‘Senior union figures aggrieved at resident doctors’

In a Guardian article on 4 April, unions with NHS staff were reported to be “aggrieved” at the strike action of resident doctors in the BMA (British Medical Association).

Nurses, midwives, ambulance workers, porters and more are due to receive pay rises of 3.3%. ‘Senior union figures’ are reported to protest that “The deals we have been able to present to our members are becoming a much tougher sell”! They thought the “problem” was that resident doctors are leading their own negotiations – clearly if negotiations were in the hands of unelected, remote officials, inadequate pay deals would be much easier to agree!

They argue that the resident doctors can’t see “the bigger picture” of “resentment” among unions representing NHS staff who were not doctors.

Most members of the other unions would prefer their leaders to get on with it and organise a serious fight on better pay for all.

Wiltshire and Avon NHS Unison members in solidarity with resident doctors: ‘Revolt over jobs and pay is needed’

Roger Davey, Chair Wiltshire and Avon Unison Health

Members of our union branch our being urged to sign a statement in support of the striking resident doctors. The statement explains that the resident doctors are “fighting for everyone who cares about decent public health care in the UK. A win for the resident doctors would also be a boost for all NHS workers, who are struggling with low pay and are witnessing at close hand the destruction of the NHS.

“The government, mainstream media and, shamefully, sections of the leadership of other health trade unions, try to present the strikers as greedy, unrealistic and irresponsible.  But the BMA is right to criticise the government’s offer of a 3.5 percent pay rise for resident doctors this year, pointing out that their pay is still a fifth lower in real terms than it was in 2008.”

It went on: “Rather than doctors being criticised for claiming more than the 3.3% offered to most other NHS staff, they should be congratulated for showing that no one needs to settle for less. In fact, the government and some in the trade union leadership fear that such demands could be contagious, leading to a wider pay revolt after decades of  shrinking pay. Such a revolt over jobs and pay and to defend the NHS is much needed, especially when there seems to be plenty of money available to fund what the government describes as ‘the biggest sustained increase in defence spending since the Cold War’.”

Members of my union branch stand in full solidarity with the resident doctors. The unnamed ‘union sources’ that have been quoted in the national press criticising the doctors dispute are outrageous. It is urgent that our national leadership, especially our new left general secretary Andrea Egan, makes it clear that they too stand in solidarity with the resident doctors.