The health secretary won’t hold pay talks with nurses despite their offer to pause unprecedented strike action if he did, a cabinetminister has said.
Nursing leaders said they would “press pause” if Steve Barclay agreed to proper negotiations on wages.
But the foreign secretary James Cleverly rejected that idea.He said that Mr Barclay has said
“he is, of course, willingto talk to them… but the pay negotiations are done through the independent payreview body”.
The offer came from the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing Pat Cullen, whose members are due to take part in strike action on December 15 and December 20.
She said she was willing to pause the walkout by thousandsof nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland if Mr Barclay agreed to come to the table and discuss a deal on pay demands.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting condemned thegovernment’s attitude as “a complete joke”.“It is completely unreasonable for the government not towant to negotiate,” he said. “ I think they are spoiling for a fight”.
He accused ministers of planning to blame NHS staff for “an NHS crisis which is squarely their fault”. He added: “People will rightly blame the government not the unions if these strikes go ahead”.
So the strikes will get paused if the Health Secretary agrees to talk to the union.
Not give them pay rise. Not actually even go to the meeting. Just agree to talk to them.
And he won’t do it. People are going to suffer needlessly (and I inculde NHS staff in that as well. The last thing they want is to not be at work) because a man refuses to say he’ll to go to a meeting.
This is your reminder the government do not care about the NHS, and by exension you.
The public can see who is spoiling for a fight and a strike. We are fully behind the nurses
They should say they don’t want to discuss pay, they want to discuss the parameters that government sets for the independent pay review body.
If almost like the government believes that they can make political capital out of strike actions and take every opportunity to actively makes matters worse.
Oh no a Tory Health Minister not doing the right thing?
I’m shocked, SHOCKED i tell you.
Maybe the government are waiting to negotiate with Putin directly, considering they seem to be holding him responsible for the nursing strikes…
It’s December guys – Cleverly has approx 20 Christmas parties to attend to:
* 15 from Tory donors
* His own
* Tory Christmas
* Tufton Street yearly all-out booze bash & Pub Crawl (no EU wine allowed, sponsored by Weatherspoons)
* 10 Downing Street house warming now that there’s new tennant
* Cabinet drink-it-till-you-make-it Office Crawl
How do you expect him to do any work, let alone meeting with some nurses. Until there’s caviar and Foie Grass on canapes, what’s there to be fixed?
It’s obviously Labour’s fault, so let the next minister fix it.
Excellent play by the unions. Really helps to pile the pressure and blame for strikes on the government, while also reducing any resentment the public may feel towards the nurses for cancelled appointments etc.
The aristocracy does not talk to peasants. Not even a million peasants. That is a matter of principle.
The common denominator in every strike is the Conservatives.
Funding for the NHS has been set until 2025 and the pay review body has been told they must keep within that budget, and that rises must be affordable. Nursing pay comes out of the same pot as the patient care budget and the cost of wages reduces the amount of money left to pay for care.
They might as well not have a pay review at all, because all the studies the review board ask for – and they do diligently research this stuff – may reach a figure the nurses would be happy with, but budget constraints wipe it all away. The govt insists the priority is balancing the books, not reaching a fair pay deal.
Of course he won’t. The longer this continues, the better for the government. They want to push through fascist bills to strip workers of the right to strike, can’t do that if they bow to the will of the unions.
Tories fuck up the budget, nhs got less money, staff has been underpay for a decade. Staff when through hell for covid. Staff wants a decent pay. Tories says no, not enough money, we had nothing to do with it even though we’ve been in power for 12 years, taking a pay rise is supporting Putin.
General election or general strike now
This was a good move from the Nurses union. They already knew it was near certain the health minister wouldn’t attend talks, it’s a way to show the public what this government is.
One would think that the Tories are milking the country for every penny they & their ‘chums’ can. Determinedly destroying the economy and public services to the point of being irreparable. Knowing that they won’t win the next election & making it as difficult for whoever wins the next election as possible?
We cannot give in this time. Strikers are not betraying the public. We are being betrayed on every level by this government, all we have is eachother and we must stay together, not divided.
