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The government was given an ultimatum to ‘get the job finished’ and negotiate with nurses on pay to avoid a fresh round of NHS strikes.
Nursing Standard. 38, 6, 7-7. doi: 10.7748/ns.38.6.7.s4
Published: 31 May 2023
Speaking at the RCN’s annual congress in May, college general secretary Pat Cullen urged members to keep up pressure on the government, to force it back to the negotiating table.
‘The health and care system, across the whole of the UK, is sailing dangerously close to the wind right now,’ she said. ‘It is brutally unfair on your patients, and the conditions feel intolerable for too many nurses and nursing support workers.’
RCN members are being balloted on fresh walkouts over the 2022-23 and 2023-24 pay rounds.
Ms Cullen told her audience: ‘If you give the college another six-month mandate for strike action… the government will be forced to act once more. Nobody wants to see twice as many nurses take strike action. Or twice as many hospitals affected by a strike.’
Addressing prime minister Rishi Sunak directly, she added: ‘Prime minister, you did the right thing to open negotiations with me in February. Before the 75th birthday of the NHS this July, let’s get this job finished.’
Ms Cullen told the congress she had never met a nurse or support worker who wanted to strike and many staff she spoke to on picket lines were ‘in tears at how far they had been pushed… standing outside work became the only way to change what was happening inside.’
Earlier at the conference, nurses had a message for the government. Discussing the RCN’s pay campaign, nurse Lynsey Curtis-Dawson said: ‘Rishi Sunak are you listening? We are not going away. This is not the end of the nursing strikes.’
RCN public health forum member Jason Warriner asked members to reflect on what more could be done.
‘We need to get out there and get voting. We’ve got to bring this government down and get a new offer,’ he said.
RCN nurses in management and leadership forum chair Sally Bassett suggested the college take a fresh approach to its pay campaign and produce an economic assessment of nurses’ contribution to society.
The college’s strike ballot closes on 23 June, and if members vote for more walkouts, they could continue until 22 December.