15 December 2022 will go down in history. The largest nursing strike ever in the NHS.
100,000 nurses took unprecedented strike action, to be followed by more strikes on 20 December and another wave of hospitals and trusts in the new year. Ambulance workers will be striking on 21 and 28 December.
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) were joined by Socialist Party members in towns and cities across England and Wales.
Socialist Party members from Nottingham to Cardiff to Hertfordshire and many more places report solidarity on the nurses’ picket lines from postal workers in the Communication Workers Union, also on strike today.
In fact, big numbers joined the nurses everywhere. Tom Baldwin reports about 60 at Bristol Royal Infirmary; Amy Sage about 50 at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, with more still arriving. More than 60 were reported in Cardiff and Seamus Smyth says that the picket at Kettering was, simply, “huge”.
Hundreds gathered at St Thomas’s in central London, where National Shop Stewards Network chair Rob Williams gave a message of solidarity. Socialist Party and University and College Union (UCU) member Lluis Bertolin spoke at a rally at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in Birmingham.
Socialist Party members also initiated and helped organise solidarity wherever we could. Mal Richardson organised a lunchtime solidarity rally at York hospital. Holly Johnston helped organise an ‘NHS workers say NO’ solidarity banner drop in Sheffield, alongside CWU members and Shelter strikers, members of Unite the Union. Socialist Students members in Southampton organised a solidarity protest of student nurses, with the support of the RCN and UCU.
A nurse at St James’s Hospital, Leeds, told Iain Dalton: “The Tories are not prepared to give anyone any extra money, apart from themselves and their mates. They don’t care about workers like you and me”. Nick Hart reports the Socialist Party’s call to prepare for a 24-hour general strike was popular: “The idea that everyone needs to strike together is becoming common sense.”
Mark Kerr reports that in Hertfordshire, RCN pickets were “all very positive. All the people we talked to agreed on the need for a 24-hour general strike in the new year.”
Gareth Bromhall says that at the Singleton and Morriston hospitals in Swansea, and at Neath Port Talbot hospital, the trades council and Socialist Party members were welcomed and invited back next week.
Alec Thraves adds: “There were dozens of RCN members on each main entrance receiving support from the public and staff, including some Unison members who refused to work. At one stage a Wales radio interview, being recorded live from the Neath Port Talbot picket line, was almost drowned out by the noise of cars beeping their support!”
Nurses told Socialist Party member Amanda in Birmingham: “I have never felt more like just a number”
“This service relies on goodwill, and that goodwill is ending.”
“If the health service is properly funded, that keeps people in work, benefitting the economy and looking after children who are the future of this country.”
Joe Foster, also in Birmingham, reports that one nurse came to the picket to join the RCN. “One reason we don’t have many agency staff here is because of all the extra unpaid work we have done over the years”.
Cardiff
“Striking is no good for your waistline,” one nurse said on the picketline in Llandough just outside Cardiff, pointing to the mountain of cakes, chocolates and other donations they’d received. A Unite rep from Cardiff buses stopped by to raise the pile a bit higher with donations from the drivers.
Ross Saunders
Worcester
The RCN at the Royal Worcester organised cover for non-essential wards, to ensure patients are safe during today’s strike. They used recommended night-time numbers of nurses, only to realise there are more nurses working today than yesterday! Two of the nurses said how they could see no other option than to strike. Another explained how her ward was ‘non-essential’ and was clear to join the strike, only to receive a call from management telling the team that the decision has been reversed and they needed to report in as usual. They quickly found out these were just management lies and are now more determined than ever!
Glen Howard
Liverpool
Despite the below- zero temperatures, the mood at ‘the Royal’ was high among the striking workers, with plenty of passers-by bringing coffee and mince pies to warm everyone up. We discussed the sorry state of the NHS with the shop steward, as well as the need for a new workers’ party. He described the striking nurses as “highly skilled professionals” who are “very pissed off”!
Connor O’Neil
Swindon
For almost everyone at Great Western Hospital, it was their first strike, including the picket supervisor, reports Scott Hunter. It was a new experience, but striking nurses and staff quickly found themselves receiving huge amounts of support from the public.
Many workers expressed regret that it had come to a strike, but emphasised it was their chance to fight the destruction of the NHS. One said, “I joined the RCN 40 years ago because it was the only union that had a ‘no strikes’ clause. I never thought I’d have to do this.” But she explained that she had been moved to strike due to the worsening conditions in the NHS. “Pay is secondary. This strike is about patient safety, working conditions and staffing. I’m getting older and I’m worried there won’t be an NHS when I need it.”
Scott Hunter
North East
There’s overwhelming support for all the various strikes, as workers everywhere are impacted by the cost-of-living crisis. For the RCN nurses on strike, this support is amplified as people understand that alongside fighting for better pay and conditions, nurses are also on strike to fight back against the hammer blows being inflicted on the NHS.
This morning we visited Gateshead’s QE Hospital, where they were getting loads of support from passing traffic tooting, in many cases cars stopped to hand over boxes of chocolates, home-made cakes etc.
Other health workers from the hospital, who weren’t on strike themselves, were also showing solidarity. Some of these workers came out on their breaks carrying trays full of hot drinks to sustain the strikers – this was very much appreciated by the striking nurses.
One of the nurses on the picket line had been in Unison, but had joined the RCN in order to be on strike.
At Northumbria Specialist Emergency Care Hospital, Cramlington we were told that they’d had an influx of nurses joining the RCN.
One nurse commented that she’d bet that if Rishi Sunak had to live on their wage he’d be on strike too. This led to a discussion on the need for workers’ MPs on workers’ wages.
The last picket line we visited was North Tyneside General Hospital, North Shields.
The noise from the passing cars, taxis and buses was deafening!
One of the strikers told us that going out on strike was something none of them had done without a lot of soul-searching. She said one nurse initially hadn’t been going to strike, but a member of her family had had to go to A&E, where they had a 14-hour wait to be seen by a doctor. For this nurse, that had been a tipping point and she was on strike.
Elaine Brunskill
Posties’ solidarity with striking nurses
See below for a selection of photos from some of the picket lines Socialist Party members attended:
