What is the support of the British for the nurses’ strike?
What are the reasons for the worker protests before Christmas in the UK?
What is the reason for using the UK army to drive ambulances?
What is the request of the nurses from the UK government before the strike?
Criticism has risen from the comments of the secretary of the ruling Conservative Party that the strike of protesting nurses in this country is sending the wrong message to the President of Russia in the middle of the war in Ukraine. British postal workers may also go on strike. The British Prime Minister’s spokesman said that the unions still have the opportunity to withdraw to reduce some of the problems that are coming for this country. Worker protests in the UK are on the rise.
The British supported the nurses’ strike.
The worker protests are supported by the British. A survey by the Mirror shows that 54% of British people support the nurses’ strike in this country. Nadhim Zahawi, the secretary of the British ruling conservative party, recently claimed in an interview with reporters that nurses should stop their strikes and demands because the Russian president is exploiting this issue to fuel inflation in the West. He asked the nurses’ unions to negotiate with the protesters and convince them that now was not the right time to strike.
Holding a strike before Christmas
Worker protests before Christmas will cause many problems. Protesting nurses in the UK plan to stop working on December 15th and 20th. At the same time, the ambulance drivers are trying to determine days to hold a strike before Christmas. These developments are in addition to a broad wave of strikes by other British public sectors in protest of the country’s economic problems, which the government cannot solve due to the budget deficit and deep financial problems.
Army readiness to drive ambulances
Worker protests in the UK have made the government consider using the army for the health sector. The secretary of the ruling conservative party has said that the military is on standby to drive ambulances. “This is not a time to be divided. I hope we have to communicate to Mr Putin that he can’t use energy as a weapon in this way.” He claimed that Putin is using energy as a weapon against Ukraine and that public sector wage increases exacerbate the inflation this has caused.
Public lack of trust in the promises of the UK government
Worker protests have increased while there is no hope for the promises of the UK government. However, Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said that the government’s use of the war in Ukraine as a justification for opposing the increase of nurses’ salaries is unfortunate. They want the government to address their problems. “Nursing staff were quitting the NHS because they could not afford food and bills and were “fearing the worst on energy this winter,”. Cullen said that she is still ready to negotiate with government officials to agree on handling the problems of the nurses, but she is not prepared to justify the protesters.
The unpreparedness of the UK government to negotiate with nurses
The increase in worker protests is because the UK government is not prepared to negotiate salaries. Meanwhile, Sara Gorton, head of Health at UNISON, said that it is possible to prevent the strike if the health secretary arranges an increase in the salaries of the protesters. This is while, according to her, “Instead of taking responsibility for trying to solve the growing staffing crisis, ministers want to ratchet up the rhetoric and pick fights with ambulance workers and their NHS colleagues.” It is expected that the pressure on the UK government to negotiate and reach an agreement with the protesting public sector workers will increase by the end of the year.
Rejecting the government’s claim about strikes
Shadow Secretary of State for Health & Social Care Wes Streeting says people blame the government for the strikes rather than the protesting workers. The Liberal Democratic Party has also rejected Nadhim Zahawi’s excuse for stopping the strikes and announced: “ludicrous and insulting to suggest Vladimir Putin is responsible for nurses going on strike.” Christine Jardine, the Lib Dems’ Cabinet Office spokesperson, said: “The responsibility lies firmly with this Conservative government’s shambolic failure to find a solution.”
12-hour wait for a general practitioner visit
Due to the nurses’ strike, NHS will postpone more than 30,000 surgeries, chemotherapy sessions, cancer tests and thousands of doctor visits. Meanwhile, according to published statistics, 4,000 patients in the emergency department of British medical centres have to wait 12 hours to see a general practitioner.
Increased waiting time to start treatment
The latest published data shows that 43,792 emergency patients waited half a day for the doctor to decide whether to admit them to the department last October. This amount shows a 50% increase compared to the previous year, and it is said that the more difficult access to the emergency room is the cause of the death of about 2,000 people per month.
I am setting up war rooms in the NHS
Statistics also show that ambulances served patients with a delay of 47 minutes, While 18 minutes have been targeted for them. The National Health Service (NHS) has set up “war rooms” on the eve of a strike by nurses and ambulance drivers, as well as in response to the deplorable condition of the emergency department of the country’s medical centres, to manage the pressure on hospitals.
The reaction of the new PM to suppress strikes
The UK government has resorted to reducing public welfare expenses, including health. The reaction of the new Prime Minister of the UK to suppress strikes and protests in this country by using police and army forces has distinguished the form of demonstrations and strikes in the UK from other European countries.
New UK police powers to crack down on demonstrations
These statements of the new Prime Minister came after he, along with his Home Secretary Suella Braverman, held a meeting with senior British police officials to discuss the tactics used by some pro-environment demonstrators, such as the “Leave Oil” movement. The Prime Minister released a video speech after the said meeting held at his office headquarters, emphasizing the granting of new powers to the British police to suppress illegal demonstrations. Sunak stated: “I’ve told them [the police] whatever they need from the government they will have in terms of new powers, we’re already giving them some, and I want to back them to use them.”
What distinguished the protests and strikes in the UK from other European countries was the strange reaction of Rishi Sunak, the new Prime Minister of this country, which ranged from giving special powers to the police to ordering the army to intervene. Sunak announced that the country’s police force has received new powers to suppress illegal protests and has his full support in dealing with the disruption and suffering caused by these protests for ordinary families.
