NHS strikes: Coordinate against Labour’s austerity!
Unsurprisingly, the crumbling NHS was on the forefront of people’s minds during the recent general election.
It is no coincidence then that resident (formerly known as ‘junior’) doctors took their 11th round of strike action in their fight for full-pay restoration the week before the election.
Since then, incoming health secretary Wes Streeting has begun face-to-face talks with the BMA, in his words, “to reset the relationship between junior doctors and their government”.
There will be very little honeymoon between the new Labour government and BMA strikers, however.
In her quest for ‘balanced budgets’, Chancellor Rachel Reeves is searching for every cutback she can make to the public sector. And Streeting has himself categorically ruled out any prospect of meeting the doctors’ demand for a 35 percent pay rise.
But we remain steadfast in our struggle. Meanwhile, other NHS staff have been in dispute, and pay talks are overdue across the board. The potential for a general fightback against austerity and privatisation across the NHS clearly exists.
NHS doctors – and all healthcare workers – must have no trust in Streeting, Starmer, and the rest of this big business government. We must remain vigilant, and not be duped into calling off action on the basis of any hollow promises from cabinet ministers. After all, the Labour leaders have a clear history of U-turns and betrayal.
Instead, serious preparations must be made to coordinate the next round of pay disputes, rather than allowing different groups of healthcare workers to be picked off separately.
This would send a clear message to the Labour government. What’s more, it would find mass support throughout the wider working-class.
RM, Junior doctor (personal capacity)
Report from the picket lines in Reading
Four RCP comrades joined the local BMA picket line recently, talking to resident doctors about the strike, the election, and prospects for the future.
The 18-month long dispute centres on pay compensation: junior doctors are forced to stay in contracts, meaning they become overskilled while not seeing any improvement in wages.
“When you’re trying to raise a family on the pay we have currently, it’s difficult,” said one junior doctor.
The mood was jovial, with 15-20 strikers attending, and many supportive honks from traffic. “I didn’t notice the worsening conditions till they were pointed out by other colleagues,” said one striker, showing the importance of openly discussing working conditions with colleagues.
We discussed Fiona’s election campaign with the picketers – especially the slogan ‘healthcare not warfare’, linking the struggle for Palestine freedom with the need for more NHS funding and staff.
One junior doctor told us that the question of Palestine had come up at the recent AGM. Many support Palestine, but fewer want to tie their jobs to this stance.
But the strikers agreed with comrades that this was a limit of the trade unions currently, which find it difficult to address economic and political questions as one and the same.
Another doctor told us: “It’s great that you’re taking a revolutionary approach…I think that’s needed in politics.”
Many on the picket line were fed up with both the Tories and Labour, saying: “They just keep making promises that they go back on”; and “everything [Labour] say is just backing the Tories – what kind of opposition is that?”
Those we spoke to were resolute in continuing their struggle, and have no illusions in it ceasing with Labour in power. The RCP stands in solidarity with the striking doctors – for healthcare, not warfare!
Katya Turchin and Michael Stubbs, Reading
Welsh BMA wins pay rise
Following three rounds of strike action, Welsh resident doctors have approved a 12.4 percent pay increase offer (an improvement on the initial 5 percent). This, however, falls short of the 29.2 percent real-terms pay cut that doctors have faced since 2008.
The new health minister Wes Streeting will no doubt use this to push BMA members in England to settle for the same offer.
In Cardiff, the BMA leadership did little to mobilise its membership. Nonetheless, RCP comrades were front and centre of picket lines at Cardiff hospitals.
As a group of four, we are donating a portion of back pay from the current offer to the fighting fund of the RCP to prepare for the class battles ahead!
Cardiff doctors in solidarity with the RCP,
Nick Upton, Cardiff
G4S security strike: “We’re worth more than £11.44!”
G4S security workers at Stratford Job Centre have been on strike recently, demanding better pay and working conditions. They’re paid minimum wage, often on zero-hour contracts, and endure anti-social working hours, abuse, and dangerous conditions.
G4S is one of the largest security monopolies in the world. Their profits come firstly at the expense of the workers, and secondly at the expense of the taxpayer, as most of their jobs are government contracts!
The bosses have offered a 24p increase. But the workers know they’re worth more, and rightfully won’t accept.
“My friends often ask me to go out and grab a pint, but I can barely afford to pay for any necessities,” one worker shared with us. “We are people…Why can’t we enjoy our lives?”
Despite working full-time, wages barely cover their essentials. The same worker said: “I’ve been working here for two decades, and there are no bonuses, no benefits, and a complete lack of healthcare and insurance.”
The mood at the picket was quite remarkable, however. Noise makers, kazoos, whistles, and speakers playing reggae were just a few of the ways in which the workers drowned the streets of Stratford with noise!
While at the picket, an RCP comrade investigated the finances of G4S and discovered that the lowest annual salary offered for a worker is just £11,000. The senior VP, meanwhile, takes £240,000. And for every £9,000 paid to such a worker, G4S pockets £8,500 in profits!
This comrade wasted no time sharing these figures with the picket line in a short speech, finishing up by calling on workers to “tell [the bosses] to open the books – you know what you’re owed!”
When they heard this, these security guards immediately asked for the full figures, thanking our comrades as they did so!
Workers are fed lies that they can’t be paid more. But we know profits are nothing but the unpaid labour of the working class. These challenges are faced by all workers under this rotting capitalist system.
They say they can’t afford to pay us more. We say: We can’t afford their rotten system! Pay up now! Solidarity with the security workers!
Ben Campbell and Julia Jablonowska
Royal Mail takeover – no backsliding on nationalisation!
The proposed takeover of Royal Mail by Czech billionaire Daniel Křetínský’s edges closer. Its current owner, International Distribution Services (IDS), said it had accepted a cash offer from Křetínský’s EP Group of £3.57bn.
This all comes at a time where Royal Mail is facing huge financial problems, with £1.7bn of existing debts. This would increase if the buyout is carried through.
If and when this takeover proceeds, it would of course place an enormous strain on the postal service, as well as on postal workers themselves.
The CWU general secretary Dave Ward has said that: “The future of postal services in the UK is again under threat.”
Rather than calling for the re-nationalisation of the postal service, however, which was the union’s previous position, the CWU’s leaders are now calling for “a completely new ownership model – one based on innovation, growth”. They are looking to so-called ‘public benefit corporations’ in the US as their example.
They also want ‘worker representation’ on the board, like some companies in Germany.
To be blunt, this is a rowback; in effect, accepting that private ownership of Royal Mail is here to stay.
So-called ‘public benefit corporations’ are no better for workers in the long run than any other kind of capitalist set-up, and will inevitably subject their workforces to the same pressures.
Nor has board representation for workers stopped the capitalist crisis from biting in places like Germany. Conditions and pay are under attack there too, and those same workers are being forced into action to fight it.
We don’t need billionaires to bail out our postal service. Nor can we be comforted by a ‘seat at the table’. What we need is to take the service into our hands.
CWU should demand the re-nationalisation of Royal Mail under workers’ control, as a stepping-stone to taking over the courier and parcel sector entirely. Not another penny to the fat-cats! It’s high time to deliver for our class instead!
Harrison Salkeld, Newcastle
