Real-terms fall in UK nurses’ pay is part of wider trend
GuardianNov 25, 2022
UK Nurses to Go on Strike for First Time in History
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Image copyright: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images [via The Guardian]
The Facts
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) confirmed on Wednesday that nurses across the UK would go on strike for the first time in history, with staff in 131 National Health Service (NHS) organizations in England, 12 in Wales, 23 in Scotland, and 11 in Northern Ireland voting in favor of the action.
The RCN, comprised of more than 300K members, said the strike to demand better pay would begin before the end of the year following the first-ever strike vote in its 106-year-old history.
The Spin
Left narrative
Finally, nurses in the UK are standing up for themselves as the country's Tory leadership continues to assault working people. Nurses — an absolutely essential part of any society — have been underpaid for years and are rightly fighting back. The onus is now on the government to meet them at the negotiating table.
Right narrative
No one is saying that nurses don't deserve to be paid more for their life-saving work, but the current economic situation in the UK is just too bleak to afford such an increase. A strike will only serve to cripple the already faltering NHS, which will see patients suffer, and inequalities in care worsen.