So the government clearly dont care if patients suffer, coz if it happens they have a full array of media weapons ready to fire at nurses to blame. Blaming nurses is obviously cheaper than actually paying them.
So if the government is not afraid of it, what is the RCN afraid about? This is not a war of public health, but a war of public images, whoever control the media wins. RCN should hire a pr company to help them out.
Get rid of these people like olden days stripping our country of assets and determined to destroy NHS GENERAL STRIKE AND VOTE THEM OUT SHOW THEM HOW WE FEEL DISGUSTED AND ANNOYED GET RID
This government’s negotiation tactics are atrocious. They do nothing and think all these different strikes will just stop?
If ever there was a time to stand on gantries this is where I support it.
The best all of us can do is tell everyone that it’s the government preventing a salution, not the strikers
And the compliant media will paint the strikers as the Bad Guys™, instead of focusing on the real culprits; the Tories.
The people in all the strikes across the country that are causing wide spread disruption is the companies making great profits or our very own government. It is not the nurses, the train staff, the civil service or the teachers. It is the people unwilling to pay them what they deserve in a time when we’re all paying through the nose for the things we need to survive. Not luxuries, the things we need to survive such as heating, food, rent, travel costs and the ability to see a doctor or get survey.
I hope everyone understands we’re all in this together but the rich are not in it with us.
Very very clever politics from the RCN. It’s the same playbook the government has been trying against the RMT and has spectacularly backfired. Trying to keep a totally hands off approach and not get dragged in. They knew Barclay would never come to the table to talk to them, because by doing so would he would be implicitly accepting the premise of the argument that they need to increase pay.
Going into the strikes, the headline now is the health minister won’t even both talking to prevent the strikes. Now they can reasonably point and say, look we tried to negotiate in good faith and did everything in our power to stop the strikes, the blame lies with the government. Absolute masterstroke from RCN. Please take note, BMA.
Even if you think nurses don’t deserve a pay rise, it is absolutely necessary to ensure the future of the NHS. The reason why NHS waiting times are so long is because there’s a staff shortage in the NHS. If you don’t pay healthcare workers more, you’re never going to attract more people to join the industry and more people are just going to leave, making the situation progressively worse until the NHS collapses.
They don’t look at the strikes and hardships of the 80s and 90s and see the strikes and hardships… they see that Thatcher’s anti-union stance *worked*. They won’t negotiate, because these are not the pre-neoliberalism Conservatives, their ideology is far more important than anything else.
The job of neoliberals (and this includes the current incarnation of Labour) is to find a way to govern as little as possible, whilst convincing you that governing wouldn’t be possible without them. That’s it. They’re not interested in serving their constituents, that’s not what the job is for.
They don’t care that you or I suffer because you or I are not them, and them is the only set of people they are interested in.
Great fuck that man has an epically punchable face.
To me this stinks of the government forcing the hand of the unions to strike, they know all they have to do is sit at the negotiation table but they outright refuse.
This will force nurses (And other underpaid professions) to strike fueling the governments plans outlaw strikes in the same way they are doing for protests. I have seen countless interviews where gov representatives quote that “working class people are the ones that will suffer from the strikes” but refuse the counter argument that the people striking are these working class people….. And “where does this money come from, we can’t give everyone a pay rise”
Here is some (talking average nurses salary is 33k/y and a 9% pay increase is £2970 increase on average) … 2million each week spent on warehousing defective PPE , over 3 months that’s 24million …. That covers just over 8000 nurses pay rises.
4billion up front on generally faulty PPE that couldn’t be used …. That’s 1300000 potential 9% pay increases for nurses.
This issue is 100% inflicted by the governments borderline criminal mismanagement of the countries budget / national contracts
This just goes to show beyond doubt what an empty, meaningless charade the whole “cLaP 4 dA nHs!!!!” Thing was. Just….ugh. It’s sickening.
When they go on strike and the media portray them as uncaring and scream for them all to be sacked, one of his mates will announce they’ve got a company that specialises in nurses and if you sign a contract with them they’ll provide all the nurses we need for only twice the cost.
