NHS nurses go on strike demanding better working conditions
The people providing the nation with care are asking to be looked after by the authorities. Some of the tens of thousands of UK nurses have walked out from their jobs demanding better pay and conditions.
Lakshmi has worked for the NHS for 22 years.
Shortages of nurses have led to less staff and you can't care for people if you don't have a staff to care for. So it's person safety. ... obviously people are leaving profession due to you know, unfair pays, overworked, stressed and shortage of staff.
Lakshmi, NHS Nurse
Hailed as heroes during the pandemic, nurses up and down the country, save Scotland, are staging two 12 hour strikes this week and next.
Their representative body, the Royal College of Nursing, says they had no choice when the government rejected calls for talks on NHS pay.
The RCN says nurses are 20% worse off in real terms today than they were in 2010 due to successive below inflation pay rewards.
Things have gotten so bad that the hospitals, one in four hospitals, are having to set up food banks for nurses and for other staff. This is unprecedented. But we're not just fighting for pay. We're fighting for the survival of the NHS.
Ellen Grogan, NHS Nurse and Campaigner
One reason for that concern is the number of staff leaving the profession, 25,000 nursing staff have quit the NHS in the past year.
The government says the demand for a 19% pay rise is not affordable. The unions argue that the money is there.
They gave themselves 28% pay rise over the past 10 years. They've given out billions in fraudulent contracts to COVID contracts, and particularly for test and trace, 37 billion has been mentioned.
And that amount has been written off. And it has been totally wasted because the companies ... their crony companies were unable to fulfill the contract to provide a proper test and trace system.
So the money the money is there, It's a question of who they choose to give it to.
Ellen Grogan, NHS Nurse and Campaigner
The strike by nurses is part of a wave of industrial action sweeping the UK this year, with the strikers demanding better pay and conditions, as the worsening cost of living crisis pushes more and more people into dire straits.
The unions are warning that the strikes this month could be the beginning of a longer period of industrial action if governments refuse formal pay negotiations, or future talks do not result in satisfactory outcomes.
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