Junior doctors are to go on a new four-day strike. Here are their reasons
Junior doctors: this is not the first time they’ve had to strike for better pay. The Tories in government tend to consider that people in the medical profession are hostages to fortune because any strike action can always be slanted as harming patients. Meanwhile the quality of healthcare plummets anyway, as staff quit to get away from the pressure.
In the face of continued government intransigence over pay and conditions, junior doctors have had no choice but to announce another four-day strike, running between April 11-14.
Here’s Taj Ali with the press release from the British Medical Association:
“It is with disappointment and great frustration that we must announce this new industrial action. The Government has dragged its feet at every opportunity. It has not presented any credible offer and is refusing to accept that there is any case for pay restoration…
— Taj Ali (@Taj_Ali1) March 23, 2023
“This situation is entirely of the Government’s own making. We want to spend our time looking after patients, not on strike. But with an NHS buckling under a workforce crisis, and 4 in 10 junior doctors looking to leave, we can’t stand by while our pay is further eroded…
— Taj Ali (@Taj_Ali1) March 23, 2023
A 96-hour walkout will take place for shifts starting between 06:59 on Tuesday 11 April and 06:59 on Saturday 15 April 2023.
My report on the dispute here:https://t.co/Exy4HjTtoq
— Taj Ali (@Taj_Ali1) March 23, 2023
A list of preconditions that the Government set out in negotiations with junior doctors:https://t.co/O4jQyEocBS
— Taj Ali (@Taj_Ali1) March 23, 2023
…The ask of 35% pay restoration is our starting position, and we are willing to meet with the Health Secretary anywhere, anytime, to negotiate what this might look like.”
— Taj Ali (@Taj_Ali1) March 23, 2023
The government is – of course – lying about junior doctors’ reasons for going on strike. The most common claim is that they already have a pay rise of 8.4 per cent agreed – but this was to be phased in over four years, meaning it’s actually only a two per cent rise per year. With inflation at more than 10 per cent, it is in fact an enormous pay cut.
Junior doctors have faced pay cuts totalling 35 per cent over the last 15 years – and let’s bear in mind that the Tory ministers who are imposing those cuts have not had any appreciable cut in their own salaries, while their expenses claims seem to cover anything they fancy.
All they want is a return to parity with what they were earning in 2008, which should not be an impossible task if MPs have it. Here’s Peter Stefanovic to explain:
As junior doctors announce a 96 hour full walkout starting at 6:59am on Tuesday 11th April UK news shows don’t appear to be pointing out the Health Secretary wants them limited to a derisory pay award of just 2% with inflation ahead of 10%
pic.twitter.com/30UxJJt0eY— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) March 23, 2023
And let’s remember that, behind all this, prime minister Rishi Sunak is planning to strip junior doctors of their right to strike, in the name of basic standards that he cannot even be bothered to provide now:
and whilst we all look the other way Sunak plans to rob millions of workers of their democratic right to strike, force them to work against their will & allow them to be sacked if they refuse
Let’s keep this in the news pic.twitter.com/v5QreUjRls
— Peter Stefanovic (@PeterStefanovi2) March 22, 2023
The entire attitude of the Tory government is nothing but a tissue of lies and intimidation. This Writer says: support the doctors.
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