Solidarity with junior doctors

Stop Tory cuts and privatisation: Solidarity with junior doctors

Zoe Brunswick, medical student

The BMA (British Medical Association) is to escalate strike action in its continued fightback against an unsafe and unfair contract. The union will now stage a full walkout of all junior doctors from 8am-5pm on 26 and 27 April, following another 48 hours of emergency care only on 6 and 7 April.

This has come about after the government’s blatant refusal to negotiate on a contract that will have doctors working more unsocial hours for less pay.

We now call for other trade unions to ballot for coordinated strike action in solidarity with the junior doctors.

The grassroots of the BMA have already presented a letter of solidarity signed by over 2,000 doctors to the National Union of Teachers (NUT) in support of their dispute against the government’s plan to force all schools to become academies. We now urge the NUT to use their strike ballot to take industrial action in coordination with the BMA.

Other healthcare professionals are also facing pay cuts and should use this to ballot for industrial action alongside the doctors.

Fightback

This dispute is not merely about pay and working conditions for junior doctors, but is a fightback against the wider Tory agenda of austerity and privatisation.

The push for doctors to carry out more routine work over the weekend is not in the interests of patients, but in the interests of private companies who are looking to buy simpler and easy to manage services.

We must embrace the anger and determination of the junior doctors and work with them to build a wider fightback against the Tories’ plans.

The Socialist Party calls for a mass demonstration against the crippling cuts to the NHS and for all unions to take coordinated strike action to continue the momentum of the junior doctors and fight cuts and privatisation.