Thursday 8 January 2015

Striking to win – use the NHS pay strikes to fight for the NHS

We're now heading towards our third national NHS strike. The decision by UNISON and GMB to call a further 2 days of strike action is welcome, and gives the strikes and the campaign to save the NHS a much needed boost.

The continuation and escalation of the action is a welcome break from the tendency to call off action which has plagued all unions the last several years.

However NHS workers are alone on strike among public sector workers. All the other public sector strikes taking place at the same time as the NHS dispute have been called off; schools, local government, civil service, universities and further education and the London Underground were all cancelled, despite ballots that were as good or better than the NHS unions.

So what is at work here? And what can NHS activists and trade unionist do to make the most of this period of action.