Doctors, nurses, carers are all seen as Angels who would work for free if necessary, which is why their pay and working conditions are so bad…. And why Politicians treat them like this.
The government need to get their act together and stop causing and perpetuating these strikes. Pay our NHS workers with money, not claps, you ridiculous clowns.
So basically they want there to be strikes, and won’t listen to the strikers demands. Wonderful, sure there’s no way that could backfire
Talks for civil servants, health professionals etc? No none of that we don’t have money.
Removing the restrictions to bankers that caused 10+ years of austerity so they can go and fuck it all up again? Hell yes!
Nothing quite like being a crucial part of the functional governing and health of the country and having to foot the bill for bankers only for them to tell us they’re sticking to austerity with us and letting the bankers loose and free again.
Anything for their mates and their own pockets. Starting to feel like we’re on the road to an oligarchy with these sorts of decisions.
To actively and openly support this government at the moment, you might as well walk around and just punch random people in the face and tell them you hate them.
This Tory government will refuse to even talk to any type of union it seems. They’d rather the entire country grind to a halt than consider paying public sector workers a decent wage.
“Essential workers” no more it seems.
This is what happens when unions don’t have powers to hold governments accountable. You need to get rid of all of the Thatch laws that neutered the unions. She was pure evil was Thatch.
It’s the Margaret Thatcher playbook – ignore the strikers until public sympathy turns against them.
The thing is, you can stockpile coal, you can’t stockpile health…
So basically we won’t talk with you cause you decided to strike. You decided to strike because we didn’t give crap what you were saying
Proof if any is needed that the government have no interest in resolving the disputes and ending the strikes. Instead they want to use them to stoke division and restrict workers’ rights.
The public are fully behind the nurses and *OUR* NHS.
*United we bargain, divided we beg*.
Fuck the tories, fuck these cunts in their fuck faces. They have spent over a decade squeezing the ever living shit out of the NHS, they have cut off the biggest feeder of new recruits by doing hard brexit, and still have the gall to refuse to sit down and fucking talk.
43 comments
Article Text –
The health secretary won’t hold pay talks with nurses despite their offer to pause unprecedented strike action if he did, a cabinetminister has said.
Nursing leaders said they would “press pause” if Steve Barclay agreed to proper negotiations on wages.
But the foreign secretary James Cleverly rejected that idea.He said that Mr Barclay has said
“he is, of course, willingto talk to them… but the pay negotiations are done through the independent payreview body”.
The offer came from the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing Pat Cullen, whose members are due to take part in strike action on December 15 and December 20.
She said she was willing to pause the walkout by thousandsof nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland if Mr Barclay agreed to come to the table and discuss a deal on pay demands.
Shadow health secretary Wes Streeting condemned thegovernment’s attitude as “a complete joke”.“It is completely unreasonable for the government not towant to negotiate,” he said. “ I think they are spoiling for a fight”.
He accused ministers of planning to blame NHS staff for “an NHS crisis which is squarely their fault”. He added: “People will rightly blame the government not the unions if these strikes go ahead”.
So the strikes will get paused if the Health Secretary agrees to talk to the union.
Not give them pay rise. Not actually even go to the meeting. Just agree to talk to them.
And he won’t do it. People are going to suffer needlessly (and I inculde NHS staff in that as well. The last thing they want is to not be at work) because a man refuses to say he’ll to go to a meeting.
This is your reminder the government do not care about the NHS, and by exension you.
The public can see who is spoiling for a fight and a strike. We are fully behind the nurses
They should say they don’t want to discuss pay, they want to discuss the parameters that government sets for the independent pay review body.
If almost like the government believes that they can make political capital out of strike actions and take every opportunity to actively makes matters worse.
Oh no a Tory Health Minister not doing the right thing?
I’m shocked, SHOCKED i tell you.
