Fair Pay For NHS Staff

Support striking NHS staff 

7am – 11am, Monday 24 November 2014

Members of  British Association of Occupational Therapists (BAOT), the GMB, Managers in Partnership (MiP), the Prison Officers Association (POA).  the Royal College of Midwives (RCM), the Society of Radiographers (SoR), the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT), Unite the Union and UNISON working in the health sector are striking from 7am – 11am in protest at a third year without a pay rise.   NB: The Society of Radiographers is striking from 8am to midday.

Following this NHS staff will only work their contracted hours as they participate in industrial action short of strike action throughout 24-30 November 2014.  Members of the Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association (HCSA) and the British Dietetic Association (BDA) will also be taking part in the week of action short of strike action between Tuesday 25 and Sunday 30 November 2014.

NHS workers are seething over low pay.   Their pay has been frozen for four years and they have been denied an independently-awarded 1% pay rise, yet MPs are taking an 11% pay rise on the grounds that it has been awarded to them independently.  This is rank hypocrisy when MPs are already on high salaries while many NHS staff are low paid and earn below the Living Wage.

1 in 5 NHS workers have taken second jobs and half say they can’t get through to the end of the month without relying on debt. Two thirds of NHS workers have cut back on food, 51% have reduced their energy usage, 44% have cut back on transport, 80% went without holidays and 90% had to cut back on leisure activities.  Shocked?  This is unsurprising when UNISON calculates that there has been a 8-12% real-terms fall in NHS salary levels since 2010 and no above-inflation pay rise since 2009.  If you need to hear more, NHS workers have explained why they are striking and UNISON members have a bit more to say.

We encourage everyone to send messages of support to members in all the unions involved in the week of action, either as individuals or from your own union branch, workplace, Labour Party branch or other labour movement organisation. Those on twitter can tweet support to: @GMBPressOffice, @unisontweets, @unitetheunion, @MidwivesRCM, @SCoRMembers, @UCATTunion,   and others.

Please support health workers at local Sussex pickets from 7am-11am, which have so far been advertised at these Sussex NHS facilities:

Royal Sussex County Hospital, Brighton

Princess Royal Hospital, Haywards Heath

Brighton General Hospital, south entrance

Lanchaster House, Trafalgar Place, Brighton – home to Brighton and Hove CCG

Worthing Hospital

St Richards Hospital, Chichester

Aldrington House, Hove

Swandean

Millview Hospital, also known as Hove Polyclinic

Hill Rise, Newhaven – 8.30am to 11am

Uckfield Hospital

Langley Green Hospital, Crawley

Eastbourne District General Hospital – and don’t forget also the march to stop the cuts to Eastbourne DGH which starts from Eastbourne Pier at 10.30am on Saturday 29 November, finishing at a rally at the green opposite the Wish Tower.

This list above is unlikely to be comprehensive.  We fully expect that there will also be pickets at other Sussex NHS facilities, such as at the Conquest Hospital in Hastings and at SEC Ambulance stations.

NHS workers deserve fair pay not poverty pay.  Please support the pickets outside your local hospital or CCG office.