was very disappointing as the offer was “fair and generous”.
As well as a 5%pay increase in the next fiscal year, the offer included a one-off bonus worth at least $1,510 per person.
