Put NHS pay right – Page 3

The streets of London – pictures from the picket lines

Wednesday’s day of strike action in the ambulance service, across England, saw pickets throughout London.

Touring the capital was UNISON head of health Sara Gorton – above, with pickets at Waterloo – moving from there, where she addressed massed ranks of news media, to sites including Deptford and Greenwich.

She was accompanied by photographer Marcus Rose, who recorded events.

Waterloo picket – sun shining through flags

Pickets at Waterloo attaching a sign to an ambulance to stress provision of emergency cover

Waterloo picket – UNISON head of health Sara Gorton being interviewed by media

UNISON ad van between two ambulances at Waterloo

Pickets at Waterloo with an ad van

Waterloo picket with 'honk for the NHS' handwritten placard

Sara Gorton addressing media at Waterloo picket

Flags waving on Waterloo picket

Three pickets with placard, around a brazier, at Deptford

Cyclist waving to pickets at Deptford

Pickets at Deptford applaud as emergency cover ambulance leave the station

Pickets at Deptford Show placards to passing traffic

Pickets at Deptford with 'honk your support' placard

Pickets at Deptford

Sara Gorton with pickets at Deptford

Sara Gorton talking to media at Deptford

Pickets at Greenwich stand clear as emergency cover ambulance leaves

Sara Gorton with UNISON flag, with pickets at Greenwich

Pickets at Greenwich greet two small dogs

Pickets at Greenwich with a brazier

Sara Gorton listening to a picket at Greenwich

Christina McAnea tours pickets in Yorkshire and the North East

Through sun and rain, on the picket lines in Bristol

#PutNHSpayright – our rolling covering from the day itself

The article The streets of London – pictures from the picket lines first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Christina McAnea tours pickets on second NHS strike day

Photos ©Steve Forrest/Workers’ Photos

Christina McAnea spent the second joint union NHS strike day, yesterday 11 January, touring picket lines in Yorkshire and the North East to show her support and solidarity for the striking ambulance workers.

She began the day in Sheffield at Longley ambulance station where, as they did across the county, paramedics walked out at 10am.

As the picket was set up, she spoke to the workers about why they were striking and, once the brazier was burning, addressed the strikers and the press who had gathered.

Speaking of the recent development where the secretary of state for health had acknowledged that, to deal with this crisis, the government would have to talk to the unions about pay for this year, rather than pay for the future, Christina said: “There’s been lots of speculation about what offer they might come back with, but nothing formal has been put forward yet, that’s why today’s strike has gone ahead.

“We have another strike planned for the 23 January, which gives the government about a week and a half to try and sit down with us and resolve this before we have to take another strike day.

“My door is always open and I’m happy to turn up at their door any time to talk to them about pay.”

She said that the move by the government to bring minimum service levels in during strikes was an “absolute distraction”, adding that it would mean then the NHS “would only have minimum staffing levels, when on strike.”

As though to illustrate the point, just before she began her speech, several members of the press were forced to move after two workers were called off the newly formed picket line and jumped in an ambulance to respond to an urgent call – as had been negotiated by the unions and employers in providing life and limb cover.

She continued, saying the move from the government shows it isn’t tackling the dispute, but is ”trying to take everybody’s eye off the ball and get us looking ‘over there’ instead of looking at what the crisis actually is”.

She finished by thanking the strikers, saying she knew “this is not what you want to be doing – you care about the patients and the public you look after, but you have our full backing from our union and my huge gratitude to you for the courage it has taken you to be here today”.

Two paramedics smile and hold 'official picket' placards outside Longley ambulance station, Sheffield

Unison General Secretary, Christina McAnea, visits picket lines at Ambulance stations across Yorkshire, in support of striking Ambulance and support crews. Photo shows the Longley Ambulance Station, Sheffield.

Photos ©Steve Forrest/Workers’ Photos

Rotherham

Christina then travelled to Rotherham and Wath ambulance station. There she met a long-serving patient transport service team with over 75 years experience between the three of them, Wendy, Michaela and John. They spoke, clearly emotional over the situation, about how their job has changed over those years.

Wendy said: “Years ago, we used to take patients home from discharge, we used tp make fires for them, make cups of tea or coffee, or get them bread and milk because they’ve got nothing in the house when they arrive back.”

Now the team can’t do that “because we’ve not got time, its job after job after job”.

John said: “We came into this job because we care about people. Now it feels like they’re taking that away from us. Sometimes we even take people home and have to lock them in the house. Which, to me, is not right.”

“We hate doing that,” Wendy added.

“They’re locked in, and they haven’t got the mobility to get to the door,” John continued. “God forbid if there’s a fire. We have to lock them in and put the key in the key safe so the carers can get in. But the carers might not be there for another three or four hours”.

