AIBU to ask if you would support a strike by midwifery/nursing staff?

[HolidayArmadillo]

Just that really, would you support a strike by frontline NHS midwifery/nursing staff? Following the 1% 'pay rise' news (which is actually a pay cut in real terms and only for those who are experienced staff at the top of their band) more and more of my colleagues have been saying that if it came to it they would strike, many have been reluctant up until this point as no one wants to disrupt women/patient care but the workforce is becoming burnt out, disillusioned and unsafe.

Just wondering what the mumsnet collective has to say?

I used to work in the NHS labs, and it was my understanding then that any strike by our lot, at least, would never be a full one - there would always be skeleton cover. As it turns out, we never needed to consider it while I worked there.

But - I would support a strike by nurses/MWs IF skeleton support was still provided for emergencies. I might not be in the UK any more, but I'd support a strike here too, IF the skeleton service was left in place.

Full refusal to work/cover, no. That goes against the whole ethos of the job, IMO.

No,it's par for the course everywhere.

Fed up with the public sector thinking they have it worse than everybody else and are somehow more deserving.They don't and aren't.

NHS worker here (Podiatrist)
Our workforce is tiny compared to Nursing but if a strike was to work, it would have to be completely un-announced ( well, obviously everyone would know about it but the General Public wouldn't ) then it will negitively affect the Service Users and get the results the strike needs.

But that won't happen - because anyone who goes into a care industry does so to care.
I personally would not like to think of my patients making a journey to get to an empty surgery.
On the last strike we had (Public Sector Workers) IIRC my DS was in Yr 6 , DD Yr 4 . It was a day that I wasn't at work, but I'd have had to take a day leave anyway because the school was closed.

Oh for gods sake retro the public sector doesn't think that at all, why do threads like this always result in a race to the bottom? 'I have it shit so you should too?' I have no respect for that point of view although I do respect your right to have it.

retropear

NO-ONE has said we are more deserving at all, it's people like you who keep creating this public v private argument. If you have an issue, take it up with your employer. Make your own topic. No-one is stopping you from complaining. No-one is saying we ALL don't deserve fairness.

The thing is we can't just take it up with our employer. The NHS can't do anything without the governments say so.

YANBU I would wholeheartedly support a strike. The fact that nurses are responsible for peoples life's should be reflected in pay and conditions. The race to the bottom in wages and employment rights is getting disgusting. With the NHS this government has it's own agenda, how many of those MPS are directors or on the board of medical related companies ?

Race to the bottom no a question was asked,I answered.

I don't see the public sector ever thinking of those in the private it's just moan,moan,moan about how soooo much harder they have it over everybody else.

The fact is you really don't sooo not getting why anybody should expect support for a strike.

I see what your saying that it's no worse than any other sector, but compare it for example to the airline industry where customer safety is high priority. The aeroplane wouldn't take off without all the safety checks plus the right number of crew. Or in the rail industry, trains are stopped if conditions aren't safe or the signals aren't working as they should. In healthcare, safety checks might tell you that there's not enough staff, but the 20 sick patients you have for 1 registered nurse can't just be sent home or refused entry because your staffing levels are unsafe. And I think if you ask most nurses, it's not necessarily the pay that's the problem, but the unsafe conditions that we are expected to work in.

A system like America that chooses to let people with long term medical conditions die if unable to pay for vital treatment? No, that would not be better for this country (unless of course it was just for those lucky healthy lot).

I think a 1% increase is still an increase, especially as there are other government services getting massive wage cuts.

However, I would support strike action if people seem it necessary.

I think the 11% increase in MP's wages is a fucking travesty. Especially when the Government is cutting money to services left, right and centre. I suppose they have to keep the old Etonians in the lifestyle to which they are accustomed...

retropear You sound incredibly childish I'm afraid. Of course I feel for people in private, my DP works in private and he's getting a shitty deal too. But if his workplace chose to go on strike it would be in the hands of the employer. Like I've said ours would be nationwide and in the hands of the government. So it needs to be discussed on a large scale,

Why don't you answer some of the questions I've raise which are serious ones and serious concerns rather than attack the little bits you don't like? Yes, I do think my family would have better care under a fully insured system than it does under the NHS in its present state. The NHS is free at the point of delivery; it isn't free. I think this is something far too many of its staff forget. The NHS does not do me a favour for which I should need to be grateful. It provides a service for which I pay handsomely and have never abused. Unfortunately people have no choice and no say over where their money is spent in relation to the NHS and this has had a very detrimental impact on it. When I use it I expect staff to be polite, competent and professional. I do not expect to be confonted by jobs worths who too often are very rude and who too often don't seem to be particularly busy. If my staff were standing round a PC giggling over images/holidays/facebook and if clients were present they would be dragged over the coals. Unfortunately that seems to happen every time I'm in hospital either personally or with my children or mother and it does not create an example of over work, or professionalism. I have also, on the last couple of occasions I've attended an NHS hospital heard patients being slagged off and other staff being slagged off.