Maybe the government are waiting to negotiate with Putin directly, considering they seem to be holding him responsible for the nursing strikes…
It’s December guys – Cleverly has approx 20 Christmas parties to attend to:
* 15 from Tory donors
* His own
* Tory Christmas
* Tufton Street yearly all-out booze bash & Pub Crawl (no EU wine allowed, sponsored by Weatherspoons)
* 10 Downing Street house warming now that there’s new tennant
* Cabinet drink-it-till-you-make-it Office Crawl
How do you expect him to do any work, let alone meeting with some nurses. Until there’s caviar and Foie Grass on canapes, what’s there to be fixed?
It’s obviously Labour’s fault, so let the next minister fix it.
Excellent play by the unions. Really helps to pile the pressure and blame for strikes on the government, while also reducing any resentment the public may feel towards the nurses for cancelled appointments etc.
The aristocracy does not talk to peasants. Not even a million peasants. That is a matter of principle.
The common denominator in every strike is the Conservatives.
Funding for the NHS has been set until 2025 and the pay review body has been told they must keep within that budget, and that rises must be affordable. Nursing pay comes out of the same pot as the patient care budget and the cost of wages reduces the amount of money left to pay for care.
They might as well not have a pay review at all, because all the studies the review board ask for – and they do diligently research this stuff – may reach a figure the nurses would be happy with, but budget constraints wipe it all away. The govt insists the priority is balancing the books, not reaching a fair pay deal.
Of course he won’t. The longer this continues, the better for the government. They want to push through fascist bills to strip workers of the right to strike, can’t do that if they bow to the will of the unions.
Tories fuck up the budget, nhs got less money, staff has been underpay for a decade. Staff when through hell for covid. Staff wants a decent pay. Tories says no, not enough money, we had nothing to do with it even though we’ve been in power for 12 years, taking a pay rise is supporting Putin.
General election or general strike now
This was a good move from the Nurses union. They already knew it was near certain the health minister wouldn’t attend talks, it’s a way to show the public what this government is.
One would think that the Tories are milking the country for every penny they & their ‘chums’ can. Determinedly destroying the economy and public services to the point of being irreparable. Knowing that they won’t win the next election & making it as difficult for whoever wins the next election as possible?
We cannot give in this time. Strikers are not betraying the public. We are being betrayed on every level by this government, all we have is eachother and we must stay together, not divided.
So the government clearly dont care if patients suffer, coz if it happens they have a full array of media weapons ready to fire at nurses to blame. Blaming nurses is obviously cheaper than actually paying them.
So if the government is not afraid of it, what is the RCN afraid about? This is not a war of public health, but a war of public images, whoever control the media wins. RCN should hire a pr company to help them out.
Get rid of these people like olden days stripping our country of assets and determined to destroy NHS GENERAL STRIKE AND VOTE THEM OUT SHOW THEM HOW WE FEEL DISGUSTED AND ANNOYED GET RID
This government’s negotiation tactics are atrocious. They do nothing and think all these different strikes will just stop?
If ever there was a time to stand on gantries this is where I support it.
The best all of us can do is tell everyone that it’s the government preventing a salution, not the strikers
And the compliant media will paint the strikers as the Bad Guys™, instead of focusing on the real culprits; the Tories.
The people in all the strikes across the country that are causing wide spread disruption is the companies making great profits or our very own government. It is not the nurses, the train staff, the civil service or the teachers. It is the people unwilling to pay them what they deserve in a time when we’re all paying through the nose for the things we need to survive. Not luxuries, the things we need to survive such as heating, food, rent, travel costs and the ability to see a doctor or get survey.
I hope everyone understands we’re all in this together but the rich are not in it with us.
Very very clever politics from the RCN. It’s the same playbook the government has been trying against the RMT and has spectacularly backfired. Trying to keep a totally hands off approach and not get dragged in. They knew Barclay would never come to the table to talk to them, because by doing so would he would be implicitly accepting the premise of the argument that they need to increase pay.
Going into the strikes, the headline now is the health minister won’t even both talking to prevent the strikes. Now they can reasonably point and say, look we tried to negotiate in good faith and did everything in our power to stop the strikes, the blame lies with the government. Absolute masterstroke from RCN. Please take note, BMA.
