Is this a first step towards victory for British carers? After historic strike days in the United Kingdom, which have been going on since December, nurses announced Tuesday that they were suspending their walkout, including their 48-hour mobilization scheduled for next week. The government has agreed to negotiate with the unions demanding higher wages and better working conditions.
In a joint statement, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN, the main trade union) and the UK Department of Health announced that they had "agreed to enter into a process of intensive discussions". According to the text, these negotiations will concern "wages, conditions and reforms to increase productivity". Health Minister Steve Barclay is scheduled to meet with union officials on Wednesday, it said. In the meantime, the union "will suspend the strikes."
Wage increases at the heart of negotiations
The announcement comes as the mobilization of nurses seemed to harden, with a strike planned from March 1 for 48 hours without interruption. This mobilization, unprecedented in its length, was also to concern for the first time the emergency services, intensive care, oncology and other departments that have not walked out until then.
Nurses are demanding salary increases for the current year (2022/2023) but the government has so far only been ready to negotiate for the coming year, describing the profession's demands as "unaffordable".
At the beginning of February, nurses and paramedics had decided to strike together, the largest mobilization in the history of the British health system. In addition to nurses, paramedics, railway workers and some public employees have stopped work several times in recent months to demand wage increases due to record inflation in the United Kingdom. It was still above 10% in January.
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