Trade Unions Should Feel Confident For Public Sector Disputes
The Social ReviewDec 17, 2022
According to a new survey, 40% of junior doctors plan to leave the UK's National Health Service (NHS) as soon as they can find another role. Pay and poor working conditions were the main reasons cited for wanting to quit, said the British Medical Association (BMA), who commissioned the research.
The BMA said the NHS would not be able to cope if two-fifths of its junior doctor workforce resigned. It urged the government to “act now" to avoid a strike set to be held by doctors next week. One third of the 4.5K junior doctors surveyed in England also said they plan to work in another country in the next 12 months.
Not only have nurses and frontline workers borne the brunt of the pandemic, they now face a government trying to nickel-and-dime them out of a necessary and well-deserved pay increase, all while dealing with record-high inflation and a buckling healthcare system. Public sector wages have stagnated profoundly under conservative governance. The unacceptable exploitation of essential workers needs to stop.
Unions must face the fact that every day they stay on the picket line puts the lives of countless Britons at risk. The government is scrambling to find solutions to the economic crisis sparked by COVID and inflation, as well as the market destabilization induced by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The unions are simply not playing fair by ignoring the reality of current economic circumstances — this is a safety issue.