It is completely inappropriate and does nothing to encourage the general public to support your profession. It is absolutely why I have no wish to use the NHS unless absolutely necessary and on the occasions I have to use it, ie in an emergency, then I feel that I need the option of getting out of it as quickly as possible.

Nursey if those in the private sector take it up with their employer they would very likely lose their job.

Pay freezes have been going on for years in the private sector.

Really hate these threads with an op asking a question but throwing a hissy fit when they don't get the answer they want.

Oh and I'd rather have more nurses and resources than less with pay we as a nation can't afford.

Sorry but the op asked.

No, would not support a strike. Find a job that pays more. If people do this the NHS will have to pay more to get workers. It isn't fair to ill people, babies, mothers in childbirth to take advantage of their vulnerability to get paid more.

retro
I don't see the public sector ever thinking of those in the private it's just moan,moan,moan about how soooo much harder they have it over everybody else.

The fact is you really don't sooo not getting why anybody should expect support for a strike.

yes that's just what is happening here. I'd actually support anyone who genuinely got a raw Deal in terms of remuneration and working conditions.

retropear you can't lose your job for asking for a pay rise.

No-one is bothered that you have a different opinion, what is unreasonable about your posts is that you're trying to say we shouldn't be complaining because private sector have it bad too. Sorry but what a load of crap.

Retropears opinion is reflective of many private sector workers I think having seen many debates about this and the teachers strike last year. I don't think it should be one vrs the other as I suspect most of us feel we deserve a pay rise. I'm a nurse with nearly 20 yrs experience and I wouldn't support a strike. I feel in times of austerity we should not expect a pay rise - I fear the pure hypocrisy that comes from this Govt however pits us one against the other. 1% is a piss in the wind to me that would cost millions to implement - it's pathetic, keep it and put it towards better patient care and staffing levels.

Well you won't gave to look far most companies have been dishing out pay freezes for years.

My sister works for a huge charity and is being treated like utter shite at the moment with zero protection.She wouldn't dream of striking,she cares about her clients too much and needs the job she'd lose if she did.

Chuckling away at the thought that I'm throwing a hissy fit, I really am not at all and I certainly don't expect everyone to agree with me but I have no respect for the argument that everyone should be as badly off as each other instead of fighting to get a fair deal for everyone.

Love the 'if you don't like it find another job' attitude, really helpful

Retropear your sister can't be sacked for going on legal industrial action.

So what are you planning on doing for everybody else who will have to pay higher taxes on top of their pay freezes to fund your pay rises?

I also hate it when people mention Mid Staffs etc. Everyone agrees that what went on there was fucking wrong.

But seriously, do you think that the thousands of staff working within those trusts were all bad eggs?

The NHS is much bigger than just Mid Staffs. Thousands of people bust a gut every single hour of theday up and down the country.

Of course we are all just like those who failed the patients there

Like I said it pitches one against the other. ^

No, I would not support a strike. Strikes are a good way for employees to put pressure on a commercial employer when they have a genuine grievance - the employer has to weigh up the cost of lost days' profits with the cost of whatever the workforce are demanding. In turn, the employees have to think carefully before they strike as they would not want to push the employer under which makes them circumspect. NHS midwives are not in the commercial sector. No money will be lost by the employer. No risk is taken by the midwives that the NHS will run out of money. The only effects of a strike will be felt by the sick and the vulnerable, with the kicker of a sort of knock on blackmail effect on the government via the suffering of pg mothers and newborn babies. That is not acceptable.

There are some serious lack-of-understanding posts on here.

The NHS has been squeezed and squeezed ever since the Thatcher administration. It needed to be streamlined, but what actually happened was not streamlining. Hospital Trusts were supposed to make staff more accountable - but what happened was more managers came in, money was spent unnecessarily on posh offices, fleet cars etc. (I worked in the NHS at the time). That was in the first wave.
Later, managers were given budget cuts that had to be adhered to, or they would face penalties. I have a friend who was a manager, finding this budget cuts. She pared down her facilities to the bone - and was rewarded by another budget cut the following year. HOW was she supposed to find more cuts when the service was already running on bones?

A mental hospital near where I worked were audited - the staff were asked how many people were needed to run the wards, as a minimum. They said 4. Their staffing levels were cut to 4 per ward. So no room for sickness, holiday, etc. That hospital lasted about a year after this was implemented.

Leave if you don't like the pay, and the Govt will be forced to pay a better wage? Will they fuck. They'll just use it as an excuse to privatise the service.

Make the service better and then you'll get paid more? Bollocks. The Govt will just say "see, they could have done better all along, they don't need better pay/staffing levels, they just need to pull their finger out more".

I've been in this situation. The more you do for what you're already getting, the more they expect you to do for what you're already getting, because you've already demonstrated that you're willing to do more than you're paid for. There is no fairness in this industry.