On the degradation of relationships between colleagues, Wendy said, “A big thing is the camaraderie amongst us, there’s none of that because we’ve not got time for it, there’s no meeting up anymore”.

“The hospital used to provide us with a crew room, we could have a cup of tea and a bit of a chat,” said John. “Now we hardly see each other.”

Wendy finished by saying: “We used to love coming to work, but now it gets to Sunday night and I get anxiety, that’s where we’re at.”

Christina McAnea stand on Wath ambulance station picket line with striking ambulance workers while waving at a honking car passing by

A woman ambulane worker holds a flag over her should with a small brazier fire and blue sky in the background

Photos ©Steve Forrest/Workers’ Photos

York

Next stop was York ambulance station, a picket line where 999 call handlers were also striking. Call handlers had not walked out in the initial strike just before Christmas and across the region they were striking in batches to keep providing cover to protect patient safety.

Shortly after Christina arrived, they were called back in to provide cover, as another, larger call handling centre in Wakefield was readying to walk out.

Throughout the day there was strong support from the public, with one man coming up to the picket to thank the ambulance workers as the service had recently saved his wife’s life, as well as a number of other people who came to bring food and drinks to the strikers.

Christina stands on York ambulance station picket line behind a flaming brazier with strikers holding, including one holding a young child in their arms

Cathy Newman interviews Christina McAnea on camera in front of an ambulance at York ambulance station

Photos ©Steve Forrest/Workers’ Photos

Chester-le-street

A train to Durham and a quick car ride saw Christina arrive at Chester-le-street and, by virtue of its position on a busy roundabout, the loudest strike of the day with drivers continually serenading the strikers and signalling their support by honking their horns.

There the general secretary was joined by Wilma Brown, chair of UNISON’s health service group executive, who had travelled down from Scotland to offer support, along with members of UNISON’s NEC, Helen Firman and Pat Heron.

Gateshead

Christina finished her tour of the pickets in Gateshead ambulance station where the picket took place on the aptly named ‘Windy Nook Road’.

Speaking to a crowd of strikers she said: “It’s not the strikers putting the public at risk, its this government. We’ve been asking the government for six months to do something to resolve this and they’ve sat on their hands the whole time. It’s time the government did the grown-up thing and did something.”

She concluded by telling them: “You have the full support of our union and you absolutely have the public support. We are all hugely grateful to you and the work that you do.”

The article Christina McAnea tours pickets on second NHS strike day first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Through sun and rain – on the picket lines in Bristol

After an extraordinary day across England, with ambulance workers in five regions taking action on pay and highlighting the crisis in the NHS, it’s time to look back on the day’s events.

Here is a selection of photographs from two pickets in Bristol, at Lansdown Road and Croydon Street, taken by Nigel Goldsmith.

Email ambulance striker with UNISON placard saying 'Put pay right'

Two women on a picket line with a dog, and UNISON banners in the background.

Picket with UNISON flag waving to an ambulance passing by

Pickets with an ambulance

Two pickets, wrapped up against the rain, with UNISON flags, smiling

Two female pickets with umbrellas, smiling

Pickets in the rain, by a road

Two pickets, with placard and flag, waving at a passing car, which is blurred by its speed

Two male pickets with placard and flag

Pickets with two ambulances behind them, in the rain

The article Through sun and rain – on the picket lines in Bristol first appeared on the UNISON National site.

#PutNHSpayright – all the news with our rolling report

08:20am In response to government plans to introduce minimum cover regulations for strikes, UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea told the BBC that during the strike in December, staff didn’t hesitate to leave picket lines when someone’s life was in danger”.

But she continued: “After a decade of refusing to bring in minimum staffing levels, it’s ironic that the government is only prepared to do so during a strike.

“Every other day of the year, ambulance crews are stuck queuing for hours outside A&E departments and hospital staff are rushed off their feet. But the government isn’t interested in minimum staffing levels then.”

07:45am Good morning all. This is the start of another historic day, as UNISON members working in the ambulance service across England take a second day of industrial action.

We will be bringing you reports from around the regions, so stay tuned.

The article #PutNHSpayright – all the news with our rolling report first appeared on the UNISON National site.

I’m a paramedic – here’s why I’m striking

Ahead of the December strike action, a UNISON ambulance member wrote in The New Statesman, explaining why they were taking action. They wished to remain anonymous.

This week, I, along with thousands of fellow ambulance workers belonging to the UNISON union across England, have voted to take strike action. We know it’s a shock – but we’re doing it out of necessity: not just for ourselves, but for the future of the NHS.

I’ve been a paramedic for more than 27 years, and I’ve seen the health service in all kinds of states – but this is the worst I’ve ever known it to be. For the past 12 years, my colleagues and I have said to each other “surely, it can’t get any worse?” and yet here we are.

