Breaking the NHS picket line

Call in sick - then you are supporting the strikers and not breaking the picket line.

Unless you’re a resident (junior) doctor you cannot and should not strike. If you want to show your support for the doctors (which is greatly appreciated and not something they would take for granted) please come and say hi to the picket on the way to or from work, they’ll probably have a sticker or badge you could wear if you like to indicate your support.
Your manager is talking absolute rubbish - please let other colleagues know that nobody else is expected to strike and I’ve never heard of unpleasantness on any of the pickets (I was around in the 2016 strikes too).
There’s also an understanding that plenty of our doctor colleagues need to work for reasons we might not be privy to - this isn’t the miners strikes - there’s no shouting at people crossing a line!

This.

Seriously, your manager should be reported for spreading this kind of misinformation. It’s not the 80s with the miners’ strikes and lines of police holding back the picketers!

I’m another one who doesn’t understand why you can’t use another entrance to the hospital. Either the bus you use drives straight onto the hospital grounds in which case it will pass by the strikers (And believe me, no one will be throwing eggs!) or you get off the bus at the stop outside of the hospital and walk through a different entrance or the car park. It doesn’t seem like rocket science.

Not empty quoting

I think what the OP might be saying is that on her normal bus route, due to the relative location of the picket and the hospital entrance, she would already be 'crossing the picket' on the bus or by getting off at the bus stop that will drop her into the middle of the protest - I think she's imagining a scene like this with rioters surrounding the strike breakers bus. And she's saying that is the only bus route that goes within 3 miles of the hospital.

But evidently if that is the case OP (or her manager) are likely to be wildly disappointed by the extremely tame and undramatic nature of resident doctor picking! There weren't even any placards or loudspeakers the last time at our trust, just some fairly sad leafleters...

Noone cares. I've been on strike earlier in training but now as st7 with a few months left of training I need my clinical days to get signed off so have worked, I'm not sacrificing 16yrs of work/my career for the pickets, quite a few were working and felt similar. Most hospitals don't even have pickets as they're often centralised now

This isn't right, you aren't on strike so it's not your picket line!

None of this makes sense - 'breaking the picket' really isn't a thing with NHS staff. As a non clinical member of staff you literally legally cannot be on strike with the doctors as it is only doctors/BMA members striking. All other staff members are fully expected (including by the BMA) to go to work as normal. Nothing to do with whether or not you can afford a day off.

And then are very strict rules about picketing which are enforced by the BMA themselves as well as by employers. They limit the numbers of people allowed on the picket at any one time and picketers are absolutely not allowed to hassle or block or intimidate people walking into the building, not even other doctors who theoretically are 'strike breaking' never mind other staff members or patients just going about their business.

But even assuming you don't want to walk past the picket, the thing about the bus makes no sense - just get off the bus at the normal stop and then walk through the car park or around the hospital building to the back/side entrance? Unless there are accessibility issues stopping you doing that? Even if your manager is right about the intimidating picket by the main entrance they aren't going to monitor who is getting off the bus or chase people around the car park trying to stop anyone getting into th building

It's a load of bollocks.

You're in a different union (hopefully you're in a union) and it's illegal to take secondary action in any case.

The striking staff know that, their union rep knows that, anybody with half an ounce of knowledge of trade union law knows that. You can walk straight through the middle of them if you so wish (or need to), say hello, take exactly the same route into work and across the largest hospital complex on the planet going by the time you reckon it takes to get across it as you normally would and nobody will notice or give a monkey's that you're doing it because you aren't crossing a picket line or breaking a strike in the slightest. Because it's not your union, it's not your grievance, it's not your perfectly legal industrial action, it's theirs.

So either your manager is talking utter shite to create a feeling of hostility towards the resident doctors - or you are.

Iv always gone into work as iv not been a profeasion that strikes. Tbh they have never blocked the entrance. They are off to one side. Never rude and never nasty to anyone

I usually go over and give them a packet of biscuits on the way in

I worked as a nurse for the NHS for over 40 years and I have never seen unpleasant behaviour towards staff or public on any picket line.

I know I am massively missing the point but how can the other entrances to the same hospital be an hours walk away?

I don't see how anyone can work in the NHS if they can't cope with the possibility that someone might get angry.

This sounds like a pile of bollocks from your manager.

Walking for an hour you could easily cover 3 miles….must be a VERY big hospital site!

Um. Sounds like you don't want to go to work!! As others - I have been a junior and a consultant and have both been on strike and crossed picket lines. In actual fact we have checked who is striking when to plan for cover. (Whole other story here of them saving on wages and yet little impact on care. oh yes, staff goodwill, what keeps it going).
You are being precious. No one is going to get angry or violent.

How big is this hospital that it would take an hour to reach another entrance?

Exactly. We regularly attend one of the UK’s biggest hospitals. You could walk round the entire site in half an hour.

This! Your hospital doesn't sound like any one I've ever been to if you can't walk through one department to get to another and there's only one entrance/exit to the entire building!

Say the doctors are striking outside the main entrance by A&E which is where the bus drops you off and where you would usually enter and then walk along a few corridors to get to paediatrics in a different wing/building, instead just walk alongside the outside of the building/through the car park or wherever and enter by a different door.

Also doctors absolutely won't (or shouldn't be!) shouting at patients!

That's funny, i thought pro-strike and trying to strong arm others into joining.

This is pure rubbish and your manager wants reporting for these comments!

Im a nurse. I didn’t strike because I felt (personally) it was morally wrong as I work in a specialist area, second time I couldn’t afford it.

Not once was there bad feeling. Never ever would the staff be disrespectful to the patients over it.

Do not give this another thought.

Just seems like your 'manager' is anti-strike and trying to stir up anger against those striking...

But when you get off the bus why can’t you walk round to one of the other entrances? Why will that take hours? That’s what doesn’t make sense?

Nonsense.

I'm going to have a guess that your manager is a bit anti-doctor and is just trying to make them out to be bullies as they are talking inflammatory nonsense. If you're not a resident doctor then you are not striking and going to work as planned is completely normal. Resident doctors have for the most part actually been grateful for the work of other staff in ensuring that safe care has continued during strikes. If you really don't want to use the front door then just pick one of the others.