Nurses in UK set dates for first strike in 106 years over pay
- Staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will walk out on December 15 and 20 after the government said the union’s demands are ‘not affordable’
- Several other public and private sector workers have also held strikes this year demanding pay rises to keep up with Britain’s decades-high inflation
Staff in England, Wales and Northern Ireland – but not Scotland – will walk out on December 15 and 20, after the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) union said the government had turned down an offer of negotiations.
It will be the latest industrial action in Britain, where decades-high inflation and a cost-of-living crisis has prompted staff in various sectors to demand pay rises to keep up with spiralling prices.
The nurses’ strike will be sandwiched between the first of a series of two-day walkouts by national railway workers, while postal service employees will stage fresh stoppages in the run-up to Christmas.
Numerous other public and private sector staff, from lawyers to airport ground personnel, have also held strikes this year.
“Nursing staff have had enough of being taken for granted, enough of low pay and unsafe staffing levels, enough of not being able to give our patients the care they deserve,” said RCN head Pat Cullen.