What a difference two years can make. In 2020, the government was encouraging people to ‘clap for key workers’.
Now the Tories are telling people that striking union members are a threat to working families and, astonishingly, aiding Russia’s war in Ukraine. According to Conservative MP Nadhim Zahawi, nurses should recognise that strikes are “exactly what Putin wants to see”.
It’s a departure from the days when Margaret Thatcher branded the miners “the enemy within”. Instead, the Conservatives are less vitriolic, appealing to national unity instead. But the underlying message is the same – that those who strike are selfish, valuing personal betterment over the collective good.
But it is impossible, and unfair, to judge striking nurses – or any of those taking industrial action – without looking at the past decade and the impact that has had on public services.
The NHS, relied on by rich, poor, young and old, has been decimated since 2010. In its first 70 years, the NHS’s average annual budget rise was 3.7 per cent. Between 2009/10 and 2018/19 it was just 1.5 per cent.
Ambulance strikes: “The government is putting lives at risk – not us”
Meanwhile, historic institutions like the Royal Mail have been sold to private hands. As a result, profit has taken precedence, resulting in the degradation of working conditions and a postal service that was fumbling long before the latest round of strikes.
The litany of cuts to public services needn’t all be outlined here. The fact is, the sectors that form the backbone of society have been gradually eroded and sold off for years – decades even. This is inseparable from the crisis we see now. A crisis where nurses, railway workers, postal workers and bus drivers haven’t seen a real-terms pay rise in years – and are told to suck it up.
Not everyone supports the strikes. There are those who point out, for example, that the median salary for rail workers is £43,747, far above the national average. But the fact is, they are paid a fairer wage because they have strong unions willing to fight on their behalf. Deriding them for that delegitimates all our claims to better pay and better conditions.
Rotherhithe postie slams Royal Mail working conditions ahead of strikes
It’s hard to judge the public mood on this issue. Even Labour, with its army of statisticians and analysts, can’t seem to work out what it thinks – hence their notable absence from pickets.
And the decision to strike in the run-up to Christmas is undoubtedly a risk. While it will cause maximum disruption to employers, strikers risk alienating themselves from the public, whose Christmas plans and, more pertinently, safety, could be jeopardised by their actions.
But as MP Helen Hayes told this paper, it is a last resort. Nurses and paramedics go into these professions because they want to help others. That’s why some hospitals, like SLaM and King’s College Hospital will remain open. Health workers, more than anyone, are uncomfortable with what they are about to do. How did we get to this point – where even the heroes are downing their capes?
An advent calendar of disruption – Southwark strikes over Christmas
