Latest updates: Berry says 19% asked for by nursing union is too high but compromise position is essential
Good morning. Britain’s industrial dispute crisis has become notably more serious today with the start of a strike by nurses in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Even in the 1970s the Royal College of Nursing never voted to go on strike, and so this is a measure of how badly the cost of living crisis is affecting the public sector workforce.
Many hospitals are not affected (nurses voted trust by trust, and in some places they did not reach the 50% turnout threshold for a ballot to be valid), but this is still a big motion – for the NHS, and patients – and my colleague Tobi Thomas is writing a separate liveblog with all the detail here.
The government is going to have to improve its offer.
The nursing union itself is asking for 19%. That does not seem like a realistic figure to people working in the private sector, to people working in other parts of our public sector.
Both the government and the nurses’ union need to come up together [with] a compromise position straight away. And that has to involve the government increasing its offer.
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