Diagnosing the issues paramedics face is easy – because they’re the same problems the rest of my NHS colleagues, across various disciplines, are dealing with: dwindling pay, service overloads and a chronic underinvestment in the health service.

Like everyone, paramedics are feeling the effects of the cost-of-living crisis. Though it’s cliché, we often get asked, “Why do you do what you do?” and the answer is just as well-versed: because we want to help people. But with our pay declining in real terms, with NHS bosses in England giving us a measly pay increase equivalent to 72p per hour, when the cost of living is more than 10 per cent, it is becoming increasingly difficult to cope.

Ultimately, I think I’ll be alright – I’m a senior paramedic, living with a partner who’s in work, and have four grown children – but it really gets to me, knowing that many of my colleagues with young children are actively struggling to put food on the table for their kids, let alone themselves. Much has been made about the “choice” between “heating or eating”. I’ve been made aware of numerous instances of colleagues having to choose between feeding themselves and paying their rent. Staff take on countless overtime (sometimes taking on as many as ten extra shifts a month), and food banks have opened up within hospitals, to keep heads above water.

This simply isn’t sustainable – not least in the context of many of us still recovering from the scars of the pandemic. Many of us paid the price: I was signed off of work for three months because of stress induced by working on the front line during the pandemic. I couldn’t sleep, eat or engage in anything properly. I just closed down within myself.

Two years later, and the general burnout among NHS staff and paramedics continues. Much of the backlogs highlighted in elective care are also reflective of the state of my field. When I first started in the service, we’d attend anywhere between seven and ten patients in a single shift. Now, a lack of staffing, beds and infrastructure means that ambulances often become an extension of A&E, with crews having to stay with patients for as long as ten hours. It means that we’re not always there to help others in dire need.

This isn’t the fault of the ambulance service, crews on the road or the hospitals – this way of operating just isn’t safe for anyone: both staff and patients. Doing what we do, in the conditions we do it in – for 12, sometimes even 16 hours per shift – is it any wonder that staff are leaving the NHS in record numbers? With the deteriorating state of our hospitals an open secret, it should come as no surprise that, despite there being 133,000 vacancies in the health service, the NHS is struggling to recruit. As an institution, the health service is bleeding out.

My colleagues and I haven’t taken the decision to strike lightly. We just want a fair wage for what we put in, and to contribute to a service that is healthy on all fronts. Unfortunately, the current government’s problematic and chronic underfunding of the NHS is only compounded by its refusal to listen to the concerns unions are raising about how unsustainable its current way of operating is.

Politicians were happy to and quick enough to engage with us when it was easy for them: smiling and clapping for us during the pandemic. But when push comes to shove, and difficult paths to improve the NHS need to be forged, it seems more smoke and mirrors than anything meaningful.

So, until they engage with us and the striking nurses, along with our other colleagues across the health service, we’ll keep on pushing for better – for our sake, for your sake, and for the sake of the NHS.

This article first appeared in The New Statesman on 2 December.

The article I’m a paramedic – here’s why I’m striking first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Five ways to support our ambulance strikers

A second strike in the ongoing NHS pay dispute takes place on Wednesday this week and UNISON members working in the ambulance service in five regions will be walking out.

But before getting into how you can show your support, it’s important to note that there are strict legal provisions and a statutory code of practice around who can picket and how pickets are run.

It’s important to make sure legal requirements and patient safety are maintained, and UNISON regional offices will be working with striking branches to manage invitations and arrangements for visitors to their pickets.

So please don’t go to picket lines unless invited by striking branches.

But that doesn’t mean you can’t still support the strikers, here are five ways.

1. Send your solidarity

Fill in the form on the webpage below to send your messages support and solidarity to striking workers.

Send your solidarity

You can also make your support known on local or national radio phone-in shows.

2. #PutNHSPayRight

Get on social maid channels, get active and get the message out!

Follow #PutNHSPayRight on twitter, get involved on Facebook, retweet and repost striking branches as well as UNISON’s national and regional accounts.

You can also use UNISON’s graphics to show your support.

Download the graphics

3. Write to your MP

This is an issue that the government can fix, if it chooses to. Write to your MP using our template letter to tell them to support the campaign and put pressure on the government to put NHS pay right and fix our NHS.

Write to your MP

4. Honk those horns

While you may not be able to join the official pickets, if you happen to be walking or driving past as part of your day, you can still show your support, honk your horns or give them a cheer, we’re sure they’ll appreciate it.

5. Keep up to date

Make sure to follow our live feed on Wednesday. We’ll be posting updates from all over the country all day so you can follow along – you’ll find the rolling feed on the front-page of the UNISON website.