Even if you think nurses don’t deserve a pay rise, it is absolutely necessary to ensure the future of the NHS. The reason why NHS waiting times are so long is because there’s a staff shortage in the NHS. If you don’t pay healthcare workers more, you’re never going to attract more people to join the industry and more people are just going to leave, making the situation progressively worse until the NHS collapses.
They don’t look at the strikes and hardships of the 80s and 90s and see the strikes and hardships… they see that Thatcher’s anti-union stance *worked*. They won’t negotiate, because these are not the pre-neoliberalism Conservatives, their ideology is far more important than anything else.
The job of neoliberals (and this includes the current incarnation of Labour) is to find a way to govern as little as possible, whilst convincing you that governing wouldn’t be possible without them. That’s it. They’re not interested in serving their constituents, that’s not what the job is for.
They don’t care that you or I suffer because you or I are not them, and them is the only set of people they are interested in.
Great fuck that man has an epically punchable face.
To me this stinks of the government forcing the hand of the unions to strike, they know all they have to do is sit at the negotiation table but they outright refuse.
This will force nurses (And other underpaid professions) to strike fueling the governments plans outlaw strikes in the same way they are doing for protests. I have seen countless interviews where gov representatives quote that “working class people are the ones that will suffer from the strikes” but refuse the counter argument that the people striking are these working class people….. And “where does this money come from, we can’t give everyone a pay rise”
Here is some (talking average nurses salary is 33k/y and a 9% pay increase is £2970 increase on average) … 2million each week spent on warehousing defective PPE , over 3 months that’s 24million …. That covers just over 8000 nurses pay rises.
4billion up front on generally faulty PPE that couldn’t be used …. That’s 1300000 potential 9% pay increases for nurses.
This issue is 100% inflicted by the governments borderline criminal mismanagement of the countries budget / national contracts
This just goes to show beyond doubt what an empty, meaningless charade the whole “cLaP 4 dA nHs!!!!” Thing was. Just….ugh. It’s sickening.
When they go on strike and the media portray them as uncaring and scream for them all to be sacked, one of his mates will announce they’ve got a company that specialises in nurses and if you sign a contract with them they’ll provide all the nurses we need for only twice the cost.
Doctors, nurses, carers are all seen as Angels who would work for free if necessary, which is why their pay and working conditions are so bad…. And why Politicians treat them like this.
The government need to get their act together and stop causing and perpetuating these strikes. Pay our NHS workers with money, not claps, you ridiculous clowns.
So basically they want there to be strikes, and won’t listen to the strikers demands. Wonderful, sure there’s no way that could backfire
Talks for civil servants, health professionals etc? No none of that we don’t have money.
Removing the restrictions to bankers that caused 10+ years of austerity so they can go and fuck it all up again? Hell yes!
Nothing quite like being a crucial part of the functional governing and health of the country and having to foot the bill for bankers only for them to tell us they’re sticking to austerity with us and letting the bankers loose and free again.
Anything for their mates and their own pockets. Starting to feel like we’re on the road to an oligarchy with these sorts of decisions.
To actively and openly support this government at the moment, you might as well walk around and just punch random people in the face and tell them you hate them.
This Tory government will refuse to even talk to any type of union it seems. They’d rather the entire country grind to a halt than consider paying public sector workers a decent wage.
“Essential workers” no more it seems.
This is what happens when unions don’t have powers to hold governments accountable. You need to get rid of all of the Thatch laws that neutered the unions. She was pure evil was Thatch.
It’s the Margaret Thatcher playbook – ignore the strikers until public sympathy turns against them.
The thing is, you can stockpile coal, you can’t stockpile health…
So basically we won’t talk with you cause you decided to strike. You decided to strike because we didn’t give crap what you were saying
Proof if any is needed that the government have no interest in resolving the disputes and ending the strikes. Instead they want to use them to stoke division and restrict workers’ rights.
The public are fully behind the nurses and *OUR* NHS.
*United we bargain, divided we beg*.
Fuck the tories, fuck these cunts in their fuck faces. They have spent over a decade squeezing the ever living shit out of the NHS, they have cut off the biggest feeder of new recruits by doing hard brexit, and still have the gall to refuse to sit down and fucking talk.
Every single one should be removed from office.
ETR