The article Five ways to support our ambulance strikers first appeared on the UNISON National site.

Blog: We’re ready to talk on pay

Starting my first blog of 2023, i’d like to say a huge ‘thank you’ to all the public service workers who still went out to work during the Christmas and new year holidays.

When so many people can take time off work to be with their family and friends, you make personal sacrifices to keep the country going. I have no doubt that you do this because of your commitment to your work and to the people who rely on the services you provide.

Yesterday, the prime minister gave a speech, in which he spoke about a better future that “restores optimism, hope, and pride in Britain”.

Perhaps it’s his own realisation that his government has been dragging everyone down for the past 12 years, but he should also realise, that through it all, it’s your work that gives people hope across the whole of the UK.

You’re saving lives, helping to educate children and young people, and you’re supporting communities.

UNISON has pride in your work, and we know that your jobs are vital to creating a better future.

The prime minister also acknowledged the challenges in A&E and with NHS waiting lists, promising to create “better-paid jobs and opportunity right across the country”.

So given that we’re in the middle of a legal dispute over NHS pay, I was looking forward to hearing his plans to make NHS jobs better paid. But no such plans were announced.

We’ve been calling on the government to talk to us about pay for months. Services can’t continue when so many workers are leaving for better paid jobs elsewhere, and when services can’t continue, patients suffer.

Even after our first wave of strike action in December, the government has unreasonably refused to sit down and talk to us about improving NHS pay.

So, we’re carrying on with our industrial action in the NHS into 2023.

Our next strike days are on 11 and 23 January, and we are re-balloting areas that fell just short of the high ballot thresholds imposed by a Conservative government.

It’s not too late for them to start negotiations with us. We are ready – and we’ve been ready for months.

UNISON is taking action to make working lives better. Our purpose is, and always will be, to support working people and their families throughout their lives.

I know that, through our collectivism and activism, we can create a prosperous 2023 for our members, and a better future for all public services.

The article Blog: We’re ready to talk on pay first appeared on the UNISON National site.

General secretary thanks strikers

“I want to thank you so much for taking that tough decision.” That was at the heart of a video message from UNISON general secretary Christina McAnea today, to “all of our members and activists” who took part in Wednesday’s strike action in the NHS.

Noting that the union had seen “huge public support”, Ms McAnea said that this had been “so good to see”.

And she said that it was important that members should remember that in the new year, during further industrial action.

“I hope they come to their senses and talk to us,” she said of the government. But if they don’t, UNISON is a strong union “and we are all together in this”.

And the general secretary concluded by wishing members well and hoping that they would all be able to have time off this Christmas to spend with their families.

Watch the video

Our rolling report from Wednesday’s action

Christina McAnea: A message to ambulance strikers on a difficult day

London calling – a look back at the strike in the capital

In my Liverpool home – on the picket lines in Merseyside

The article General secretary thanks strikers first appeared on the UNISON National site.

In my Liverpool home – on the picket lines in Merseyside

As members of UNISON working in the ambulance service took strike action across England on Wednesday, members in two hospitals in the North West region also walked out.

Members of the whole health team – from support workers to specialist nurses, theatre staff, porters and occupational therapists – at the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital and the Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital took to the picket lines.

They were not only protesting against low pay, but also to call for safe staffing levels and make clear who is to blame for the troubles facing the NHS.

On a chilly day but under blue skies, passing vehicles honked support. And Steve Forrest visited both sites to catch a flavour of the day.

Striking health workers outside The Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool

Striking health workers outside The Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool, UK.

Striking health workers outside The Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, Liverpool,

Striking health workers outside The Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool, UK.

Striking health workers outside The Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, Liverpool, UK

Striking health workers outside The Liverpool Heart and Chest Hospital, Liverpool, UK.

Striking health workers outside The Royal Liverpool University Hospital, Liverpool, UK.

London’s calling – a look back at the strike in the capital

Christina McAnea – a message to strikers on a difficult day

Our rolling report from Wednesday’s strike day

The article In my Liverpool home – on the picket lines in Merseyside first appeared on the UNISON National site.

London calling – a look back at yesterday’s strike in the capital

Yesterday’s moments strikes across England will be reverberating for weeks to come.

The extraordinary response from UNISON members – and support from the public – was clear, and you can look back at that on the rolling report we ran throughout the day.

But today, let’s have a further look at action across London, as photographer Marcus Rose followed UNISON’s general secretary Christina McAnea to three pickets.

It began at Waterloo, with vast media interest, before continuing to Deptford, where it wouldn’t be Christmas without a babe in arms (see above) and then ending after dark around the brazier in Edmonton.

It might have been the shortest day of the year, but in many ways it was the longest.